A format built from tags
The defining idea in TIFF is the tag: instead of a fixed header, the file carries a directory of tagged fields that describe how the image is stored — its dimensions, bit depth, colour model, resolution and compression. This extensibility is the format’s great strength, because new capabilities can be bolted on without breaking older readers that simply skip tags they do not understand. A single TIFF can contain several images stacked as pages, which is why fax machines and document scanners adopted it so readily. The same flexibility means two TIFFs can be internally very different while sharing the same extension.
Compression is optional and, in practice, lossless: schemes such as LZW, PackBits and Deflate are common, and uncompressed TIFFs are perfectly valid too. There is a JPEG-in-TIFF mode, but the format’s reputation rests on preserving every pixel exactly.
Where it earns its keep
In print and pre-press, TIFF is trusted because it reproduces colour faithfully, embeds ICC profiles and supports CMYK as well as RGB. Museums, libraries and government archives standardise on it for masters because an uncompressed or losslessly compressed TIFF will still decode decades from now. Photographers often keep a TIFF as an intermediate edit between a raw file and a delivered JPEG, since it survives repeated saves without degrading.
Strengths
- Lossless storage that preserves every pixel for archiving and print.
- Supports multiple pages, layers, alpha and CMYK in one file.
- Extensible tag system keeps old files readable by new software.
Limitations
- Files are large, especially when uncompressed.
- The format’s flexibility means some TIFF variants are poorly supported.
- Not suitable for the web, where browsers do not display it natively.
When to use TIFF
Choose TIFF for scanning, print masters and digital archiving where faithful, lossless reproduction matters more than file size or web compatibility.
TIFF FAQ
- Is TIFF lossless?
- In normal use, yes — TIFF stores images uncompressed or with lossless compression such as LZW or Deflate, so no detail is discarded. There is an optional JPEG compression mode that is lossy, but it is rarely used and easy to avoid.
- Why won’t my browser open a TIFF?
- Most browsers never added native TIFF rendering because the format is aimed at print and archiving rather than the web. To view or share one online, convert it to PNG or JPEG first.
- Can a single TIFF hold many images?
- Yes. TIFF supports multiple image directories in one file, which is how multi-page scans and faxes are stored. When converting a multi-page TIFF, tools typically extract the first page or each page in turn.