Series of image file formats
Tag Image File Format
or
Tagged Image File Format
commonly known by the abbreviations
TIFF
or
TIF
, is an
image 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 format was created by Stephen Carlsen, an engineer at
Aldus Corporation
, for use in desktop publishing.
It published the latest version 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),
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11
TIFF-F (RFC 2306) and TIFF-FX (RFC 3949).
12
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
. Carlsen's three objectives were:
Implement import and printing of "basic" bitmapped images, like MacPaint files.
Implement import and printing of higher-resolution images, coming from scanners.
Define and promote an industry standard for storing and processing scanned images, so that Aldus would not have to write import filters for every model of every scanner entering the budding desktop scanner market.
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 the
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
TIFF is a complex format, defining many tags of which typically only a few are used in each file. This led to implementations supporting many varying subsets of the format, a situation that gave rise to the joke that TIFF stands for
Thousands of Incompatible File Formats
13
This problem was addressed in revision 6.0
of the TIFF specification (June 1992) by introducing a distinction between
Baseline TIFF
(which all implementations were required to support) and
TIFF Extensions
(which are optional). Additional extensions are defined in two supplements to the specification which were published in September 1995
14
and March 2002
15
respectively.
A TIFF file contains one
or several
images, termed
subfiles
in the specification. The basic use case for having multiple subfiles is to encode a multipage
telefax
in a single file, but it is also allowed to have different subfiles be different variants of the same image, for example scanned at different resolutions. Rather than being a continuous range of bytes in the file, each subfile is a data structure whose top-level entity is called an
image file directory
(IFD). Baseline TIFF readers are only required to make use of the first subfile, but each IFD has a field for linking to a next IFD.
The IFDs are where the
tags
for which TIFF is named are located. Each IFD contains one or several
entries
, each of which is identified by its tag. The tags are arbitrary 16-bit numbers; their symbolic names such as ImageWidth often used in discussions of TIFF data do not appear explicitly in the file itself. Each IFD entry has an associated
value
, which may be decoded based on general rules of the format, but it depends on the tag what that value then
means
. There may within a single IFD be no more than one entry with any particular tag. Some tags are for linking to the actual image data, other tags specify how the image data should be interpreted, and still other tags are used for image
metadata
TIFF images are made up of rectangular
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grids of pixels.
The two axes of this geometry are termed horizontal (or X, or width) and vertical (or Y, or length). Horizontal and vertical
resolution
need not be equal (since in a telefax they typically would not be equal).
A baseline TIFF image divides the vertical range of the image into one or several
strips
, which are encoded (in particular: compressed) separately. Historically this served to facilitate TIFF readers (such as fax machines) with limited capacity to store uncompressed data — one strip would be decoded and then immediately printed — but the present specification motivates it by "increased editing flexibility and efficient I/O buffering".
: 19
A TIFF extension provides the alternative of
tiled
images, in which case both the horizontal and the vertical ranges of the image are decomposed into smaller units.
An example of these things, which also serves to give a flavor of how tags are used in the TIFF encoding of images, is that a striped TIFF image would use tags 273 (StripOffsets), 278 (RowsPerStrip), and 279 (StripByteCounts). The StripOffsets point to the blocks of image data, the StripByteCounts say how long each of these blocks are (as stored in the file), and RowsPerStrip says how many rows of pixels there are in a strip; the latter is required even in the case of having just one strip, in which case it merely duplicates the value of tag 257 (ImageLength). A tiled TIFF image instead uses tags 322 (TileWidth), 323 (TileLength), 324 (TileOffsets), and 325 (TileByteCounts). The pixels within each strip or tile appear in
row-major
order, left to right and top to bottom.
The data for one pixel is made up of one or several
samples
; for example an
RGB
image would have one Red sample, one Green sample, and one Blue sample per pixel, whereas a greyscale or palette color image only has one sample per pixel. TIFF allows for both
additive
(e.g. RGB,
RGBA
) and
subtractive
(e.g.
CMYK
) color models. TIFF does not constrain the number of samples per pixel (except that there must be enough samples for the chosen color model), nor does it constrain how many bits are encoded for each sample, but baseline TIFF only requires that readers support a few combinations of color model and bit-depth of images. Support for custom sets of samples is very useful for scientific applications; 3 samples per pixel is at the low end of
multispectral imaging
, and
hyperspectral imaging
may require hundreds of samples per pixel. TIFF supports having all samples for a pixel next to each other within a single strip/tile (PlanarConfiguration = 1) but also different samples in different strips/tiles (PlanarConfiguration = 2). The default format for a sample value is as an unsigned integer, but a TIFF extension allows declaring them as alternatively being signed integers or
IEEE-754
floats, as well as specify a custom range for valid sample values.
