TIFFs

TIFF, short for Tagged Image File Format, is a raster graphics file format designed for storing high-quality images. It was developed in 1986 by Aldus Corporation and later maintained by Adobe Systems. TIFF is widely supported across platforms and software, making it a common choice for professional imaging and archival workflows.

TIFF uses a flexible, tag-based structure. Each file contains one or more image file directories (IFDs) that store metadata as tags and point to the image data. TIFF can store multiple images in a single file (multi-page TIFF), and supports tiling or stripping of image data. It accommodates various color spaces, bit depths, and metadata, including embedded color profiles and standard metadata formats.

A key strength of TIFF is its extensible compression options. It supports uncompressed data and a range of lossless compressions such as LZW and Deflate, as well as lossy JPEG within the TIFF wrapper. Other schemes include PackBits and CCITT for bilevel or grayscale images. The choice of compression affects file size and image fidelity.

Uses and extensions: TIFF is common in graphic arts, scanners, and publishing, and in GIS as GeoTIFF when georeferencing data is embedded. Its ability to store rich metadata and large, high-quality images makes it a preferred format for archival storage and professional workflows.

Extensions and notes: Files use .tif or .tiff extensions and image/tiff MIME type. The file header encodes endianness (II or MM) and a fixed magic number, followed by offsets to IFDs. TIFF’s complexity and potential for large file sizes limit its suitability for lightweight web use.