TIFFbaseline

TIFF baseline, or Baseline TIFF, is the core subset of the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) 6.0 specification that ensures broad interoperability among TIFF readers and writers. The term baseline refers to a minimal, stable feature set that all conforming software should support so that images can be exchanged reliably across different platforms and applications. Baseline TIFF was defined as part of the early TIFF 6.0 standard by Aldus (later Adobe) to provide a common foundation for the format.

A conforming Baseline TIFF file contains one or more image file directories (IFDs). Each image is described by a small collection of mandatory fields, including ImageWidth, ImageLength, BitsPerSample, Compression, PhotometricInterpretation, and StripOffsets/StripByteCounts, along with offset data stored in 32-bit integers. The data area is typically organized into strips, which simplifies decoding and memory usage. Baseline TIFF supports basic metadata through tags such as DateTime and Software; multi-page documents are represented by multiple IFDs within a single file.

While Baseline TIFF ensures broad compatibility, it omits many features added in later extensions. Advanced compression schemes, tiling, extensive color management tags, and 64-bit offsets for very large files are outside the Baseline subset. In practice, Baseline TIFF remains common in archival, scanning, and interchange workflows due to its predictable behavior and long-standing tooling support, with extended TIFF features used where higher functionality is required.