TIFF images may be uncompressed, compressed using a
lossless compression
scheme, or compressed using a
lossy compression
scheme. The lossless
LZW
compression scheme has at times been regarded as the standard compression for TIFF, but this is technically a TIFF extension, and the TIFF6 specification notes the patent situation regarding LZW. Compression schemes vary significantly in at what level they process the data: LZW acts on the stream of bytes encoding a strip or tile (without regard to sample structure, bit depth, or row width), whereas the JPEG compression scheme both transforms the sample structure of pixels (switching to a different color model) and encodes pixels in 8×8 blocks rather than row by row.
Most data in TIFF files are numerical, but the format supports declaring data as rather being textual, if appropriate for a particular tag. Tags that take textual values include Artist, Copyright, DateTime, DocumentName, InkNames, and Model.
The MIME type
image/tiff
(defined in RFC 3302) without an application parameter is used for Baseline TIFF 6.0 files or to indicate that it is not necessary to identify a specific subset of TIFF or TIFF extensions. The optional "application" parameter (Example: Content-type: image/tiff; application=foo) is defined for image/tiff to identify a particular subset of TIFF and TIFF extensions for the encoded image data, if it is known. According to RFC 3302, specific TIFF subsets or TIFF extensions used in the application parameter must be published as an RFC.
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MIME
type
image/tiff-fx
(defined in RFC 3949 and RFC 3950) is based on TIFF 6.0 with TIFF Technical Notes TTN1 (Trees) and TTN2 (Replacement TIFF/JPEG specification). It is used for
Internet fax
compatible with the ITU-T Recommendations for Group 3 black-and-white, grayscale and color
fax
Digital preservation
edit
Adobe holds the copyright on the TIFF specification (aka TIFF 6.0) along with the two supplements that have been published. These documents can be found on the Adobe TIFF Resources page.
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The
Fax
standard in RFC 3949 is based on these TIFF specifications.
19
TIFF files that strictly use the basic "tag sets" as defined in TIFF 6.0 along with restricting the compression technology to the methods identified in TIFF 6.0 and are adequately tested and verified by multiple sources for all documents being created can be used for storing documents. Commonly seen issues encountered in the content and
document management
industry associated with the use of TIFF files arise when the structures contain proprietary headers, are not properly documented, or contain "wrappers" or other containers around the TIFF datasets, or include improper compression technologies, or those compression technologies are not properly implemented.
Variants of TIFF can be used within
document imaging
and content/document management systems using
CCITT
Group IV 2D compression
which supports
black-and-white
(bitonal,
monochrome
) images, among other compression technologies that support
color
. When storage capacity and network bandwidth was a greater issue than commonly seen in today's server environments, high-volume storage scanning, documents were scanned in black and white (not in color or in grayscale) to conserve storage capacity.
The inclusion of the SampleFormat tag in TIFF 6.0 allows TIFF files to handle advanced pixel data types, including integer images with more than 8 bits per channel and floating point images. This tag made TIFF 6.0 a viable format for scientific image processing where extended precision is required. An example would be the use of TIFF to store images acquired using scientific CCD cameras that provide up to 16 bits per
photosite
of intensity resolution. Storing a sequence of images in a single TIFF file is also possible, and is allowed under TIFF 6.0, provided the rules for multi-page images are followed.
citation needed
TIFF is a flexible, adaptable file format for handling images and data within a single file, by including the header tags (size, definition, image-data arrangement, applied
image compression
) defining the image's geometry. A TIFF file, for example, can be a container holding
JPEG
(lossy) and
PackBits
(lossless) compressed images. A TIFF file also can include a
vector
-based
clipping path
(outlines, croppings, image frames). The ability to store image data in a
lossless
format makes a TIFF file a useful image archive, because, unlike standard JPEG files, a TIFF file using lossless compression (or none) may be edited and re-saved without losing image quality. This is not the case when using the TIFF as a container holding compressed JPEG. Other TIFF options are
layers
and pages.
TIFF offers the option of using
LZW
compression, a lossless data-compression technique for reducing a file's size. Use of this option was limited by patents on the LZW technique until their expiration in 2004.
The TIFF 6.0 specification consists of the following parts:
Introduction (contains information about TIFF Administration, usage of Private fields and values, etc.)
