TIFF

The definition of TIFF is Tagged Image File Format. It was developed by Aldus specifically for storing scanned images. It should be noted that it is used in raster graphics, that is, images that represent a grid of pixels. The fact that this compression algorithm is tagged means it uses special extended and base tags.

The latter forms the core of this format and is supported by all applications that can run on it. This type of image data has become very popular for sharing and storing images with greater color depth.

The TIFF format is generally used for printing, text recognition, faxing, scanning. It should be noted that the maximum weight of a document stored in this form cannot exceed 4 GB. Also, to open a TIFF file larger than 2GB, you may need to run Photoshop CS or later, as most other applications are unlikely to be able to cope.

What features does the TIFF format have?

The structure of this algorithm is quite flexible, which makes it possible to save images in different color modes:

• grayscale;
• binary (black and white);
• have an indexed palette;
• CMYK;
• CIE Lab;
• YCbCr;
• RGB.

As for compression, the user has the opportunity both to abandon it and to choose one of the following algorithms:

• CCITT Group (3 or 4);
• JBIG;
• LZ77;
• Packet Bits (RLE);
• JPEG;
• LZ77;
• LZW.