TIFF, once known as "Tagged Image File Format", is a versatile image format originally developed by Aldus and currently maintained by Adobe Systems.
- [[wikipedia:Tagged Image File Format|TIFF on Wikipedia]
History
TIFF was meant for use as a desktop publishing format, and thus includes many features that are not normally found in other image formats, or are even unique:
- High color depth: up to 32-bits per channel
- Multiple pages (subfiles): often used by fax machines as a storage format
- Various compression types
- Extendability: features can be added through the use of special tags
A special format called TIFF/IT was important as a high-quality press publishing format, though it has since been supplanted by the PDF/X format.
Practical use
TIFF is the most commonly used format with features that aren't available in JPEG or PNG. Its most important use is its high color depth, which allows it to be used as an intermediate format between raw format files and Photoshop's native PSD format.
Other image editors that do not support PSD often do support TIFF.