Part 1: Baseline TIFF
Part 2: TIFF Extensions
Part 3: Appendices
Part 1: Baseline TIFF
edit
When TIFF was introduced, its extensibility provoked compatibility problems. The flexibility in encoding gave rise to the joke that TIFF stands for
Thousands of Incompatible File Formats
13
To avoid these problems, every TIFF reader was required to read
Baseline TIFF
. Among other things, Baseline TIFF does not include layers, or compressed JPEG or LZW images. Baseline TIFF is formally known as
TIFF 6.0, Part 1: Baseline TIFF
The following is an incomplete list of required Baseline TIFF features:
TIFF readers must be prepared for multiple/multi-page images (subfiles) per TIFF file, although they are not required to actually do anything with images after the first one.
There may be more than one Image File Directory (IFD) in a TIFF file. Each IFD defines a subfile. One use of subfiles is to describe related images, such as the pages of a facsimile document. A Baseline TIFF reader is not required to read any IFD beyond the first one.
A baseline TIFF image is composed of one or more strips. A strip (or band) is a subsection of the image composed of one or more rows. Each strip may be compressed independently of the entire image, and each begins on a byte boundary. If the image height is not evenly divisible by the number of rows in the strip, the last strip may contain fewer rows. If strip definition tags are omitted, the image is assumed to contain a single strip.
Baseline TIFF readers must handle the following three compression schemes:
Baseline TIFF image types are: bilevel, grayscale, palette-color, and RGB full-color images.
Every TIFF file begins with a two-
byte
indicator of
byte order
: "II" for little-endian (a.k.a. "
Intel
byte ordering",
c.
1980
20
or "MM" for big-endian (a.k.a. "
Motorola
byte ordering",
c.
1980
20
byte ordering. The next two-byte word contains the format version number, which has always been 42 for every version of TIFF (e.g., TIFF v5.0 and TIFF v6.0).
21
All two-byte words, double words, etc., in the TIFF file are assumed to be in the indicated byte order. The TIFF 6.0 specification states that compliant TIFF readers must support both byte orders ("II" and "MM"); writers may use either.
22
TIFF readers must be prepared to encounter and ignore private fields not described in the TIFF specification. TIFF readers must not refuse to read a TIFF file if optional fields do not exist.
Part 2: TIFF Extensions
edit
Many TIFF readers support tags additional to those in Baseline TIFF, but not every reader supports every extension.
23
24
25
As a consequence, Baseline TIFF features became the lowest common denominator for TIFF. Baseline TIFF features are extended in TIFF Extensions (defined in the TIFF 6.0 Part 2 specification) but extensions can also be defined in private tags.
The TIFF Extensions are formally known as
TIFF 6.0, Part 2: TIFF Extensions
. Here are some examples of TIFF extensions defined in TIFF 6.0 specification:
CCITT T.4 bi-level encoding
CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding
LZW
JPEG
A baseline TIFF file can contain a sequence of images (IFD). Typically, all the images are related but represent different data, such as the pages of a document. In order to explicitly support multiple views of the
same
data, the
SubIFD
tag was introduced.
14
This allows the images to be defined along a
tree structure
. Each image can have a sequence of children, each child being itself an image. The typical usage is to provide thumbnails or several versions of an image in different color spaces.
A TIFF image may also be composed of a number of tiles. All tiles in the same image have the same dimensions and may be compressed independently of the entire image, similar to strips (see above). Tiled images are part of TIFF 6.0, Part 2: TIFF Extensions, so the support for tiled images is not required in Baseline TIFF readers.
According to TIFF 6.0 specification (Introduction), all TIFF files using proposed TIFF extensions that are not approved by Adobe as part of Baseline TIFF (typically for specialized uses of TIFF that do not fall within the domain of publishing or general graphics or picture interchange) should be either not called TIFF files or should be marked some way so that they will not be confused with mainstream TIFF files.
Developers can apply for a block of "private tags" to enable them to include their own proprietary information inside a TIFF file without causing problems for file interchange. TIFF readers are required to ignore tags that they do not recognize, and a registered developer's private tags are guaranteed not to clash with anyone else's tags or with the standard set of tags defined in the specification. Private tags are numbered in the range 32,768 and higher.
Private tags are reserved for information meaningful only for some organization, or for experiments with a new compression scheme within TIFF. Upon request, the TIFF administrator (currently Adobe) will allocate and register one or more private tags for an organization, to avoid possible conflicts with other organizations. Organizations and developers are discouraged from choosing their own tag numbers arbitrarily, because doing so could cause serious compatibility problems. However, if there is little or no chance that TIFF files will escape a private environment, organizations and developers are encouraged to consider using TIFF tags in the "reusable" 65,000–65,535 range. There is no need to contact Adobe when using numbers in this range.
TIFF Compression Tag
edit
The TIFF Tag 259 (0103
16
) stores the information about the Compression method. The default value is 1 = no compression.
