A TIFF reader that does not depend on the browser
TIFF is what scanners, fax software and document archives write, and it is the one common image format browsers do not read: Safari does, Chrome, Edge and Firefox do not. This site carries its own TIFF reader, written for it and fetched only when a TIFF arrives, so the same file opens the same way everywhere. It reads uncompressed, LZW, Deflate and PackBits TIFFs with or without the horizontal predictor, in strips or tiles; one-bit, grey, palette, RGB, RGBA and CMYK; and the three fax codings, CCITT modified Huffman, Group 3 and Group 4.
A worked example from the test fixtures that ship with this site: a three-page LZW TIFF and a Group 4 fax TIFF opened in Chrome as four pages, every pixel matching what libtiff decodes from the same files, and saved as a 4,110-byte PDF of lossless pages.
Every page, in order
A multi-page TIFF is a stack of pages in one file. Each page lands in the strip as its own item, in the file’s order, labelled “page 3 of 12 in this TIFF”. From there it is an ordinary page: move it, turn it, put two to a sheet, or take it out. Mixing TIFFs with photos and PDFs from elsewhere is fine; the order in the strip is the order of the document.
Written without loss
A scan saved as TIFF was usually saved that way to avoid compression, so the pages are written losslessly by default, with a 300 DPI ceiling that only ever lowers a resolution that is higher than print needs. That can make a large file; switch Lossless pages off on the Quality step and set a size if the PDF has to be small. For a whole folder of mixed formats, image to PDF lists each file’s format, and the size-limited builder takes any limit. To add these pages to a PDF you already have, use add photos to a PDF.
Questions about TIFF to PDF
Does every page of a multi-page TIFF go in?
Yes. A TIFF holding twelve scanned pages becomes twelve pages in the strip, in their order, each of which can be moved, turned or taken out like any photo. Reduced-size preview images stored inside some TIFFs are skipped.
Which TIFFs will not open?
TIFFs that store their pixels as JPEG inside the TIFF, BigTIFF files over 4 GB, floating-point scientific images and a few rare colour models. Each is named in the list of what did not go in, with the reason, rather than drawn wrongly. Saving such a file as an ordinary TIFF or a JPEG opens it.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The TIFF is read by a decoder that runs in this page — it is fetched the first time a TIFF arrives — and the PDF is written here. Nothing is sent.
What does the PDF contain?
The TIFF's pages as images, written without loss by default so a scan keeps every pixel: no text layer, no metadata and no title unless you type one.
Do fax TIFFs work?
Yes. CCITT Group 4, Group 3 and modified-Huffman fax TIFFs, the kind fax software and many document scanners save, are decoded here, in any browser.