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The Wednesday Format: The Role of TIFF in Desktop Publishing
TIFF is a graphic format best suited for printing purposes. (…)
TIFF is a graphic format best suited for printing purposes. Here is a list of resources that will provide an insight of this file format
TIFF stands for Tag Image File Format and it’s a file format that has been around the block for quite a few years. Even though PSD seems to be pushing this format in the dark, TIFF is still a universal file format which most printers can support without problems. Following is a list of resources that will help you better understand this format and its uses.
TIFF: Definition
Here are two good and not too complicated definitions of the file format:
- What is TIFF? from the Webopedia Computer Dictionary.
- Definition of TIFF from the About Desktop Publishing site.
The Geek Stuff
Learn the specifications for the TIFF format, its compression methods and what this format supports from these resources:
- Adobe TIFF resources page
- The TIFF File Format from prepressure.com.
- The unofficial TIFF web page contains up-to-date and thorough information about this file format
TIFF and Its Uses
Now that you know all the details about TIFF, you might want to know what to use it for:
- Once again from the About Desktop Publishing site, Jacci Howard Bear gives us a rundown of the most common graphic formats and their use in print design: Best Graphics File Format for Desktop Publishing.
- Shall I Use TIFF or EPS Files to Print Bitmap Images? from my very own Designorati:Desktop Publishing takes up the TIFF/EPS debate.
- Find out how TIFF is used in photography in relation to JPEG and RAW formats:
1. RAW, JPEG and TIFF, article by Bob Atkins on Photo.net
2. RAW vs JPEG vs TIF by Ken Rockwell
- The Wednesday Format: EPS
- The Wednesday Format: PSD, Photoshop’s Native Format
- Desktop Publishing With Photoshop PDF
- The Wednesday Format: The Truth About JPEG
- Shall I Use TIFF or EPS Files to Print Bitmap Images?
- An Overview of Desktop Publishing
- Old Habits Die Hard
- QuarkXPress 8 Is Coming
- Desktop Printing with QuarkXPress
- Does painless RGB to CMYK conversion exist?
With Adobe InDesign CS and CS2 accepting native Photoshop files (PSD), I’ve found that I haven’t created a .tif file in nearly 3 years. TIFF is like a silver serving platter… it’s great to have around, but there isn’t much day-to-day use for it anymore.
Yes, that’s what I found as well. I do make a comment about this in my article in actual fact.
There are users of other layout applications though who do use TIFF files, but I think TIFF will become soon obsolete like the DCS format.
I like that!
DESIGNORATI
The article is a bit shortsighted, and the included links are all wrong… A particular workflow may not require TIFF.
Fact of the matter is that TIFF is the only flexible and extensible and open file format up to date, that can be used with any compression mode, any color space, any bitdepth and sampleformat, can include any number of additional channels, any type of private data, etc. There is simply no alternative. And its clear and transparent design, is such that no alternative is necessary, and so it is quite likely TIFF will stick around for ages.
It is no suprise then, that in the Georeferencing world, where multiple channels and flexibility and private data is a must, TIFF is the file format on which to build. Recently, when Adobe needed a file format to base an interchangeable ‘digital negative’ on, they too, picked TIFF as a basis.
Apart from wrong fact, the article also includes wrong links. The URL to the TIFF specification page of Adobe includes a session ID. Was the author as ignorant about URLs as he/she was about the subject discussed? Obviously, she also missed the current, maintained and up to date TIFF home site http://www.awaresyst...be/imaging/tiff.html, otherwise he/she would have more easilly got his/her facts straight. Instead, he/she pointed to a decade old school assignment. It is not surprising then the he/she thought TIFF was about to die…
The world is bigger then your own computer! Look outside your window once in a while, before you publish your views on the state of the planet!
Joris,
I have spotted the mistake with the Adobe link, thanks for pointing it out, this is now corrected. This is not due to ignorance, mistakes are human.
Thanks for the additional link too, it’s a good resource for the readers. The thing is that the link you provided is right in the Adobe page I have linked to in this article. Scrolling down the page, people will see your link in the Developer Resources section where it says: “The unofficial TIFF Web page includes an FAQ on TIFF usage.”
I notice you work on that site, maybe that’s why you felt attacked by this article about the TIFF format? This article wasn’t meant as an attack, and sorry if you felt left out, but I linked to the Adobe page so that people could read all the information in that page and that included yours. However I added it to my article as well, as it is a great resource about the TIFF format and people can get to it directly from my article without having to go through Adobe.
Now, just because one link is wrong, it does not mean that the whole article I wrote is “all wrong” and “all the links are outdated”. That’s a bit overstated.
I also didn’t say that TIFF is about to die, I just made an observation about the fact that the PSD format in Desktop Publishing is often being used in place of the TIFF format, especially since the Creative Suite. I find that other designers agree with this. I also don’t pretend to know everything there is about TIFF, I just gave an overview that Desktop Publishers might find useful. I leave the very techincal stuff, i.e. those things that are beyond the scope of the Destkop Publisher, to people like you.
Remember that every article you see in this topic is written with the viewpoint of the Desktop Publisher.
Joris,
I think YOU should get out more. TIFF is most decidedly NOT the format of choice for just about anyone. The only reason it even exists anymore is for 2nd and 3rd tier applications to have a universal format to save as.
Both Quark & Adobe support the standard .PSD format, which supports all the things you say only TIFF supports and more (with the exception of compression). And quite frankly, the design/graphics industry doesn’t really care about most of that anyway - they’re simply interested in getting their layered Photoshop work into the layout application of their choice.
I happen to know the people writing for this site, and none of them are idiots. The link in question was a simple mistake. There’s no reason to take it so personally. I also agree with Elisabetta, I think you have a personal stake in this and the truth may have hurt you a bit?
FWIW, I still use TIFFs whenever I need to place line art and bitmap images into Quark and InDesign. The ability to color a bitmap in Quark and InDesign is valuable in many situations, and I’ve found no other graphics format that will allow it other than TIFF.
DESIGNORATI