Most TIFF writers and TIFF readers support only some TIFF compression schemes. Here are some examples of used TIFF compression schemes:
TIFF Compression Tag
24
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Tag value
Compression scheme
Lossy/
lossless
Specification
Description
Image types
Usage and support
0001
16
None
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
Baseline TIFF
All
Common
34
0002
16
CCITT Group 3 1-Dimensional Modified Huffman run-length encoding (a.k.a. MH or CCITT 1D)
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
Baseline TIFF; compression based on ITU-T T.4
Black and white
Common
0003
16
CCITT T.4 bi-level encoding as specified in section 4, Coding, of
ITU-T Recommendation T.4
(a.k.a. CCITT Group 3 fax encoding or CCITT Group 3 2D)
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
TIFF 6.0 Extensions; compression based on ITU-T T.4
Black and white
Common
0004
16
CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding as specified in section 2 of
ITU-T Recommendation T.6
(a.k.a.
CCITT Group 4 fax encoding
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
TIFF 6.0 extensions; compression based on ITU-T T.6
Black and white
Common
0005
16
Lempel–Ziv–Welch
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
TIFF 6.0 Extensions; first defined in TIFF 5 (1988); a patented compression algorithm, but the patents expired in 2003 and 2004
All
Common
35
0006
16
JPEG (obsolete 'old-style' JPEG, later superseded in Technote2)
Lossy
TIFF 6.0
TIFF 6.0 Extensions; first defined in TIFF 6 (1992); obsolete, should never be written.
Continuous-tone
Rare
0007
16
JPEG ('new-style' JPEG)
Lossy
TIFF 6 Technote2 (1995)
supersedes old-style JPEG compression; it is a TIFF 6.0 extension.
Continuous-tone
Uncommon
0008
16
Deflate (zlib), Adobe variant (official)
Lossless
TIFF Specification Supplement 2 (2002)
RFC 1950 (1996), RFC 1951 (1996), Adobe Photoshop TIFF Technical Notes; it is a TIFF 6.0 extension.
All
Common
0009
16
JBIG, per
ITU-T T.85
Lossless
TIFF-FX
RFC 2301 (1998), RFC 3949 (2005)
Black and white
Rare
000A
16
JBIG, per
ITU-T T.43
Lossless
TIFF-FX
RFC 2301 (1998), RFC 3949 (2005)
Black and white
Rare
7FFE
16
NeXT RLE 2-bit greyscale encoding
Proprietary
Rare
8005
16
PackBits (a.k.a. Macintosh RLE)
Lossless
TIFF 6.0
Baseline TIFF
All
Rare
35
8029
16
ThunderScan RLE 4-bit encoding
Proprietary
Black and white
Rare
807F
16
RasterPadding in continuous tone (CT) or monochrome picture (MP)
Lossless
TIFF/IT (1998, 2004)
ISO 12639
Rare
8080
16
RLE for line work (LW)
Lossless
TIFF/IT (1998, 2004)
ISO 12639
Rare
8081
16
RLE for high-resolution continuous-tone (HC)
Lossless
TIFF/IT (1998, 2004)
ISO 12639
Rare
8082
16
RLE for binary line work (BL)
Lossless
TIFF/IT (1998, 2004)
ISO 12639
Rare
80B2
16
Deflate, PKZIP variant (obsolete)
Lossless
Proprietary
According to TIFF Specification Supplement 2 it should be considered obsolete but reading is recommended
All
Uncommon
80B3
16
Kodak DCS
Proprietary
Rare
8765
16
JBIG
LibTIFF
Black and white
Rare
8798
16
JPEG2000
Proprietary
Includes a complete JP2 file inside a TIFF file, not recommended. Introduced by Leadtools.
36
Uncommon
8799
16
Nikon NEF Compressed
Proprietary
Rare
879B
16
JBIG2
Lossless, lossy
TIFF-FX Extension Set 1.0
Abandoned IETF draft from 2001
37
Rare
8847
16
LERC
Lossy
ESRI LERC
Rare
884C
16
38
Lossy non-YCbCr JPEG
Lossy
DNG
1.4.0.0
39
Used for DNG semantic masks
38
and for images in the
LinearRaw
colorspace; explicitly indicates baseline DCT JPEG compression as opposed to "lossless Huffman JPEG".
39
Rare
C350
16
ZSTD
Lossless
LibTIFF
Rare
C351
16
WebP
Lossless, lossy
LibTIFF
Rare
CD42
16
38
JPEG XL
Lossless, lossy
DNG 1.7.0.0
39
Rare
The TIFF file formats use
32-bit offsets
, which limits file size to around 4
GiB
. Some implementations even use a signed 32-bit offset, running into issues around 2 GiB. BigTIFF is a TIFF variant file format which uses 64-bit offsets and supports much larger files (up to 18
exabytes
in size).
