TIFF files: the format scanners and printers still insist on

Why TIFF files are so large, what CMYK and multiple pages mean for conversion, and why browsers cannot read them. Convert TIFF in your browser, no upload.

At a glance

Type: Image
Extensions: .tiff, .tif
MIME type: image/tiff

TIFF dates from 1986 and was built to be flexible above all else. A TIFF can be uncompressed or use any of several compression schemes, hold 8 or 16 bits per channel, use RGB or CMYK or greyscale, and contain multiple images in one file. That flexibility is exactly why scanners, print production and scientific imaging still use it — and why "TIFF" tells you much less about a file than a modern extension would.

It also explains the size. A TIFF is frequently stored with little or no compression, which is fine for an archive on a workstation and painful everywhere else: a document scan can be tens or hundreds of megabytes. Converting to PNG keeps every pixel exactly while applying real lossless compression, which usually shrinks the file dramatically; converting to JPG shrinks it much further at a quality cost that is invisible on photographic content.

Browsers cannot decode TIFF, which makes this the one image conversion on this site that is not instant. The work is handed to a WebAssembly build of ffmpeg, which has to download the first time — about 7 MB over the wire. Every other image conversion here uses the browser's own codecs and needs nothing at all.

Two of TIFF's capabilities do not survive conversion. CMYK, common in print workflows, is converted to RGB because neither PNG nor JPG has a CMYK mode — colours shift, which matters if the file is destined for a printer. And multiple pages: this converter is built around single-image TIFFs and will not return every page of a multi-page scan. Keep the TIFF as the master for both cases.

Convert TIFF to other formats

FAQ

Why is the first TIFF conversion slow?

Because browsers cannot decode TIFF, so a WebAssembly build of ffmpeg has to download first — about 7 MB. Later conversions in the same session start immediately, and every other image conversion here needs no download at all.

TIFF to PNG or to JPG?

PNG for document scans, text and line art, where it stays exact. JPG for photographs, where it is far smaller and the loss is invisible.

Is TIFF to PNG lossless?

Yes. Both formats store exact pixels, so the image is identical and only the file size changes — usually substantially downward, since TIFF often has little compression.

My TIFF is CMYK — what happens?

It is converted to RGB, because neither PNG nor JPG supports CMYK. The colours will shift, which matters for print work. Keep the TIFF as the master in that case.

What about a multi-page TIFF?

This converter is built around single-image TIFFs and will not return every page. For multi-page scans, a dedicated desktop tool is the right choice.

Why do scanners still produce TIFF?

Because it can store uncompressed or losslessly compressed images at high bit depths, which is what archival and print work require. It was designed for exactly that and has not been displaced.

How much smaller will the converted file be?

Often dramatically. An uncompressed TIFF converted to PNG can shrink by most of its size, and to JPG by one or two orders of magnitude.

Is there a size limit?

80 MB. Image work holds a decoded bitmap in memory where every pixel costs four bytes regardless of the file's compression, so large scans can exceed it.