Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is a standard file format that is largely used in the
publishing and printing industry. The extensible feature of this format allows storage of multiple
bitmap images having different pixel depths, which makes it advantageous for image storage
needs. Since it introduces no compression artifacts, the file format is preferred over others for
archiving intermediate files.
Tagged Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is a computer file format for
storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and
photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character
recognition, image manipulation, desktop publishing, and page-layout applications. The latest
published version is 6.0 in 1992, subsequently updated with an Adobe Systems copyright after
the latter acquired Aldus in 1994. Several Aldus or Adobe technical notes have been published
with minor extensions to the format, and several specifications have been based on TIFF 6.0,
including TIFF/EP (ISO 12234-2), TIFF/IT (ISO 12639), TIFF-F (RFC 2306) and TIFF-FX (RFC
3949).
Filename extensions : .tiff , .tif
Internet media type: image/tiff, image/tiff-fx
Developed by: Aldus, now Adobe Systems
Initial release: 1986; 34 years ago
Type of format: Image file format
A Tagged Image File Format or TIFF is a specific type of computer file format for storing raster
graphic images and exchanging them between application programs. Examples of these
programs include word processing, scanning, image manipulation or editors, optical character
recognition, and desktop publishing applications, among others. The format was developed in
1986 by a group spearheaded by Aldus Corporation, which is now part of Adobe Inc. It can be
identified with a .tiff or .tif suffix in the filename. Nonetheless, the format now remains as one of
the most common graphic image formats alongside the JPEG standard and PNG file format.
Advantages of TIFF:
1. This file format is that it can handle images and data within a single file, including
header tags such as size, definition, image-data arrangement, applied image
compression, thus making it flexible and adaptable.
2. Don’t need compression.
3. Supported by image manipulation applications.
4. For example, a single TIFF file can contain both JPEF and PackBits compressed
images.
5. It makes the format more flexible and adaptable is that it can be rendered in any classes,
including gray scale, color palette, or RGB full color.
6. So, including being a container for different image file formats, it is a single format
usable across multiple computer platforms.
7. It can also store image data in a lossless format.
8. Unlike, the more common and standard JPEG standard, which is a lossy format, another
advantage of TIFF is that it is useful for archiving image for further editing, transferring,
and saving without losing image quality.
9. The BMP file format, which is a lossless format, is less flexible when compared to TIFF.
Disadvantages of TIFF:
1. The size of the file is very large when saving layered images.
2. This format is generally uncompressed.
3. A single file can typically take up at least 100 megabytes of storage space.
4. Having a large image file size means that using the format would consume storage space
quickly or it may be too large to be uploaded as an email attachment.
5. When used as an online image for websites or web-based applications, it can take a long
time to open or download, while also consuming more broadband data.
6. Remember that the format can store multiple files in a single file. A single TIFF file can
be a container for different image files. This is useful for the storage and transmission of
text data or documents.
7. However, unlike the PDF format, it cannot directly store the textual contents of
documents, thereby making it unsuitable for archiving searchable texts.
History of TIFF:
TIFF was created as an attempt to get desktop scanner vendors of the mid-1980s to agree on a
common scanned image file format, in place of a multitude of proprietary formats. In the
beginning, TIFF was only a binary image format (only two possible values for each pixel),
because that was all that desktop scanners could handle. As scanners became more powerful, and
as desktop computer disk space became more plentiful, TIFF grew to
accommodate grayscale images, then color images. Today, TIFF, along with JPEG and PNG, is a
popular format for deep-color images. The first version of the TIFF specification was published
by Aldus Corporation in the autumn of 1986 after two major earlier draft releases. It can be
labeled as Revision 3.0. It was published after a series of meetings with various scanner
manufacturers and software developers. In April 1987 Revision 4.0 was released and it contained
mostly minor enhancements. In October 1988 Revision 5.0 was released and it added support for
palette color images and LZW compression.
Difference between RIFF & TIFF:
TIFF(Tagged Image File RIFF(Resource
Format) Interchange File Format)
TIFF format is developed by RIFF format is jointly
Aldus, Corporation developed by IBM and,
Microsoft
It is totally new format It is not new format it just
provides, wrapper around
existing file formats to
provide platform
independence
It stores only bitmap data It can store other data also
TIFF includes number of It, includes Microsoft
compression scheme, that proprietary compression
allows developers to choose algorithms
the best space or time trade-
off for their, application
Suitable for pre-press Not suitable for pre-press
application. application.
Here tags are used for Here list chunks are used for
random access. random access. For example
“idxl” list chunk of AVI
RIFF file format is used for
random access.
Information is stored in Information is stored in
Image file directory. chunks.
TIFF(Tagged Image File RIFF(Resource
Format) Interchange File Format)
TIFF is used for images. RIFF is a general framework
file format for multimedia.
