Although the TIFF format is wrongOften, like popular JPEGs and PNGs, he often raises questions from those who have not come across to him before. Indeed, isn't it enough to use RAW from cameras, BMP and “proprietary” Photoshop formats with CorelDraw (PSD and CDR) for image processing? What is a TIFF file format and where should it be used? Let's try to answer these questions together.
Mysterious abbreviation TIFF
Format for images with tags (Tagged ImageFile Format) was developed by Aldus specifically to store scanned images. It should be noted that it is used for raster graphics, i.e., pictures representing a grid of pixels. The fact that this compression algorithm is tagged means that it uses special extended and basic tags. The latter form the core of this format and are supported by all applications that are capable of working with it. This type of image data has become very popular for sharing and storing images that have a greater depth of color. TIFF-format is often used in printing, text recognition, sending faxes, scanning. It should be noted that the maximum weight of a document stored in this form cannot exceed 4 GB. Moreover, to open a TIFF file that is larger than 2 GB, you will most likely need to run Photoshop CS or one of its later versions, since most other applications are unlikely to be able to cope with it.
What features does the TIFF format have?
The structure of this algorithm is quite flexible, and this makes it possible to save images in different color modes:
- halftone;
- binary (black and white);
- with indexed palette;
- CMYK;
- CIE Lab;
- YCbCr;
- RGB.
As for compression, the user has the opportunity to both abandon it and select one of the following algorithms:
- CCITT Group (3 or 4);
- JBIG;
- LZ77;
- PackBits (RLE);
- JPEG;
- LZ77;
- Lzw
In this image format, "Photoshop" cansave layers, transparent areas, notes and pyramid data with dynamic resolution. However, when opening such a document in another graphical application, it is likely that only a flattened image will be read.
How to open TIFF image format
It often happens that you need to urgently open suchfile, but there is no “Photoshop” at hand. In addition, it is no secret that this program is paid and takes up a lot of disk space. And if the TIFF format does not come across so often, there is no particular point in scoring your computer’s resources. Alternatively, you can use TiffReader. This application is completely free and allows you to work not only with the data type in question, but also with the popular PDF today, as well as with the encrypted CSF format. This software can be launched both as an ActiveX component in the browser, and as a desktop application. Another free option is TifViewer, which also can process several scanned pages at once, do dynamic scaling and print of choice. Coping with TIFF will be able and loved by many ACDSee. With it, you can edit the file, convert the document to another format or create a slide show. And if you want to send a TIFF document by e-mail or simply create a portable copy of it, we recommend that you pay attention to the Converttifftopdf network service. It’s easy, convenient and free to use.
