NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Tagged Image File Format

Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a file format for mainly storing images, including photographs and line art. Originally created by the company Aldus, jointly with Microsoft, for use with PostScript printing, TIFF is a popular format for high color depth images, along with JPEG and PNG. TIFF format is widely supported by image-manipulation applications such as Photoshop by Adobe, GIMP, Ulead PhotoImpact, and Photo-Paint as well as Paint Shop Pro by Corel, by desktop publishing and page layout applications, such as QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign, and by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character recognition, and other applications. TIFF was chosen as the native format for raster graphics in the NeXTstep operating system, and this TIFF support carried over into Mac OS X. Adobe Systems, which acquired the PageMaker publishing program from Aldus, now controls the TIFF specification, although it has not had a major update since 1992 (several technical notes have been published with minor extensions to the format). TIFF can mean: Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) Toronto International Film Festival TromsÃ¸ International Film Festival Transilvania International Film Festival a tiff, in British English, means a small argument, a petty quarrel [1] This page expands a four-character combination which might be any or all of: an abbreviation, an... A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. ... Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support text in character sets other than US-ASCII, non-text attachments, multi-part message bodies, and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ... A type code is a mechanism used in pre-Mac OS X versions of the Macintosh operating system to denote a files format, in a manner similar to file extensions in other operating systems. ... A Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) is a string that uniquely identifies the type of a class of items. ... Aldus Corporation (named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius) was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software for the Apple Macintosh, a program that is generally credited with creating the desktop publishing (DTP) field. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Image file formats provide a standardized method of organizing and storing image data. ... Exchangeable image file format (EXIF) is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras. ... Design rule for Camera File system (DCF) is an ISO specification which defines the file system for digital cameras, including the directory structure, file naming method, character set and file format. ... Tag Image File Format / Electronic Photography (TIFF/EP) is an digital image file format standard - ISO 12234-2, titled Electronic still-picture imaging -- Removable memory -- Part 2: TIFF/EP image data format. This is different from the Tagged Image File Format, which is a standard administered by Adobe TIFF currently... A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Line Art. ... Aldus Corporation (named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius) was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software for the Apple Macintosh, a program that is generally credited with creating the desktop publishing (DTP) field. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... PostScript (PS) is a page description language and programming language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ... Color depth is a computer graphics term describing the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. ... In computing, JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg; IPA: ) is a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images. ... PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. ... Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap graphics editor (with some text and vector graphics capabilities) published by Adobe Systems. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a raster graphics editor application with some support for vector graphics. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Ulead. ... Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is a bitmap graphics editor and vector graphics editor for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system that was originally published by Minneapolis-based Jasc Software. ... Corel Corporation is a computer software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ... Adobe InDesign CS2, one of many popular desktop publishing applications. ... QuarkXPress is a page layout application for Mac OS X and Windows, produced by Quark, Inc. ... Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing (DTP) application produced by Adobe Systems. ... In computing, a scanner is a device that analyzes an image (such as a photograph, printed text, or handwriting) or an object (such as an ornament) and converts it to a digital image. ... Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is a type of computer software designed to translate images of handwritten or typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them (e. ... NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the Apple Macintosh but soon after also for the PC. It relies on Adobe Systems PostScript page description language. ...

History

The phrase "Tagged Image File Format", or, actually, "Tag Image File Format", was used as a subtitle in some earlier versions of the TIFF specification. The current TIFF specification, TIFF 6.0, makes no mention of these phrases; the name is now, simply, "TIFF".

TIFF was originally created as an attempt to get desktop scanner vendors of the mid-1980's to agree on a common scanned image file format, rather than have each company promulgate its own proprietary format. In the beginning, TIFF was only a bi-level image format, since that was all that desktop scanners could handle. As scanners became more powerful, and as desktop computer disk space became more plentiful, TIFF grew to accommodate grayscale images, then color images.