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41
The BigTIFF file format specification was implemented in 2007 in development releases of
LibTIFF
version 4.0, which was finally released as stable in December 2011. Support for BigTIFF file formats by applications is limited.
42
The file name extension is often tif, but may be tiff, gtiff, btf or tf8.
42
The
Exif
specification
43
builds upon TIFF. For uncompressed image data, an Exif file is straight off a TIFF file with some private tags. For
JPEG
compressed image data, Exif uses the
JPEG File Interchange Format
but embeds a TIFF file in the APP1 segment of the file. The first IFD (termed 0th in the Exif specification) of that embedded TIFF does not contain image data, and only houses metadata for the primary image. There may however be a
thumbnail
image in that embedded TIFF, which is provided by the second IFD (termed 1st in the Exif specification). The Exif audio file format does not build upon TIFF.
citation needed
Exif defines a large number of private tags for image metadata, particularly camera settings and
geopositioning
data, but most of those do not appear in the ordinary TIFF IFDs. Instead these reside in separate IFDs which are pointed at by private tags in the main IFD.
44
TIFF/IT is used to send data for print-ready pages that have been designed on high-end prepress systems.
47
The TIFF/IT specification (ISO 12639) describes a multiple-file format, which can describe a single page per file set.
48
TIFF/IT files are not interchangeable with common TIFF files.
49
50
51
The goals in developing TIFF/IT were to carry forward the original
IT8
magnetic-tape formats into a medium-independent version. TIFF/IT is based on Adobe TIFF 6.0 specification and both extends TIFF 6, by adding additional tags, and restricts, it by limiting some tags and the values within tags. Not all valid TIFF/IT images are valid TIFF 6.0 images.
52
TIFF/IT defines image-file formats for encoding color continuous-tone picture images, color
line art
images, high-resolution continuous-tone images, monochrome continuous-tone images, binary picture images, binary line-art images, screened data, and images of composite final pages.
10
There is no MIME type defined for TIFF/IT. The MIME type
image/tiff
should not be used for TIFF/IT files, because TIFF/IT does not conform to Baseline TIFF 6.0 and the widely deployed TIFF 6.0 readers cannot read TIFF/IT. The MIME type
image/tiff
(defined in RFC 3302) without an application parameter is used for Baseline TIFF 6.0 files or to indicate that it is not necessary to identify a specific subset of TIFF or TIFF extensions. The application parameter should be used with
image/tiff
to distinguish TIFF extensions or TIFF subsets. According to RFC 3302, specific TIFF subsets or TIFF extensions must be published as an RFC. There is no such RFC for TIFF/IT. There is also no plan by the ISO committee that oversees TIFF/IT standard to register TIFF/IT with either a parameter to image/tiff or as new separate MIME type.
17
TIFF/IT consists of a number of different files and it cannot be created or opened by common desktop applications.
17
49
53
TIFF/IT-P1 file sets usually consist of the following files:
10
11
54
Final Page (FP)
Continuous Tone image (CT)
Line Work image (LW)
High resolution Continuous-tone files (HC - optional)
TIFF/IT also defines the following files:
10
Monochrome continuous-tone Picture images (MP)
Binary Picture images (BP)
Binary Line-art images (BL)
Screened Data (SD)
Some of these data types are partly compatible with the corresponding definitions in the TIFF 6.0 specification. The Final Page (FP) allows the various files needed to define a complete page to be grouped together: it provides a mechanism for creating a package that includes separate image layers (of types CT, LW, etc.) to be combined to create the final printed image. Its use is recommended but not required. There must be at least one subfile in an FP file, but no more than one of each type. It typically contains a CT subfile and an LW subfile.
10
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55
The primary color space for this standard is CMYK, but also other color spaces and the use of ICC Profiles are supported.
10
TIFF/IT compression
edit
TIFF/IT makes no provision for compression within the file structure itself, but there are no restrictions.
52
(For example, it is allowed to compress the whole file structure in a ZIP archive.)
LW files use a specific compression scheme known as Run-length encoding for LW (Compression tag value is 8080
16
). HC files also use a specific Run-length encoding for HC (Compression tag value is 8081
16
). The TIFF/IT P1 specs do not allow use of compression within the CT file.
