What is a TIF file?
A TIF or TIFF file is an image file, often a scan or a fax, that can hold one or many pages. Here is what it is, where it comes from and how to open one on any device.
The short answer
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is an image file format from 1986, made for desktop scanners. Files end in .tif or .tiff; both spellings are the same format. A TIFF can hold one image or many pages, usually stored without losing quality. That makes it the standard for scanned documents, faxes, archives and print work.
Where TIF files come from
- Scanners and office copiers. Many save scans as TIFF, often one multi-page file per document.
- Fax. Fax servers and online fax services often deliver received faxes as TIFF files, using the special black-and-white Group 3 and Group 4 fax compression.
- Courts, insurers, banks and hospitals. Document management systems store scanned records as TIFF, so court filings, claim documents and records requests often arrive as .tif files.
- Photography and printing. Photographers and print shops use TIFF for high-quality images with 16 bits per channel and CMYK colors.
- Maps, science and medicine. GeoTIFF files carry map coordinates, and microscopes and scientific cameras save 16-bit or floating-point TIFF images.
TIFF compared with JPG, PNG and PDF
| TIFF | JPG | PNG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | Usually lossless | Lossy | Lossless | Depends on content |
| Several pages | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| File size | Large | Small | Medium | Small to medium |
| Opens in web browsers | Safari only | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Typical use | Scans, faxes, archives, print | Photos, web | Graphics, screenshots | Documents to share |
The short version: TIFF is great for keeping a faithful master copy, and awkward for sharing. To send a scanned document, convert the TIFF to PDF; to put an image on the web or in an email, convert it to JPG; to keep it lossless and widely readable, convert it to PNG.
How to open a TIF file
In any browser, on any device
Drop the file on the online TIFF viewer. It shows every page of multi-page files, zooms without blurring and can save the file as PDF, JPG or PNG. The file is opened on your device and is never uploaded. Chrome, Edge and Firefox can’t display TIFF images themselves; when you click a TIFF link they download it.
On Windows
The Photos app that comes with Windows opens TIFF files: double-click the file, or right-click it and choose Open with. Image editors such as GIMP or Paint.NET open TIFF too.
On a Mac
Preview, which comes with macOS, opens TIFF files, including multi-page ones: the pages appear in the sidebar. Preview can also export a TIFF as PDF or JPEG with File › Export.
On a Chromebook
Chromebooks don’t come with an app that opens TIFF files. Use the online viewer, or convert the file to PDF or JPG, which ChromeOS opens.
On an iPhone, iPad or Android phone
Phones differ in what their photo and file apps can open. If yours shows an error or only the first page, open the file in the browser with the online viewer, or convert it to PDF.
What is inside a TIFF file
“Tagged” refers to how the format works: each page has a list of tags that describe it, such as width, height, resolution, color type and compression. This flexibility is why TIFF files vary so much, and why some programs open one TIFF fine and fail on another. Common variations:
- Compression: none, LZW, ZIP (Deflate), PackBits, JPEG, and CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 for black-and-white faxes.
- Colors: black and white (1-bit), gray, palette, RGB, CMYK, plus 16-bit, 32-bit and floating-point data.
- Layout: stored in strips or in tiles; one page or many; regular TIFF or BigTIFF for files over 4 GB.
- Resolution: the dots per inch, which sets the printed size. Fax files may use different resolutions across and down the page (for example 204 × 98 dpi), so their pixels are not square.
The tools on this site read all of these variations: Group 3 and Group 4 fax, LZW, ZIP (Deflate), JPEG and old-style JPEG, PackBits, 1-bit to 32-bit and floating-point images, palette colors, CMYK, YCbCr, Lab, tiled and BigTIFF files. Both .tif and .tiff.
Questions and answers
What is the difference between TIF and TIFF?
There is none. TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format; .tif is the three-letter spelling from the MS-DOS days, when file extensions were limited to three characters. Both extensions mean the same format.
Is a TIF file safe to open?
A TIFF is an image, not a program, so opening it does not run anything. As with any file, only open files from senders you trust. Opening it in this browser viewer keeps it on your device.
Why is my TIF file so big?
TIFF files usually store images without lossy compression, often at high resolution, so a single color scan can be tens of megabytes. Converting to PDF or JPG makes it much smaller.
Can a TIF file have several pages?
Yes. One TIFF file can hold many pages, which is why faxes and scanned documents use it. Some viewers only show the first page; the viewer on this site shows them all.
How do I convert a TIF file to PDF or JPG?
Use the TIFF to PDF or TIFF to JPG converter on this site. It runs in your browser, so the file is not uploaded.