Transferring projects from your computer to another device can be such a hassle. You can’t just save your project as a JPEG because it will bake all your adjustments directly on the output image. Saving your project as a PSD may also not be possible if your client or other collaborators aren’t using the same image editor as you.
If you need to transfer your project to another device without any compatibility issues while also keeping all project files in one neat package, you need to learn about TIF and TIFF files. Let’s talk about it!
What Are TIF and TIFF Files?
Tagged Image File (TIF) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) are essentially the same. There are no practical differences between the two. TIFF is an open standard controlled by Adobe Systems. The extension was to be .tiff, however, in the earlier days Windows required that extensions only use three letters, thus TIF or the .tif file extension was born.
TIFF files are lossless file formats that package project assets into one easily transferable file. Since TIFF is an open standard, any image processing software and operating system should be able to support TIFF files. This makes TIFF a great way to transfer project files to clients and other collaborators without needing to worry about compatibility issues on their system.
How Do TIFF Files Work?
TIFFs areimportant file formats that professionals useto ensure that they can continue working on their projects using any image editor on any computer at any time.
Unlike JPEGs where all the edits and adjustments you make become permanently applied to the image, TIFFs allow you to continually make adjustments by allowing separation between the image, layers, channels, transparency, color profiles, and metadata.
With these attributes all being adjustable in one combined file, editors can continue working on TIFF projects without permanently altering the image they are working on.
Aside from the non-destructive editing feature, TIFF also ensures that the original image file stays intact through lossless file compression algorithms like LZW and ZIP. Color depth also won’t be a problem as TIFF can support both 8-bit and 16-bit color depth, allowing you to store very high-quality images coming from high-end professional cameras.
Now that you know why professionals use TIFF, let’s discuss how you may use TIFF on your computer.
How to Create TIFF Files
Since TIFF is a universal file format, just about any image viewer and image processing software can create TIFF files.
To create a single TIFF file on Adobe Photoshop, click onFile>Save As. A save menu will pop up. All you need to do is click on theSave as typedropdown menu, selectTIFF, and hitSave.
you may then select what compression you want to apply to the image. I would recommend defaulting toNone, but if you need to save some space, then usingLZWandZIPshould be fine without affecting your image.
As for Pixel Order,Interleavedshould be sufficient for most projects, whilePer Channelallows you to manipulate specific color channels separately, great for color grading applications. After setting your preferred options, hitOKand the project should be saved as a TIFF.
For those working on multiple images, you can also do batch conversion in Photoshop. To do so, place all your images in one folder. Then open Photoshop and click onFile>Scripts>Image Processor.
You will be prompted with a file setting menu. The menu will be numbered into three sections: select folder, select image location, and select file type, and additional preferences. Go ahead and select the folder where you placed your images, then the location where you want your TIFF files to be saved, and lastly tick theSave as TIFFbox in theFile Typearea.
If you want to make the TIFF files use less storage, you may also tick theLZW Compressionoption. After all that, double-check your settings, then hitRun.
As you’re able to see, the TIFF files will take more space than the original files. Make sure that you always have ample amounts of storage left before creating TIFF files, as they do take up a lot of space.
If you’re in a hurry, you’re able to also convert images to TIFF by using your operating system’s default image viewer. This should be possible for Windows, macOS, andmost Linux distros.
Simply open your image in your image viewer, then right-click on the image or pressCtrl+Son your keyboard to reveal aSave asoption. Click onSave as, give it a name, selectTIFFfrom the dropdown menu, then hitSave. Voilà! You created a TIFF file using your built-in image viewer.
How to Open TIFF Files
You shouldn’t have a problem opening TIFF files on your computer. What’s good about TIFF is that you can view TIFF files just as you would with any file. Simply double-click on the TIFF, and it should load in your default image-viewing software.
you may also open TIFF files directly on your preferred image-processing software like how you typically would with regular images. In my case (Photoshop), I click onFile>Openand then select the TIFF file.
But what if you’re deep in a folder and find a TIFF file that you want to open in your editing software? To open the file in your editor, right-click on the TIFF file, clickOpen with, and then select your image editor.
If your preferred image editor is not in the selection, click onChoose another appthen scroll down and clickChoose an app on your PC. This will open the file manager. Now find your application in your computer’s program file then hitOpen.
This should load your TIFF files directly in your editing software, plus have the program be added to the selection the next time you open a TIFF file.
TIFs and TIFFs Are Universal
You now know what TIFF files are, their importance, and how to use them. Most of the guide here is done on Windows, however, the things you learned here are easily transferable to both macOS and most Linux distributions simply because TIFFs and TIFs are cross-platform formats. So, don’t be afraid to save your projects as TIFFs as they are highly compatible with most systems out there.
