What is a TIFF File? Everything You Need to Know
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Loading... - Gloria Mabiala
- 10 Aug 2022
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TIFF is a fairly common file type and is often requested by print agencies since it was made with printing in mind by a company that developed desktop publishing apps. TIFF has been around for a long time and is very versatile, handling black and white, various color spaces, such as CYMK, RGB, and even spot colors with ease.
There are downsides to a file format that can do nearly everything, and that is bloat. An image saved as a TIFF file is larger than nearly any other format so understanding when to use it can save quite a bit of storage space.
What Does TIFF Stand For?
The Tag Image File Format (TIFF) was created in 1992 and is a very flexible file type that can be extended by developers to cover a wide variety of uses. The format is also known as Tagged Image File Format and the owner, Adobe, uses both in its documentation. This is done through the use of tags that contains information about the type of compression used, transparency, and image bitmap data, as well as printer-specific information such as color space, resolution, halftones, and inks. Private tags are also available for organizations to customize TIFF files further and can be registered with Adobe.
Is TIFF an Uncompressed Image Format?
While TIFF files can use JPEG compression, which is known as a lossy format, TIFF’s primary use is for lossless images. JPEG format should be used when it’s known in advance that file size needs to be restricted since it’s a more direct representation. Lossless doesn’t always mean uncompressed and TIFF files can use Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) compression, which encodes simple sequences without losing any image data. LZW is most effective for computer graphics, however.
Photographs rarely have the kind of exact repetitions that could benefit from this type of compression. That means photographs that are saved as TIFF files are often uncompressed. It’s possible to repeatedly open a lossless TIFF, make edits, and save it again as a TIFF without any reduction in quality.
Should All Photos be Saved as TIFF Files?
After editing a JPEG image, saving it as a TIFF file prevents another layer of compression artifacts from being added. This might be a critical step in a workflow if further editing will be done. Repeatedly editing and saving as JPEG will progressively deteriorate a photograph to the point that it will eventually become unusable. Saving in a lossless format such as TIFF allows ongoing edits to take place without damaging the picture any further.
On the other hand, many paint and photo editing apps save in a proprietary lossless format already so this might not be a concern. Also, some JPEG manipulations can be done without requiring recompression. Cropping, rotating, flipping, and editing metadata should not hurt the quality of a JPEG if the app is handling the process correctly.
There’s usually no need to save every photo as a TIFF. If a picture captures a moment perfectly or needs only minimal editing, there’s probably no need to use the extra storage space required by a TIFF file. RAW files are already the purest representation of the original photograph and require less space than a TIFF file.
When to Use TIFF
TIFF allows the use of the choice of color space, such as CMYK and spot colors. These are colors used by some professional printers with CYMK standing for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. Spot colors are often used for logos and for greater precision than CYMK allows. Since TIFF can use these print-oriented color spaces, it is often preferred for page layout and publishing. As a lossless file format, editing can be done without adding compression artifacts. Read More...
