What TIFF to JPG does
TIFF is the format of scanners, fax machines, medical and GIS imaging and archival photography — high quality, huge, and unopenable in most browsers, chat apps and web forms. This tool decodes each TIFF in your browser and saves it as a JPG at the quality you choose: typically ten to twenty times smaller, and viewable everywhere. Multi-page TIFFs (common from office scanners and fax software) are split into one JPG per page, delivered as a ZIP. Nothing is uploaded.
TIFF vs JPG
| TIFF | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None, LZW or ZIP (lossless); sometimes JPEG inside | Lossy DCT |
| Typical size, A4 scan at 300 dpi | 25 MB uncompressed, 8–12 MB LZW | 0.8–2 MB |
| Bit depth | 1, 8, 16 bits per channel, CMYK, alpha, layers | 8-bit RGB or grey |
| Multiple pages | Yes | No — one image per file |
| Opens in | Photoshop, GIMP, Preview, Windows Photos, scanners | Everything |
| Best for | Archiving, print production, editing | Sharing, web, email |
What the decoder handles
- Uncompressed, LZW, PackBits, Deflate/ZIP and JPEG-in-TIFF compression.
- 8-bit and 16-bit RGB, greyscale, bilevel (fax, CCITT Group 4) and palette images. 16-bit data is scaled to 8-bit for JPG.
- Multi-page files: every page (IFD) is exported.
- CMYK TIFFs from print workflows are converted to RGB approximately; colour-critical work should be converted in Photoshop with the proper profile.
- Layered Photoshop TIFFs: the flattened composite is used.
Choosing a quality
- 90–95: archival-grade JPG, hard to distinguish from the TIFF; about a fifth of its size.
- 80–85: the sweet spot for documents and photos to email or upload.
- 60–70: previews and thumbnails; visible softening on fine text.
Scanned text at 300 dpi looks best at 85 or above; artefacts around letters appear below 75. Keep the TIFF if it is the only original.
Common uses
- Sending scanned documents from an office copier that only outputs TIFF.
- Uploading scanned ID, certificates or archival images to portals that accept JPG only.
- Sharing photos from a camera set to TIFF, or scans from a film scanner.
- Converting received faxes (multi-page TIFF) into images to view on a phone.
- Reducing a folder of TIFFs to a manageable size for backup.
Frequently asked questions
My TIFF has several pages. What do I get?
One JPG per page, numbered, in a ZIP file.
The colours look different from the original.
CMYK or wide-gamut TIFFs are converted to sRGB approximately. Use Photoshop or GIMP with colour management for print-critical files.
Can I keep transparency?
JPG has no transparency; transparent areas become white. Use TIFF to PNG to keep them.
How large a file can it handle?
A few hundred megabytes on a desktop browser. Very large geospatial or medical TIFFs may exceed the memory of a phone.
Will the resolution (dpi) be kept?
Pixel dimensions are kept exactly. The dpi tag is not written to the JPG; set it in an editor if a print shop asks.
Is my file uploaded?
No. Decoding (UTIF) and JPG encoding run in your browser.