The following is a list of defined TIFF/IT compression schemes:
46
TIFF/IT compression schemes
File type
TIFF/IT conformance
TIFF/IT-P1 conformance
TIFF/IT-P2 conformance
Final Page (FP) 0th IFD field
Uncompressed (0001
16
), Deflate (0008
16
) or PackBits (8005
16
Continuous Tone (CT)
Uncompressed (0001
16
), JPEG (0007
16
), Deflate (0008
16
) or RasterPadding in CT or MP (807F
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
), JPEG (0007
16
), Deflate (0008
16
Line Work (LW)
RLE for LW (8080
16
High resolution Continuous tone (HC)
RLE for HC (8081
16
Monochrome continuous-tone Picture (MP)
Uncompressed (0001
16
), JPEG (0007
16
), Deflate (0008
16
) or RasterPadding in CT or MP (807F
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
), JPEG (0007
16
), Deflate (0008
16
Binary Picture images (BP)
Uncompressed (0001
16
), CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding (0004
16
), Deflate (0008
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
), CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding (0004
16
), Deflate (0008
16
Binary Line art (BL)
RLE for BL (8082
16
Screened Data (SD)
Uncompressed (0001
16
), CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding (0004
16
), Deflate (0008
16
Uncompressed (0001
16
), CCITT T.6 bi-level encoding (0004
16
), Deflate (0008
16
The ISO 12639:1998 introduced TIFF/IT-P1 (Profile 1) - a direct subset of the full TIFF/IT standard (previously defined in ANSI IT8.8–1993). This subset was developed on the ground of the mutual realization by both the standards and the software development communities that an implementation of the full TIFF/IT standard by any one vendor was both unlikely (because of its complexity), and unnecessary (because Profile 1 would cover most applications for digital ad delivery). Almost all TIFF/IT files in digital advertising were distributed as TIFF/IT-P1 file sets in 2001.
56
57
When people talk about TIFF/IT, they usually mean the P1 standard.
11
Here are some of the restrictions on TIFF/IT-P1 (compared to TIFF/IT):
55
Uses CMYK only (when appropriate)
It is pixel interleaved (when appropriate)
Has a single choice of image orientation
Has a single choice of dot range
Restricted compression methods
TIFF/IT-P1 is a simplified conformance level of TIFF/IT and it maximizes the compatibility between Color Electronic Prepress Systems (CEPS) and Desk Top Publishing (DTP) worlds.
52
58
It provides a clean interface for the proprietary CEPS formats such as the
Scitex CT
/LW format.
Because TIFF/IT P1 had a number of limitations, an extended format was developed. The ISO 12639:2004 introduced a new extended conformance level - TIFF/IT-P2 (Profile 2). TIFF/IT-P2 added a number of functions to TIFF/IT-P1 like:
11
CMYK spot colors only (when appropriate)
Support for the compression of CT and BP data (JPEG and Deflate)
Support for multiple LW and CT files in a single file
Support for copydot files through a new file type called SD (Screened Data)
There was some effort to create a possibility to concatenate FP, LW, and CT files into a single file called the GF (Group Final) file, but this was not defined in a draft version of ISO 12639:2004.
46
This format was not widely used.
The TIFF/IT specification preserved the TIFF possibility for developers to utilize private tags. The TIFF/IT specification is very precise regarding how these private tags should be treated - they should be parsed, but ignored.
59
Private tags in the TIFF/IT-P1 specification were originally intended to provide developers with ways to add specific functionality for specific applications. Private tags can be used by developers (e.g., Scitex) to preserve specific printing values or other functionality. Private tags are typically labelled with tag numbers greater than or equal to 32768.
All private tags must be requested from Adobe (the TIFF administrator) and registered.
In 1992, the DDAP (Digital Distribution of Advertising for Publication, later Digital Directions in Applications for Production) developed their requirement statement for digital ad delivery. This was presented to ANSI-accredited CGATS (Committee for Graphic Arts Technology Standards) for development of an accredited file format standard for the delivery of digital ads. CGATS reviewed their alternatives for this purpose and TIFF seemed like the ideal candidate, except for the fact that it could not handle certain required functionalities. CGATS asked Aldus (the TIFF administrator) for a block of their own TIFF private tags in order to implement what eventually became TIFF/IT. For example, the ability to identify the sequence of the colors is handled by tag 34017 - the Color Sequence Tag.
59
TIFF/IT was created to satisfy the need for a transport-independent method of encoding raster data in the IT8.1,
IT8.2 and IT8.5 standards.
TIFF/IT was defined in ANSI IT8.8–1993 standard in 1993 and later revised in the International Standard
ISO 12639:1998 - Prepress digital data exchange – Tag image file format for image technology (TIFF/IT)
The ISO standard replaces ANSI IT8.8–1993. It specifies a media-independent means for prepress electronic data exchange.
60
The ISO 12639:2004 (Second edition) standard for TIFF/IT superseded the ISO 12639:1998. It was also later extended in ISO 12639:2004 / Amd. 1:2007 - Use of JBIG2-Amd2 compression in TIFF/IT.
