TIFF
Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a bitmap file format for images, created by Aldus for use with PostScript printing. TIFF became the de-facto standard graphics format for high bit-depth (32-bit) graphics, and is widely used in image manipulation programs like Photoshop, DTP, scanners, and can be directly manipulated by PostScript.
TIFF includes a number of options that can be used to include all sorts of image formats in the file, this is the purpose of the "tags" that are included in a header. Many of these tags indicate simple geometry of the image, like its size, but others define how the data is arranged and various compression options. For instance, TIFF can be used as a container for JPEG or RLE compressed images, and in this respect is completely universal. Also, every TIFF file begins with a 2-byte indicator of byte order, followed by 2 bytes representing the number 42. The reading of 42 is dependant on the byte order indicated in the first 2 bytes. The entire file is read based on the indicated byte order.
However when TIFF was first introduced, programmers were unwilling to invest the time to support all of the options. As a result the lowest common denominator soon became "the" TIFF, and even today the vast majority of TIFF files, and the code that reads them, are based on a simple 32-bit uncompressed image.
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Referenced By
AIFF | Bitmap graphics editor | Color Management | Data compression/LZW | Data compression/lossless | Digital photography | E-book | EXIF | Ebook | Electronic book | Encapsulated PostScript | Exchangeable image file format | Forty-two | IFF-16SV | IFF-8SVX | LIFF | LZW compression algorithm | Layered Image File Format | Lempel-Ziv-Welch | Lempel Ziv Welch | List of file formats | Lossless | Lossless data compression | PackBits | Paint program | Photograoh | Photograph | Pixel | Pixel/new | Public domain map and atlas | RFC 1590 | Resource fork
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