TIFF vs PNG
TIFF and PNG are both in wide use and are chosen for different reasons. This page sets them against each other on the things that decide between them, and links to the converters for both directions — every one of which runs in your browser, with the file never uploaded.
The short answer
Both are usually lossless, so neither discards anything, and for an ordinary image on an ordinary screen they will look identical. TIFF is the more variable of the two — it also permits JPEG-compressed data inside, which some scanners write — but what really separates them is what else it can carry: sixteen bits per channel instead of eight, colour data in modes meant for printing presses, several images in one file, and the metadata a scanner or a camera attaches. That is why archives and print shops standardise on it.
PNG's advantage is that everything opens one. No browser has ever read a TIFF, the files are considerably larger, and a TIFF written by one program is not guaranteed to open in another. Unless you specifically need the depth or the print colour data, PNG is the format that will still be readable and shareable in ten years.
A TIFF from a scanner is often a multi-page file, and this is where the conversion catches people: converting it to PNG keeps the first page and quietly discards the rest. Check the page count before converting a scanned document, because the result will look like a perfectly good file.
Side by side
| Property | TIFF | PNG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless or lossy | Lossless |
| Colour | 16 bits per channel | 8 bits per channel |
| Transparency | Full alpha channel | Full alpha channel |
| Animation | No | No |
| Keeps EXIF | Yes | Yes |
| Browser support | None. This site carries its own decoder | Every browser since 1997 |
| Size of a photograph | Not a format for photographs | 3 to 5 times a JPG |
| Published | 1986 | 1996 |
Where they actually differ
- They compress differently, and that is the difference behind most of the others: one keeps every pixel exactly as it was given, the other discards detail to be smaller and cannot put it back.
- Browser support is not equal. PNG is read everywhere and has been for years; the other is either newer or, in one case, not read by browsers at all.
- They are 10 years apart, and most of what separates them is what had been learned in between.
Which to choose
- Choose TIFF when
- Choose TIFF for scanning, archiving, and print work, where storing exactly what the device captured matters more than the file size.
- Choose PNG when
- Choose PNG for anything going on the web or to another person: the same losslessness, a smaller file, and nothing that refuses to open it.
Converting between them
Common questions
- Do I lose anything converting a TIFF to PNG?
- Every pixel survives at eight bits per channel, which covers almost everything. What can be lost is the extra: sixteen-bit depth, CMYK colour, additional pages, and most of the metadata. If the TIFF came from a scanner or a camera and is your only copy, keep it and treat the PNG as the shareable version.
- Which of TIFF and PNG is better?
- Neither, in general — if one were simply better the other would have disappeared. They are good at different things, and the short answer above says which is which. The useful question is what the file has to do next: be edited, be published, be opened by somebody else, or fit inside a size limit.
- Does converting between them lose anything?
- It depends on the direction. Converting into a format that stores everything loses nothing but does not recover anything either; converting into one that discards detail loses a little each time. The table above says which of these two does which.
- Can I convert back afterwards?
- The file will convert back, but whether it comes back unchanged depends on the direction. Between two formats that store everything, a round trip is lossless. Where one of them discards detail, that detail is gone and the return journey cannot invent it.
- Can I use both?
- On a web page, often yes, and it is usually the right answer: serve the smaller modern format and list an older one as a fallback so each browser takes what it understands. For a file you are handing to a person, pick one — the one they can open.
- Which one does my software support?
- The side-by-side table above says which browsers read each, which is the part that varies most. Desktop support is harder to state in general and tends to lag browsers by years, so if the file is going to somebody else, the older and more widely read of the two is the safer choice.
- Is converting between them free?
- Yes, with no account and no limit on how many files you convert. Every converter linked from this page runs in your browser: the file is read from your device, converted by code running on it, and handed back as a download.
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. There is no conversion server here to upload it to, and no third-party service is involved. You can confirm it yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network panel with no filter, and run a conversion — no request carries your file.