# What's the deal with .tiff files?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-tiff-files/576208>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 28, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-tiff-files/576208 "2011-03-28T02:16:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-tiff-files/576208/21 "2011-03-29T01:06:07Z")

</div>

> [@OpalCat](#):
>
> Picasa probably won’t take them because browsers typically will not display them. They’re not a web format.

Picasa (the program, not the website) supports TIFFs; it’ll automatically convert them to JPEG when you try to upload them.

You just have to configure Picasa to show them: Tools -\> Options -\> File Types -\> .TIF, .TIFF

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-tiff-files/576208/22 "2011-03-29T20:22:54Z")

</div>

> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> Part of the issue with TIFF is that there are many tags that not all TIFF readers support. This can cause problems for print booths, and the ANSI standard for document management rejects TIFF on these grounds. Also, many TIFF files contain a lo-res preview image for quick display. To the casual eye, this may give an impression that the TIFF itself is low resolution.
> 
> Si

This. I’ve often had problems dealing with TIFF images that people sent me. They are too many variants.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-tiff-files/576208.md?page=1)