Flexible options

TIFF is a flexible and adaptable file format. It can handle multiple images and data in a single file through the inclusion of "tags" in the file header. Tags can indicate the basic geometry of the image, such as its size, or define how the image data is arranged and whether various image compression options are used. For example, TIFF can be used as a container for JPEG and RLE (run-length encoding) compressed images. A TIFF file can also include a vector-based Clipping path (an outline that crops or frames the main image). The ability to store image data in a lossless format makes TIFF files a useful method for archiving images. Unlike standard JPEG, TIFF files can be edited and resaved without suffering a compression loss. Other TIFF file options include multiple layers or pages. Image compression is the application of data compression on digital images. ... Run-length encoding (RLE) is a very simple form of data compression in which runs of data (that is, sequences in which the same data value occurs in many consecutive data elements) are stored as a single data value and count, rather than as the original run. ... In physics and in vector calculus, a spatial vector, or simply vector, is a concept characterized by a magnitude and a direction. ... In computer graphics, A clipping path describes a path, or shape, used to cut out an image. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ...

Although it is a widely accepted standard format today, when TIFF was first introduced, its extensibility led to compatibility problems. Programmers were free to specify new tags and options, but not all programs implemented support for all the tags that had been created. 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.

TIFF has an option to use LZW compression, a lossless data compression technique for reducing file size. Until recently, the use of this option was limited because the LZW technique was the subject of several patents. However, these patents have now all expired. LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) is an implementation of a lossless data compression algorithm created by Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ...

Every TIFF file begins with a 2-byte indicator of byte order: "II" for little endian and "MM" for big endian byte ordering. The following 2 bytes represent the number 42. The number 42 was selected "for its deep philosophical significance." The reading of 42 is dependent on the byte order indicated in the first 2 bytes. The entire file is read based on the indicated byte order. In computer science a byte is a unit of measurement of information storage, now usually considered to contain eight bits. ... When integers or any other data are represented with multiple bytes, there is no unique way of ordering of those bytes in memory or in a transmission over some medium, and so the order is subject to arbitrary convention. ... When integers or any other data are represented with multiple bytes, there is no unique way of ordering of those bytes in memory or in a transmission over some medium, and so the order is subject to arbitrary convention. ... When integers or any other data are represented with multiple bytes, there is no unique way of ordering of those bytes in memory or in a transmission over some medium, and so the order is subject to arbitrary convention. ... Look up forty-two in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe, and Everything is a fictional solution in Douglas Adamss science fiction series The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. ...

Byte order can cause compatibility issues between Apple Macintosh and Windows programs, which typically use different byte order for TIFF files. Some programs offer the option of saving in Mac or Windows byte order so files can be used across platforms.

TIFF in document imaging

TIFF format is standard in document imaging and document management systems. In this environment it is normally used with CCITT Group IV 2D compression, which supports black-and-white (also called bitonal or monochrome) images. In high-volume environments, documents are typically scanned in black and white (rather than color or grayscale) to conserve storage capacity. An average A4 scan produces 30 kilobytes (KB) of data at 200 ppi (pixels per inch resolution) and 50 KB of data at 300 ppi. 300 ppi is far more common than 200 ppi. Document Imaging is an information technology category for systems capable of replicating documents commonly used in business. ... Originally, a document management system was a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store images of paper documents. ... The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. ... The initials PPI have several meanings: Italian Popular Party Parallel Peripheral Interface - a connection for driving LCD displays on processors such as the Blackfin Patient and Public Involvement - Forums for English health trusts Payment protection insurance Personal & Private Information (PPI Data) Philips Phonographische Industries - The original name for Philips Records...

Because TIFF format supports multiple pages, multi-page documents can be saved as single TIFF files rather than as a series of files for each scanned page.

Exploits

The TIFF file format is unusual in comparison to other image formats, in that it is composed of small descriptor blocks containing offsets into the file which point to the actual pixel image data (composed of bands of pixel rows). This means that incorrect offset values can cause programs to attempt to read erroneous portions of the file or attempt to read past the physical end of file. Like most other image file formats, improperly encoded packet or line lengths within the file can cause poorly written rendering programs to overflow their internal buffers. Properly written image rendering programs generally avoid such pitfalls. A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file. ... In computing, end-of-file, commonly abbreviated EOF, is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. ... In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is a programming error which may result in a memory access exception and program termination, or in the event of the user being malicious, a breach of system security. ...

