What a TIFF file is
What a .TIFF file is, what it does well, what opens one, and how to convert it — with every conversion running in your own browser.
What a TIFF file is
A TIFF is less a format than a container with a lot of options. It can hold uncompressed pixels, losslessly compressed ones, several images in one file, sixteen bits per channel, and colour data in modes intended for print rather than screens. Two TIFFs can have almost nothing in common internally.
That flexibility is why it is the standard in scanning, printing, and archival work, where the ability to store exactly what a device captured matters more than file size. It is also why it is unpredictable: a TIFF written by one program is not guaranteed to open in another.
No browser reads TIFF at all. This site decodes it with its own decoder, shipped as part of the page, which is the only way to open one in a browser without sending it somewhere.
Where it came from
TIFF dates from 1986 and was designed by Aldus, of PageMaker, to give desktop publishing a common format for scanned images when every scanner manufacturer had its own. Adobe has maintained it since acquiring Aldus, and it has been effectively frozen since 1992 — which, for an archival format, is a feature.
TIFF at a glance
| Property | TIFF |
|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless or lossy |
| Colour | 16 bits per channel |
| Transparency | Full alpha channel |
| Animation | No |
| Keeps EXIF | Yes |
| Browser support | None. This site carries its own decoder |
| Size of a photograph | Not a format for photographs |
| Published | 1986 |
TIFF at a glance
- The format supports both lossy and lossless compression, and a file does not announce which it used in a way most viewers show. This site's encoder writes the lossy kind.
- Colour is stored as 16 bits per channel, which is enough for the gradients in a photograph to look smooth rather than stepped.
- Transparency is a full alpha channel: each pixel records how transparent it is, so a soft edge stays soft against any background.
- Camera settings, dates, and copyright fields travel with the image, which matters if you are converting photographs you intend to keep attribution for.
What it is good at
- Full transparency: each pixel records how transparent it is, so edges blend cleanly into any background.
- Compresses either way: with loss for photographs, without it for flat graphics, in the same format.
- Carries camera settings, dates, and copyright information alongside the image.
Where it falls short
- One frame only. An animation converted to it keeps the first frame and drops the rest.
- No browser reads it at all, so viewing one on the web means converting or decoding it first.
What to use instead of TIFF
- For anything that moves, use animated WebP. GIF also animates and is more widely accepted, but stores the same clip at several times the size with a fraction of the colours.
- For an image that has to display everywhere without a fallback, use PNG or JPG. Both have been read by every browser for longer than most of the alternatives have existed.
When to use TIFF
Choose TIFF for archival and print work: a scan you intend to keep, a photograph destined for a press, a master copy from which other formats will be made. Its ability to store exactly what a device captured, at high bit depth and in print colour modes, is what nothing else here offers.
Avoid TIFF for anything going on the web, where no browser will display it, and for anything you are sending to somebody casually. A TIFF written by one program is not guaranteed to open in another, and the files are large enough to bounce off most attachment limits.
What opens a TIFF file
On a computer, TIFF files open in Preview on macOS, Photoshop, and most scanning software.
No browser displays them. Dragging one into a browser window downloads it again rather than showing it, which is why this site ships its own decoder for the format.
Turn a TIFF file into something else:
Common problems with TIFF
- My browser will not show the file.
- No browser has ever supported this format, so dragging one into a window downloads it again rather than displaying it. Convert it to PNG if you need every pixel preserved, or to JPG or WebP if size matters more. This site decodes the format with code shipped in the page, so the file still goes nowhere.
Converting a TIFF file here
- Choose your file, or drag it onto the box. It is read from your device and goes no further.
- Set whatever the conversion offers — quality, size, background — and start it. Everything runs on your own machine, so a large image uses your memory and your processor rather than a queue somewhere.
- Download the result. Nothing is kept: leaving the page or resetting it releases the file and the converted copy alike.
TIFF against the alternatives
Common questions
- Why can I not open a TIFF in my browser?
- Because no browser has ever supported the format. TIFF predates the web, it is large, and its variety makes it awkward to decode. This site reads TIFFs by shipping a decoder in the page itself, so the file is still never uploaded anywhere.
- Will converting a TIFF lose quality?
- It depends entirely on what you convert it to. Converting to PNG preserves every pixel; converting to JPG or WebP discards detail permanently. TIFFs from a scanner or a camera are often the highest-quality copy in existence, so keep the original when converting one.
- Can a TIFF hold more than one image?
- Yes, and multi-page TIFFs are common in scanning and faxing. Converting one to a single-image format keeps the first page and discards the others, so check the page count before converting a scan you care about.
- Is transparency kept when I convert a TIFF file?
- Only if the format you convert to has somewhere to put it. PNG, WebP, AVIF, and GIF all do, to varying degrees; JPG and BMP do not, and a transparent area becomes a solid colour when you convert to one. The tool tells you which background it used.
- What happens to the camera data and copyright fields?
- They survive where the target format has somewhere to keep them and are dropped where it does not. If attribution matters, check the result rather than assume — metadata is the first thing most conversions lose, and it goes silently.
- How do I open a .TIFF file?
- The software listed above reads them directly. If nothing on your machine will, converting to PNG or JPG is the reliable route — both open in everything, and the conversion happens here in your browser rather than on a server.
- Does converting a TIFF file lose quality?
- It depends on what you convert it to rather than on what you convert from. Converting to a lossless format such as PNG preserves every pixel; converting to JPG, WebP, or AVIF discards detail permanently. Nothing recovers quality the file had already lost.
- Is converting from TIFF free, and does it upload my file?
- Free, with no account, and nothing is uploaded. Every converter on this site reads your file with the browser's own file APIs, converts it using code running on your device, and hands the result back as a download. You can confirm that yourself in the Network panel of your browser's developer tools.
- Where does the conversion happen?
- In your browser, on your own device. There is no conversion server here to upload anything to, and no third-party service is involved. That is a statement about what the site does rather than a promise about how it handles uploads, because no upload takes place.