Is there any difference between .tif and .tiff?

Technically there is no difference at all; both denote the same format. The duplication is a leftover from old Windows systems limiting file extensions to three letters. Because .tiff could not be written in that era, .tif was used and the habit stuck. A file being .tif does not make it older or more limited; the content and capabilities are exactly the same. Conversion tools process both extensions identically.

Why are TIFF files so large?

Because TIFF by default stores pixel data uncompressed or compressed with lossless methods only. Because lossless compression preserves all of the data, it can never reach the reduction ratios JPG achieves. On top of that, TIFF usually carries more colour depth per pixel — 16 bits instead of 8, for instance — and that directly multiplies the file size. When a high-resolution scan is involved, these factors combine and the file can reach hundreds of megabytes.

Why don't browsers open TIFF files?

TIFF is a format designed for desktop publishing and archiving rather than the web, and it was never included in web standards. There is a technical reason too: TIFF is an extremely flexible container that can hold many different compression and layout schemes inside it, and that flexibility makes it hard for browser vendors to provide consistent support. In addition, the file sizes are unacceptable on the web in terms of page load time. So if you want to show a TIFF on the web, you first need to convert it to a web format such as JPG, PNG or WEBP.

Does the image's resolution drop when I convert to JPG?

No, the pixel dimensions do not change — a 4000x3000 pixel TIFF stays 4000x3000 pixels as a JPG. What changes is how accurately each pixel's colour information is stored. JPG compression shrinks the file by processing neighbouring pixels in groups and eliminating detail the eye barely notices. So what is lost is not resolution but colour and detail precision. It may not be noticeable from a distance, but at one hundred percent zoom the effect shows, particularly on sharp edges and in smooth colour transitions.

What Is TIFF, and Why Do You Need to Convert It to JPG?

One format, two worlds

When people talk about image formats, the question asked is usually "which is better". Where TIFF is concerned that question is meaningless, because TIFF and JPG are two tools belonging to different worlds. One is the instrument of the archivist and the printer, the other is the toolkit of the web and of sharing.

In this article we explain what TIFF is, why it remains indispensable, and exactly what happens when you convert it to JPG.

What is TIFF?

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) was developed in the mid-1980s for the desktop publishing and scanning industries. The word "tagged" in its name describes the format's core logic: the file consists of tagged data blocks, and each tag defines a property of the image. This structure makes the format extraordinarily flexible.

TIFF's distinguishing capabilities are these:

Lossless storage. Pixel data is either not compressed at all or compressed with lossless algorithms such as LZW or ZIP. In either case, when you open the file you get back all of the data as it was at the moment of saving. Open and close the file a hundred times and no degradation accumulates.

Multi-page support. A single .tif file can hold more than one image. All the pages of a scanned contract, the entirety of a fax printout, or the frames of a microfilm shoot can sit in one file. JPG cannot do this.

High colour depth. TIFF can carry 16 bits of data per channel or more. Where a standard 8-bit image has 256 tones per channel, 16-bit has tens of thousands. This keeps transitions free of banding, particularly in images that will undergo heavy colour correction.

Colour space support for print. TIFF supports the CMYK colour space and embedded ICC colour profiles. This is the basic requirement of the print workflow; a file working in RGB cannot be sent straight to press.

Layers and alpha channel. TIFF can carry transparency information and, in some cases, layer data.

Where is TIFF the standard?

These capabilities have made TIFF the de facto standard in certain fields:

Printing and prepress. When a magazine cover, package design or poster goes to print, the source image is almost always a TIFF.
Library, archive and museum digitisation. Institutions digitising a manuscript or a historic photograph store the master copy as TIFF. The logic is simple: all of the data must be preserved for a future use we cannot foresee today.
Medical and scientific imaging. In an image on which measurements will be made, compression artefacts are unacceptable.
Professional scanning. Document management systems and high-volume scanners frequently produce TIFF.

So why do we convert?

Because all of TIFF's strengths turn into obstacles in everyday use.

File size. This is the bill for lossless storage and high colour depth. A high-resolution scan can comfortably run to hundreds of megabytes. It does not fit into an email attachment, and sharing it over mobile data becomes a problem.

No browser support. TIFF is not part of the web standards. If you upload a TIFF to a website most visitors will not see the image; the file gets downloaded instead. This is not a shortcoming of the format; TIFF was never designed for the web.

Irregular application support. The format is so flexible that not every application can read every TIFF variant. A file using a particular compression scheme or colour layout may fail to open in some programs. This problem does not arise with JPG.

Social media and messaging will not accept it. Almost no platform supports TIFF uploads.

So the reason for converting is not that TIFF is bad, but that it is in the wrong context.

What happens when you convert to JPG?

JPG applies a lossy compression that exploits the characteristics of the human visual system. Our eyes are more sensitive to changes in brightness than to changes in colour; JPG knows this and reduces colour information more aggressively than brightness information. It also gains size by splitting the image into blocks and eliminating the fine frequency detail in each one.

The result: the file shrinks dramatically, the image looks almost identical to most observers — but the data has been irreversibly reduced.

Concretely, what is lost is this:

Fine detail and texture, especially at low quality settings.
Transparency, because JPG does not support the alpha channel; transparent areas fill with a solid colour.
Extra pages, because JPG is single-image.
16-bit colour depth, as JPG works with 8 bits.
CMYK colour accuracy, as the conversion moves to RGB and the gamut difference leads to colour shift.

The critical point: this loss is cumulative. When you open a JPG, edit it and save it as JPG again, the compression is applied afresh and the degradation accumulates. That is why editing should always be done on the lossless original.

The right workflow

Professional practice is clear: TIFF is the master copy, JPG is the delivery copy.

Store your scan or your print file as TIFF. Produce a JPG copy as needed for a website, email, presentation or social media. Treat the JPG as a disposable output — if it is lost or its quality proves insufficient, you produce a new one from the original.

If your image contains transparency or the content is a sharp-edged graphic, prefer converting to PNG rather than JPG; PNG is lossless and preserves the alpha channel.

In summary

TIFF is an archival and print format designed to preserve all of the data; that is why it is large, and that is why it is not used on the web. JPG is a format designed for sharing that gets smaller by discarding data. The two are not rivals but the two ends of one workflow. When converting, there is only one rule: keep the original, share the copy.