Multiple buffer overflows have been found in libtiff[1][2][3], some of these have also been used to execute unsigned code on the PlayStation Portable [4][5]. In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is a programming error which may result in a memory access exception and program termination, or in the event of the user being malicious, a breach of system security. ... In the video game console business, all console games have to be signed with the code designed by the console maker or the game wont load on the console. ... PlayStation Portable homebrew refers to the process of executing unsigned code on the PlayStation Portable. ...

See also

This is a comparison of graphics file formats. ... Image file formats provide a standardized method of organizing and storing image data. ... Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is an image viewer. ... GeoTIFF is a public domain metadata standard which allows georeferencing information to be embedded within a TIFF file. ... Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support text in character sets other than US-ASCII, non-text attachments, multi-part message bodies, and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ... The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. ... PlayStation Portable homebrew refers to the process of executing unsigned code on the PlayStation Portable. ...

External links

Categories: Graphics file formats | Adobe Systems This article does not cite its references or sources. ... In computer science and information theory, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an unencoded representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes. ... Video compression refers to making a digital video signal use less data, without noticeably reducing the quality of the picture. ... The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from national standards bodies. ... The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ... MPEG-1 defines a group of Audio and Video (AV) coding and compression standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). ... MPEG-2 is a standard for the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information [1]. It is widely used around the world to specify the format of the digital television signals that are broadcast by terrestrial (over-the-air), cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems. ... MPEG-4 Part 2 is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standard (ISO/IEC 14496-2). ... H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding), is a digital video codec standard that is noted for achieving very high data compression. ... The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. ... H.261 is an 1990 ITU video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. ... H.262 is an ITU-T digital video coding standard. ... H.263 is a video codec designed by the ITU-T as a low-bitrate encoding solution for videoconferencing. ... H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding), is a digital video codec standard that is noted for achieving very high data compression. ... The Peoples Republic of China government is supporting an effort to develop own standard for compressing digital audio and video, to assert its technological independence from the rest of the world. ... Bink is a video file format (extension . ... Dirac is a prototype algorithm for the encoding and decoding (see codec) of raw video. ... Indeo Video (commonly known now simply as Indeo) is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. ... Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) is an informal name for multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image. ... RealVideo is a proprietary video format developed by RealNetworks. ... Theora is a video codec being developed by the Xiph. ... VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard. ... TrueMotion VP6 is a video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3 and VP5. ... TrueMotion VP7 is a video codec developed by On2 Technologies as a successor to earlier efforts such as VP3, VP5 and TrueMotion VP6. ... Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of video codec technologies developed by Microsoft. ... Audio compression is a form of data compression designed to reduce the size of audio files. ... The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from national standards bodies. ... The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ... The Moving Picture Experts Group or MPEG is a working group of ISO/IEC charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. ... A portable MP3 player MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio encoding, lossy compression format, and algorithm, designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio... MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2, sometimes Musicam) is an audio codec defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3. ... Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. ... An extension of Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) audio coding scheme targetted at low bitrates. ... The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. ... G.711 is an ITU-T standard for audio companding. ... G.722 is a ITU-T standard wideband speech codec operating at 32-64 kbit/s. ... G.722. ... Adaptive Multi Rate - WideBand or AMR-WB is a speech coding standard developed after the AMR using same technology like ACELP. The codec provides excellent speech quality due to wider speech bandwidth of 50 - 7000 Hz compared to narrowband speech codecs which in general are optimized for POTS wireline quality... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... G.723. ... G.726 is ITU-T speech codec operating at bit rates of 16-40 kbit/s. ... G.728 is a ITU-T standard for speech coding operating at 16 kbit/s. ... G.729 is an audio data compression algorithm for voice that compresses voice audio in chunks of 10 milliseconds. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... G.729 is an audio data compression algorithm for voice that compresses voice audio in chunks of 10 milliseconds. ... Dolby Digital logotype Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies by Dolby Laboratories. ... Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. ... Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. ... Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is a popular file format for audio data compression. ... internet Low Bit Rate Codec (iLBC) is a royalty free narrowband speech codec, developed by Global IP Sound (GIPS). ... Monkeyâ€™s Audio is a lossless audio compression codec. ... In telecommunication, a mu-law algorithm (Î¼-law) is a standard analog signal compression or companding algorithm, used in digital communications systems of the North American and Japanese digital hierarchies, to optimize (in other words, modify) the dynamic range of an audio analog signal prior to digitizing. ... Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160-180 kbit/s. ... This is a single-channel (mono) format optimized for low-bitrate transmission of speech. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... SHN (Shorten) is a file format used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files (44. ... Speex is a free software speech codec that claims to be unencumbered by patent restrictions. ... Vorbis is an open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph. ... WavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft. ... TAK (Toms lossless Audio Kompressor) is a lossless audio compressor which promises compression performance similar to Monkeys Audio High and decompression speed similar to FLAC. The codec also supports streaming (necessary headers for decompressing the audio are written to the stream every 2 seconds), error tolerance (single bit... Image compression is the application of data compression on digital images. ... The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from national standards bodies. ... The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ... The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. ... In computing, JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg; IPA: ) is a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images. ... JPEG 2000 is a wavelet-based image compression standard. ... The Joint Photographic Experts Group, in addition to their well-known lossy image compression techniques, JPEG and JPEG 2000, also have three standards for lossless compression (of which JPEG-LS has a lossy mode): Lossless JPEG was developed as a late addition to JPEG in 1993, using a completely different... JBIG is a lossless image compression standard from the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group, standardized as ISO/IEC standard 11544 and as ITU-T recommendation T.82. ... JBIG2 is an image compression standard for bi-level images, developed by the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group. ... PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. ... Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format (shortened to Wireless Bitmap and with file extension . ... The APNG (Animated Portable Network Graphics) file format is a proposed extension to the portable network graphics (PNG) specification that would allow for animated PNG files that work in a similar fashion to animated graphics interchange format (GIF) files, while retaining the backward compatibility with non-animated PNG files. ... ICER is a wavelet-based image compression file format used by the NASA Mars Rovers. ... Multiple-image Network Graphics (MNG) (IPA pronunciation: ) is a public graphics file format for animated images. ... DIB redirects here. ... An example of a GIF image. ... ILBM is a subtype of the Interchange File Format used for storing picture data. ... PCX is an image file format that uses a simple form of run-length encoding (a type of lossless compression algorithm). ... Truevisions TGA File Format, often referred to as TARGA File Format, is a raster graphics file format. ... HD Photo (formerly Windows Media Photo) is a still image compression algorithm and file format for continuous tone photographic images, developed by Microsoft as a part of the Windows Media family. ... A container format is a computer file format that can contain various types of data, compressed by means of standardized codecs. ... 3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for use on 3G mobile phones. ... Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format) is Microsofts proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media. ... Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. ... DivX is a video codec created by DivX, Inc. ... DPX, the short form of Digital Picture Exchange, is a common file format for digital film work and is an ANSI/SMPTE standard (268M-2003). ... FLV (Flash Video) is a proprietary file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player (formerly known as Macromedia Flash Player) version 6, 7, 8, or 9. ... Matroska (common file extensions being . ... MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003, is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. ... Material eXchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards. ... NUT is a patent-free, multimedia container format originally conceived by a few MPlayer and FFmpeg developers that were dissatisfied with the limitations of all currently available multimedia container formats such as AVI or Matroska. ... Look up Ogg in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ogg Media (OGM), meaning Ogg Media File, is a container format (for video, audio and subtitle streams). ... QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc. ... RealMedia is a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. ... A VOB file (DVD-Video Object or Versioned Object Base) is a container format contained in DVD-Video media. ... Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data on personal computers. ... The Au file format is a simple audio file format that consists of a header of 6 32-bit words and then the data (high-order byte comes first). ... WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform audio format, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing audio on PCs. ...

Contents

Flexible options

TIFF in document imaging

Exploits

See also

External links