Aldus Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) bitmap image
File type: Bitmap image file
Files with tiff extension are bitmap images in the Tagged Image File Format. Usually having the extension TIF, it's one of the more common graphics file types.
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Date updated: June 23, 2025
File extension TIFF is used for one of the common graphics format.
Tagged Image File Format - one of the most widely supported lossless (does not lose information during compression) file formats for storing bit-mapped images (both PCs and Macintosh computers).
TIFF graphics can be any resolution, in black and white, gray-scaled, or color. Is used un-compressed or LZW compressed.
Many different formats (Uncompressed, Huffman compressed, Jpeg,LZW,CCITT3/4, G3 FAX, G4 FAX, Packed Bits).
TIFF/IT is a standard for the exchange of digital adverts and complete pages. TIFF/IT files only contain bitmap data, no vector data. The files are not rasterized (although they could be) but they contain 256 graylevels per channel. TIFF/IT is the abbreviation of Tagged Image File Format/Image Technology.
As the name indicates, TIFF/IT is based on the well known TIFF standard. Because the TIFF/IT standard is very flexible, a subset of the standard was devised that is called TIFF/IT P1. P1 is limited to CMYK jobs. It does not support spot colours. When most people talk about TIFF/IT, they refer to the P1 version. A P2 version was in the works for a long time and may never make it, given the decreasing popularity of TIFF/IT.
TIFF/IT has only been successful in some markets like the exchange of adds for newspapers or magazines and the exchange of pages for magazine printers. In the past years, its role has largely been taken over by the PDF file format, more specifically PDF/X-1a.
From around 2000 to 2004 a number of companies selling TIFF/IT related products announced products in which TIFF/IT data were encapsulated in PDF files. This merging of these two formats, with PDF offering wide industry support and TIFF/IT’s proven track record of reliability, was an interesting concept but I don’t think any of these hybrid formats are still in widespread use. RIPs would frequently choke on such files and vendors were reluctant to actively support odd file formats.
MIME types:
image/tif
image/x-tif
image/tiff
image/x-tiff
application/tif
application/x-tif
application/tiff
application/x-tiff
You can use most graphic-design programs to open the file. TIFF is a standard, uncompressed graphic file format that can be read by many graphics and imaging programs.
You can use most graphic-design programs to convert the file (ACDSee).
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
CorelDraw Graphics Suite (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoOnWeb (Microsoft Windows)
ERDAS IMAGINE (Microsoft Windows)
Multi-Page TIFF Editor (Microsoft Windows)
Microsoft Paint (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoFiltre Studio (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Information Extractor (Microsoft Windows)
Artweaver (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Fireworks (Microsoft Windows)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX (Microsoft Windows)
SketchBook (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Preview (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
The Panorama Factory for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Flare for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Fotor Photo Editor for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
SketchBook for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Fireworks for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Paint X Lite (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
Canvas X (Multiplatform)
Photopea (On-line services)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
CorelDraw Graphics Suite (Microsoft Windows)
ERDAS IMAGINE (Microsoft Windows)
Multi-Page TIFF Editor (Microsoft Windows)
Microsoft Paint (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoFiltre Studio (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Information Extractor (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Fireworks (Microsoft Windows)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX (Microsoft Windows)
SketchBook (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
The Panorama Factory for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Flare for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Fotor Photo Editor for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
SketchBook for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Fireworks for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Paint X Lite (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
Photopea (On-line services)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
CorelDraw Graphics Suite (Microsoft Windows)
ERDAS IMAGINE (Microsoft Windows)
Multi-Page TIFF Editor (Microsoft Windows)
SmartDraw (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoFiltre Studio (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Information Extractor (Microsoft Windows)
SketchBook (Microsoft Windows)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
The Panorama Factory for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Fotor Photo Editor for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
SketchBook for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Paint X Lite (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
Photopea (On-line services)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Nero Multimedia Suite (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoOnWeb (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
MYRIAD Desktop (Microsoft Windows)
FastPictureViewer Professional (Microsoft Windows)
WildBit Viewer (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Preview (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Fotor Photo Editor for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
PhotoScape X for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Multi-Page TIFF Editor (Microsoft Windows)
SketchBook (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
SketchBook for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Paint X Lite (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Bulk Image Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Preview (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
Picture Resize Free Online Images Converter (On-line services)
BitFonter (Microsoft Windows)
TNTedit (Microsoft Windows)
UVMapper (Microsoft Windows)
Mayura Draw (Microsoft Windows)
TexturePacker (Microsoft Windows)
Microsoft Word (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Fireworks (Microsoft Windows)
Paint 3D (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Fireworks for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Apache OpenOffice Draw (OpenOffice.org Draw) (Multiplatform)
SewArt (Multiplatform)
Krita (Multiplatform)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
LibreOffice Draw (Multiplatform)
GIMP (Microsoft Windows)
VPHybridCAD (Microsoft Windows)
BatchPhoto (Microsoft Windows)
TNTedit (Microsoft Windows)
IconForge (Microsoft Windows)
Mayura Draw (Microsoft Windows)
Analyze (Microsoft Windows)
TexturePacker (Microsoft Windows)
CI Convert (Microsoft Windows)
netScope Viewer (Microsoft Windows)
Paint 3D (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Fireworks (Microsoft Windows)
Image Composite Editor (Microsoft Windows)
Preview (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
BitFonter for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Flare for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Graphic (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Fireworks for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Krita (Multiplatform)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
LibreOffice Draw (Multiplatform)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
FastPictureViewer Professional (Microsoft Windows)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Fotor Photo Editor for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
PhotoScape X for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
Adobe Creative Suite (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
FastPictureViewer Professional (Microsoft Windows)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX (Microsoft Windows)
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