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

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a raster image format created by Aldus in 1986 and now maintained by Adobe, using a flexible tag-based header system to store high-bit-depth images (up to 32-bit per channel). It is the standard in professional photography, print prepress (CMYK), medical imaging, GIS (via GeoTIFF), and document archiving due to its precision and interoperability. Its large file sizes and complexity make it unsuitable for the web, but essential where color fidelity and tonal range matter.