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Tiff
Tagged Image File Format, or TIFF, is one of the most commonly used computer graphic file formats in the printing industry.
Different file formats are designed to do different things. There are all kinds of file formats, with graphic file formats being only one type. Some others are audio file formats, document file formats and video file formats. Like all computer software, the development of a file format is a competitive business. Companies want to develop proprietary file formats with unique features to make their software attractive in the marketplace. While on the surface, all graphic file formats do basically the same things, different file formats will have different feature sets. What Does TIFF Do? TIFF is used to store graphic images. Original graphic images, such as a digital photograph, require a tremendous quantity of bits and that translates into large file sizes and lots of computer memory. For this reason, most graphic file formats use a technique called "file compression" to make the graphic image files a more manageable size. There are two kinds of graphic compression:
TIFF primarily uses a lossless compression algorithm. Since it was originally developed for printing and scanning, the ability to reconstruct original images was a necessity. Contrast this with a JPEG file that uses a lossy compression algorithm and produces a graphic representation that is good enough for a computer monitor, but can look quite jagged if used to produce an enlarged photograph. Why Doesn't Everybody Use TIFF? As with most things in life there are tradeoffs. In order to get the better graphic reproduction possible with TIFF one needs to be able to handle large file sizes, which translates into more computer memory and that means money. In addition, for many applications, exact reconstruction of the original graphic is not a necessity. JPEG files are a much more manageable size and to the human eye, the images are quite acceptable. TIFF is a file format that is well suited to a specific application, but because of this specialization is not always the best format for all applications. TIFF Origin and Development TIFF was developed by a company named Aldus working in cooperation with Microsoft. Subsequently, Aldus merged with Adobe Systems Inc., so the copyright for the TIFF file format specification in now owned by Adobe. TIFF was designed specifically for applications in the printing and graphics industry.
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