PDF to TIFF
Save PDF pages as uncompressed TIFF images for print and archive systems.
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About PDF to TIFF
PDF to TIFF saves each page of a PDF as a TIFF image, drawn in your browser and saved to your device. It exists for the places that still insist on TIFF: print shops, records and archive systems, some mapping and engineering software, and scanning workflows built around it.
The TIFFs are the plainest kind there is, uncompressed 8-bit RGB with the resolution written into the file, which almost any program that opens TIFF can read. Know before you start that they are large, and that a few common TIFF requirements are not available here.
How it works
- Add the PDF. Every page starts ticked; untick the ones you do not need.
- Choose the resolution: 75, 150 or 220 dpi. The table below gives the file size each one produces.
- TIFF is already set under Image format, so the button reads Convert to TIFF. Click it.
- Download the TIFF, or a ZIP holding one TIFF for each page.
Exactly how big each TIFF will be
Nothing in these files is compressed, so the size depends only on the paper size and the resolution, never on what the page shows. A page of text and a page of photographs give the same number of bytes:
- US Letter: 1.58 MB at 75 dpi, 6.31 MB at 150 dpi, 13.58 MB at 220 dpi.
- A4: 1.64 MB at 75 dpi, 6.54 MB at 150 dpi, 14.07 MB at 220 dpi.
- Anything else: width times height in pixels, times 3, plus about 180 bytes.
What the files contain, and what they cannot do
Each file is a baseline TIFF: one strip of 8-bit red, green and blue samples in Intel byte order, with the dpi you chose recorded as its resolution, so a layout program places it at the right physical size. Pages are drawn on white; there is no transparency.
- One TIFF per page. There is no multi-page TIFF holding the whole document.
- No compression choice: not LZW, not ZIP, and not CCITT Group 4, the black-and-white scheme fax and many court and records systems ask for.
- Colour RGB only: no 1-bit black and white, no greyscale, no CMYK.
- 220 dpi is the highest resolution; 300 and 600 dpi are not offered.
Downloading many pages
Two or more pages arrive as a ZIP, and the ZIP does compress. Three pages of text at 150 dpi add up to 18.9 MB of TIFF but downloaded as a 540 KB ZIP. They unpack to full size again, so leave room on the disk.
Every TIFF is held in memory until you download it: 30 Letter pages at 220 dpi is about 407 MB. On a phone, convert a long document in parts.
If whoever asked for TIFF would take PNG instead, ask. PNG is also lossless, carries the same pixels, and a Letter page of text at 150 dpi was 325 KB as PNG against 6.31 MB as TIFF.
Frequently asked questions
For US Letter, 1.58 MB at 75 dpi, 6.31 MB at 150 dpi and 13.58 MB at 220 dpi; for A4, 1.64 MB, 6.54 MB and 14.07 MB. Every page of the same size comes out identical in bytes, whatever is on it.
No. Each page becomes its own TIFF file, and two or more are delivered in a ZIP, named from the PDF and the page number.
No. The files are always uncompressed RGB. Systems that require CCITT Group 4 black-and-white TIFF, as many fax and e-filing services do, will need a different converter.
No. The resolutions offered are 75, 150 and 220 dpi. At 220 dpi a Letter page is 1870 by 2420 pixels and an A4 page 1821 by 2575.
No. Every file is 8-bit colour RGB. A printer that wants CMYK will usually convert it; one that needs 1-bit black and white needs another tool.
Anything that reads TIFF at all, since uncompressed RGB is the most basic form the format has: Preview on a Mac, Windows Photos, Photoshop, GIMP, and document and GIS software that imports TIFF.
No, they hold identical pixels, and both are lossless. The TIFF is simply stored without compression, so it is many times larger. Choose TIFF when a system demands it, PNG otherwise.
No. The pages are drawn and written out as TIFF by the code in this tab, and the images go straight from your browser’s memory to your downloads.
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