61
"What are TIFF files and how do you open them?"
adobe.com
. Adobe, Inc
. Retrieved
November 3,
2023
A TIFF, which stands for Tag Image File Format, is a computer file used to store raster graphics and image information.
"PNG vs. TIFF: Which is better?"
adobe.com
. Adobe, Inc.
Archived
from the original on November 9, 2023
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TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files are common in publishing, photo editing, and graphic design.
Murray, James D.; vanRyper, William (April 1996).
Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
(Second ed.).
O'Reilly
ISBN
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. Retrieved
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TIFF was chosen as the native format for raster graphics in the
NeXTstep
operating system; this TIFF support carried over into
Mac OS X
TIFF Revision 6.0 Final — June 3, 1992
Archived
April 27, 2018, at the
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Crocker, Suzanne (16 May 2006).
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. pp.
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13
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"Stephen Carlsen's Obituary"
Mountain View Funeral Home, Memorial Park and Crematory
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Guglielmo, Connie (30 Jan 1990).
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MacWEEK
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. ISO. 1998.
Archived
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"TIFF/IT for Image Technology"
. The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress. 2006-10-03.
Archived
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"The TIFF/IT file format"
Archived
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"File Format for Internet Fax"
. 2005.
Archived
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This file format specification is commonly known as TIFF for Fax eXtended (TIFF-FX).
Trauth, Martin H. (2006).
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. Springer. p. 198.
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3-540-27983-0
TIFF Specification Supplement 1
, Retrieved 2022-06-29
TIFF Specification Supplement 2
, Retrieved 2022-06-29
Nothing prevents someone defining a TIFF extension that would introduce some other kind of pixel geometry, or even house non-pixel-based graphics in a TIFF container, but so far there does not seem to have been any need for that. Hence TIFF images have a rectangular pixel geometry.
CIP4 (2008).
"JDF Specification - Appendix H MimeType and MimeTypeVersion Attributes"
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-04-27
. Retrieved
2011-03-03
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
"Adobe TIFF Resources page"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 January 2021
. Retrieved
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"TIFF, Revision 6.0"
Digital Preservation
Library of Congress
. 2014-01-08.
Archived
from the original on 2006-06-01
. Retrieved
2014-03-11
David Beecher, author of dozens of image processing engines over the last 30 years. Any TIFF file can be viewed with a HEX editor to confirm this.
Aldus/Microsoft (1988-08-08). "1) Structure".
TIFF
. Revision 5.0. Aldus Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. Archived from
the original
on 2008-12-04
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The number 42 was chosen for its deep philosophical significance.
Adobe Developers Association (1992-06-03). "Section 7: Additional baseline TIFF Requirements".
TIFF
(PDF)
. Revision 6.0. Adobe Systems Incorporated. p. 26. Archived from
the original
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on 8 January 2021
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2022-06-29
'MM' and 'II' byte order. TIFF readers must be able to handle both byte orders. TIFF writers can do whichever is most convenient or efficient.
Microsoft.
"You cannot preview scanned TIFF file in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer"
. Retrieved
2011-02-28
Microsoft.
"You Cannot View TIFF Images Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer"
Archived
from the original on 2011-03-04
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2011-02-28
Microsoft.
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. Archived from
the original
on 2013-04-30
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2011-02-28
"Baseline TIFF Tag Compression"
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the original
on 2011-04-24
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2011-02-26
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the original
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2011-02-28
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. Archived from
the original
on January 30, 2011
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2011-02-26
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. Archived from
the original
on December 10, 2010
. Retrieved
2011-02-26
"TIFF Fields"
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-04-24
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2011-02-27
Library of Congress Collections.
"Tags for TIFF and Related Specifications"
Archived
from the original on 2011-03-05
. Retrieved
2011-02-27
"GIMP Documentation - Saving as TIFF"
Archived
from the original on 2011-04-24
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2011-02-27
"IrfanView - History of changes"
Archived
from the original on 2023-08-24
. Retrieved
2011-02-27
Commonly supported TIFF types can be displayed by image viewers such as
Irfanview
Succeed project (2014).
Recommendations for metadata and data formats for online availability and long-term preservation
. p. 68.
If files are actively managed in a digital repository, it is possible to consider using either LZW or ZIP lossless compression for the TIFF files. JPEG compression should not be used within [...] TIFF. [...] Most of the respondents use uncompressed images (64%), if compression is used then LZW is mostly used.
"LEADTOOLS TIFF SDK"
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2011-07-04
"Draft-ietf-fax-tiff-fx-extension1-01"
Archived
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Digital Negative (DNG) Specification
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Adobe Inc
. September 2023. p. 17–18.
