What Is TIFF? The Complete Guide to Tagged Image File Format

What Is TIFF? The Tagged Image File Format Explained You got a .tiff file from a scanner, a camera, or a design workflow — and now you are wondering why it is 80 MB and what to do with it. This article covers what the TIFF format actually is, why it is so large, where it belongs, and how to get it into a format that works on the web. What Is the Tagged Image File Format? TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a raster image format developed by Aldus Corporation in 1986, later acquired by Adobe. The "tagged" part of the name refers to how the format stores data: a flexible header system where metadata fields (tags) describe image properties like dimensions, color depth, compression, and layer information. This design lets TIFF adapt to many different use cases — which is both its strength and the source of its notorious complexity. TIFF was created to be a universal format for desktop scanners at a time when every scanner manufacturer had its own proprietary format. The goal was interoperab