Where TIFF files come from
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a flexible, high-quality format used where detail matters more than size:
- scanners, especially for documents, film and photos
- professional cameras and photo editing, as an editing-friendly export
- printing and publishing workflows
- maps, satellite and medical imaging
- fax software, which often saves multi-page TIFFs
The trade-off is size: a scanned A4 page at 300 DPI can be 25 MB or more as TIFF.
How to use it
- Choose a quality. 85% works for sharing; 92–95% for printing.
- Choose your TIFF files or drop them on the box above.
- Download each JPG, or all of them as a ZIP.
What changes
- File size usually drops by 80–95%.
- Colour: CMYK and 16-bit images become 8-bit RGB.
- Transparency becomes white, because JPG has none.
- Pages: only the first page of a multi-page TIFF is converted.
- Layers and extra channels stored by editing software are flattened.
- Dimensions stay the same.
JPG or PNG?
JPG is best for photos and colour scans you want to share. For scanned text, line drawings or images you’ll keep editing, TIFF to PNG keeps every pixel without loss and still shrinks most files.
Privacy
Scans are often personal documents. Here the TIFF is decoded and converted in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.
Quality settings for scans
| Your TIFF | Suggested quality |
|---|---|
| Colour photo scan | 90% |
| Document with photos | 85% |
| Scanned text only | 80%, or use TIFF to PNG |
| Archival master copy | Keep the TIFF and make JPGs as needed |
Big batches
Scanning projects often produce hundreds of TIFFs. Select a whole folder at once; files are converted one after another, and you can download them all as one ZIP. The first file takes a little longer while ImageMagick loads.
Questions
Why won't my TIFF open in the browser or on my phone?
Most browsers can't display TIFF, and many apps and websites don't accept it. JPG works everywhere, which is why converting helps.
What about multi-page TIFF files?
A JPG holds one image, so you get the first page. To keep every page together, use TIFF to PDF, which turns each page into a PDF page.
Why does the first conversion take a few seconds?
TIFF is decoded by ImageMagick, which the page downloads (about 15 MB) the first time. After that it's cached and conversions start straight away.
Is 16-bit or CMYK TIFF supported?
Yes. High-bit-depth and CMYK images are converted to standard 8-bit RGB, the colour form JPG and screens use.
Last reviewed 1 November 2026