"Compression".
Digital Negative (DNG) Specification
(PDF)
. 1.7.1.0.
Adobe Inc
. September 2023. p. 20–22.
"Extending LibTiff library with support for the new format called BigTIFF"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 May 2022.
"The BigTIFF File Format"
. AWare Systems. Archived from
the original
on 6 July 2024.
"BigTIFF"
www.loc.gov
. 2025-06-17
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2025-11-05
Technical Standardization Committee on AV & IT Storage Systems and Equipment (April 2002).
"Exchangeable Image File Format for Digital Still Cameras"
(PDF)
. Version 2.2.
Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association
. JEITA CP-3451. Archived from
the original
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on 2022-04-28
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2024-09-05
"TIFF tags"
www.loc.gov
. Retrieved
2025-11-05
"ISO 12639:2004 - Graphic technology - Prepress digital data exchange - Tag image file format for image technology (TIFF/IT)"
. Retrieved
2011-03-03
ISO (2002),
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/DIS 12639 - Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Tag image file format for image technology (TIFF/IT) - Revision of first edition (ISO 12639:1998)
(PDF)
archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2011-04-29
, retrieved
2011-03-07
"Glossary of Printing Terms - TIFF/IT"
Archived
from the original on 2011-05-13
. Retrieved
2011-03-01
CIP3 application note
(PDF)
, retrieved
2011-03-01
permanent dead link
Tiff/It Questions and Answers
(PDF)
archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2011-04-26
, retrieved
2011-03-01
Introduction to PDF/X
archived
from the original on 2011-02-16
, retrieved
2011-03-01
"Tiff/It P1 Specifications"
Archived
from the original on 2011-04-24
. Retrieved
2011-03-03
Note: TIFF/IT-P1 is not equivalent to a Photoshop® Tiff!
DDAP, TIFF/IT-P1, PDF-X/1
(PDF)
, 1998, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 15, 2006
, retrieved
2011-03-01
DDAP Association (2003).
"TIFF/IT Implementers"
. Archived from the original on April 25, 2005
. Retrieved
2011-03-03
Harlequin RIP - manual for a commercial TIFF/IT plugin
(PDF)
, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 20, 2011
, retrieved
2011-03-02
A software manual with information about TIFF/IT
(PDF)
, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on September 20, 2011
DDAP Position Statement - TIFF/IT as a File Format for Delivery of Digital Advertising - October, 2001
, October 2001, archived from
the original
on 2004-01-11
, retrieved
2011-03-03
DDAP Position Statement - TIFF/IT as a File Format for Delivery of Digital Advertising - October, 2001
(PDF)
, October 2001, archived from the original on March 21, 2003
, retrieved
2011-03-03
"TIFF/IT-P1"
. Archived from the original on April 18, 2001
. Retrieved
2011-03-01
DDAP Association (2002).
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. Archived from the original on April 28, 2003
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Archived
from the original on 2011-05-13
. Retrieved
2011-03-01
"ISO 12639:2004"
ISO
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Adobe TIFF Resources page
: Adobe links to the specification and main TIFF resources
LibTIFF Home Page
: Widely used library used for reading and writing TIFF files as well as TIFF file processing command line tools
TIFF File Format FAQ and TIFF Tag Reference
Archived
2006-05-22 at the
Wayback Machine
: Everything you always wanted to know about the TIFF File Format but were afraid to ask
TIFF description
at Digital Preservation (The Library of Congress)
TIFF Revision 4.0
: Specification for revision 4.0, in HTML (warning: for historical purposes only, the TIFF 6.0 spec contains the full 4.0 revision)
TIFF Revision 5.0
: Specification for revision 5.0, in HTML (warning: for historical purposes only, the TIFF 6.0 spec contains the full 5.0 revision)
TIFF Revision 6.0
: Specification for revision 6.0, in PDF (warning: there is an outdated and flawed section (jpeg compression), corrected in supplements, and there are additions to this PDF too – for the full specification, see the
Adobe TIFF Resources page
RFC
3302
- image/tiff, RFC
3949
and RFC
3950
- image/tiff-fx, RFC
2306
- Tag Image File Format (TIFF) - F Profile for Facsimile, RFC
1314
- legacy exchange of images in the Internet.
Code Tiff Tag Reader
permanent dead link
- Easy readable code of a TIFF tag reader in Mathworks Matlab (Tiff 5.0/6.0)
AlternaTIFF
- Free in-browser TIFF viewer
eiStream Annotation (also known as Wang or Kodak Annotation). Developed by eiStream.
ADEO Imaging Annotation
US