# File reader needed to access multiple page TIF files **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335 "2011-09-14T20:11:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/1 "2011-09-14T20:11:18Z")
Our County Registrar of Deeds has started making recorded documents available, for a state-mandated fee, thru email. The only file format available is TIF. I just requested a 6 page document and was emailed a single TIF file. Opening it in a graphics editor (Photoshop 7 or Corel Photo-Paint 7) shows only the first page. The Clerk says all pages are in there. When I ask the Clerk what program to use to view it, she says, “Just open it in your computer. Everyone else is able to read it just fine.” What program do you use? “I don’t know.” So is there a free TIF viewer available that handles this kind of file on a PC? So far, [Majorgeeks.com](http://Majorgeeks.com) and [download.com](http://download.com) have not supplied anything that works without insisting on a $ upgrade. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/2 "2011-09-14T20:16:14Z")
> **[IrfanView - Official Homepage - One of the Most Popular Viewers Worldwide](https://www.irfanview.com/)** > > IrfanView ... one of the most popular viewers worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/3 "2011-09-14T21:23:38Z")
I can read TIFFs with Windows Photo Viewer. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/4 "2011-09-15T02:22:29Z")
Yeah Windows Photo Viewer. I get TIFF files all the time from our fax program and that’s how I open them. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/5 "2011-09-15T02:33:33Z")
I work with TIF files at work all the time, and they open in something called (I think) Windows Document Viewer on my laptop, which I believe is installed as part of Microsoft Office. It even has a panel on the side where you can see thumbnails of all the pages in the file. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/6 "2011-09-15T03:12:39Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > I can read TIFFs with Windows Photo Viewer. Multiple pages in a single file? > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Yeah Windows Photo Viewer. I get TIFF files all the time from our fax program and that’s how I open them. Multiple pages in a single file? > [@Shoeless](#): > > I work with TIF files at work all the time, and they open in something called (I think) Windows Document Viewer on my laptop, which I believe is installed as part of Microsoft Office. It even has a panel on the side where you can see thumbnails of all the pages in the file. MS Office doesn’t come free with a computer; it’s a big extra cost. However, I’ll give Open Office a try, and thanks, **johnpost,** I’ll try irfanview, too. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/7 "2011-09-15T03:15:26Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > [http://www.irfanview.com/](http://www.irfanview.com/) That program can do wonders. Just last week, I used it to convert all of my NEF camera RAW files to JPEG in batch mode. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/8 "2011-09-15T03:25:33Z")
Wasn’t able to install Open Office on this computer after two tries, and since I don’t need it for anything else, it not worth trying any more. Installed Irfanview without a hitch after rejecting all the “free” comeons, and it was able to open and print all pages of the TIF file. I have frequently used TIF files for decades for art purposes, but I never knew it could store multiple pages before this. It’s pretty weird that the state would select this kind of file when PDF is obviously the best choice, but it will probably be 10 years before they wise up. Thanks, **johnpost!** ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/9 "2011-09-15T12:09:40Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Multiple pages in a single file? I can’t say, as I’ve never had TIFFS be anything but images. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/10 "2011-09-15T12:21:24Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > I can’t say, as I’ve never had TIFFS be anything but images. Me neither, that’s why I was thrown for a loop when I got this file. Apparently they can be multiple images, but older graphics programs won’t be able to get past page one. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/11 "2011-09-15T12:58:26Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Me neither, that’s why I was thrown for a loop when I got this file. Apparently they can be multiple images, but older graphics programs won’t be able to get past page one. It’s not just older graphics programs. TIFF is such a versatile format that even most modern programs do not support all its features. Its versatility was also its doom. Also, TIFF was designed to be used by scanners. That’s probably why all the blueprints are in TIFF files. They never bothered converting them. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/12 "2011-09-15T17:18:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Also, TIFF was designed to be used by scanners. That’s probably why all the blueprints are in TIFF files. They never bothered converting them. Blueprints I can see – TIFF has a non-lossy compression option, and works well where quality is important. But the files I had to work with were text (legal documents), just scanned in, and done in the last 5 years. Apparently the County Registar is following orders from the state HQ to use TIFF, which is odd, since most other govt docs – national and state – have been in PDF for years. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/13 "2011-09-15T17:44:13Z")
TIFF is a direct output file type from the scanner. quick and fast archiving. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/14 "2011-09-15T17:45:56Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Blueprints I can see – TIFF has a non-lossy compression option, and works well where quality is important. But the files I had to work with were text (legal documents), just scanned in, and done in the last 5 years. Apparently the County Registar is following orders from the state HQ to use TIFF, which is odd, since **most other govt docs – national and state – have been in PDF for years**. I agree that the part I bolded is really strange. The only thing I can think of is that they don’t know how to make a PDF without OCR, meaning it would have real text. And they don’t want you copying text for some reason. Also, I want to clarify on my previous post: When I say TIFF is doomed, I mean doomed to be a format only used in a few situations, rather than a widely used competitor to GIF, JPEG, and PNG. It could have been the only image format if they’d scaled back the features. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/15 "2011-09-15T17:56:55Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Yeah Windows Photo Viewer. I get TIFF files all the time from our fax program and that’s how I open them. > [@Musicat](#): > > Multiple pages in a single file? I know you got it figured out but…yes. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/16 "2011-09-15T18:32:37Z")
documents that are publications to be distributed in volume and available as bound hard copy might also be available electronically as PDF. governments records might only be available as archived TIF files. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/17 "2011-09-15T18:43:37Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > documents that are publications to be distributed in volume and available as bound hard copy might also be available electronically as PDF. governments records might only be available as archived TIF files. Just IMHO, but I think it’s because of the rigid government mind-set. Some departments work only with themselves and accomodation with the public, common conventions or “outsiders” is not on their menu. Another example is our County GIS mapping dept. Getting a JPG image out of them is difficult, as they use some very esoteric, GIS-specific format and don’t understand what anyone would want a JPG (or for that matter, TIF) file. I had this problem a few short years ago when I wanted electronic copies of the high-res publicly-available aerial photos. Couldn’t get JPG, TIF, BMP or PDF, and had to settle for a disk with some odd (to me) format that could only be read by an ancient single-format reader they had me download. It was really slow and had no conversion options. I finally printed out the images I wanted and scanned them. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/18 "2011-09-15T18:43:43Z")
We use a program called Brava Viewer for looking at blueprint tiffs in our office. There’s a free version. Not sure if it will see multiple pages or not. It’s got some nice zoom features that make it easy to look at bigass blueprints on smallish screens. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/19 "2011-09-15T18:59:00Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > So is there a free TIF viewer available that handles this kind of file on a PC? Others have mentioned Irfanview, which is zero-cost, but if you want a program that’s truly [free](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html), you could try [GIMP](http://www.gimp.org/), a bitmap graphics editor, or [Okular](http://okular.kde.org/) or [Evince](http://projects.gnome.org/evince/?guid=on), which are both just document viewers. They all handle multi-page TIFFs splendidly. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335/20 "2011-09-15T19:02:38Z")
What’t the diff btw zero-cost and truly free? Expensive rhetoric? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-reader-needed-to-access-multiple-page-tif-files/596335.md?page=2)