TIFF to PDF converter

How to convert TIFF to PDF

Converting TIFF to PDF takes four steps on this page. Each one uses a label you can see on the tool.

1. Select Choose images and pick your .tif or .tiff files, or drop them on the Drag and drop images here area. Add more images puts later files at the end.
2. Check each row. A readable TIFF shows its width and height in pixels; a file the decoder cannot read shows an error.
3. Arrange the pages with Up and Down, turn a sideways scan with Rotate (90° clockwise each time) and take a file out with Remove.
4. Pick Page size, Page orientation, Image layout and Margin (mm) under PDF settings, select Create PDF, check the preview and select Download PDF.

The file is saved as images.pdf. Any change to the list or the settings clears it, so select Create PDF again. Reset empties the list and restores the defaults.

Which TIFF files work

These kinds of TIFF decoded in our checks: uncompressed, LZW, Deflate and PackBits color images, 8-bit grayscale, black-and-white scans with CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 fax compression, CMYK and 16-bit color. The color, grayscale and fax files came out value for value in the PDF.

A 16-bit TIFF is reduced to 8 bits per channel, and a CMYK file is converted to RGB. Transparent areas are painted white: red at half opacity became 255, 127, 127. An orientation tag is applied, so a TIFF marked as turned is placed upright.

JPEG-compressed TIFF files decode too. One saved by libtiff in its usual YCbCr form came within 9 of 255 levels of a reference decoder, and one written with plain RGB color came within 1 level. The PDF stores the decoded pixels of either kind with Flate, so no second JPEG step is added.

Multi-page TIFF files

A TIFF can hold several pages, which scanners and fax software often use. Each page becomes its own row in the list, such as "scan.tif, page 2 of 3", and its own PDF page. In a check with a three-page TIFF of red, green and blue pages, the PDF got three pages in that order.

The pages of a TIFF are listed together in file order. Up and Down move one page at a time, Rotate turns one page and Remove takes one page out, so you can drop a blank page before you create the PDF.

A batch of single-page scans, one file per page, gives one PDF page per file in list order. If one file cannot be read, the other files still make a PDF. The result then reports a partial result, names each skipped file and shows the page count and file size.

Page size for scans

The default page is A4 with a 10 mm margin, Auto orientation and the Contain layout. Contain fits the whole scan inside the margins without cropping, and Auto picks a portrait page for a tall scan.

A Letter-size scan at 300 dots per inch is 2550 × 3300 pixels. On Letter with Margin (mm) set to 0 it fills the page edge to edge at exactly 300 pixels per inch. On the default A4 page it is drawn 190.0 × 245.9 mm, about 341 pixels per inch, with white space above and below.

Fit image ignores the resolution stored in the TIFF. It sizes each page at 96 pixels per inch, so the same 300 dpi scan becomes a 26.56 × 34.38 inch page. For scans, pick the paper size that was scanned and set Margin (mm) to 0.

Limits

The tool sets no limit on the number of files or their size. The browser's memory is the practical limit, so a large scan batch can stop with a memory error. Adding fewer files at a time helps.

Every TIFF is stored lossless, so Image quality does not change TIFF files. Smaller file saves as JPEG only the images that arrived as JPEG files. A PDF of photographic TIFFs can be large: in a check, a 32.91 KB JPEG-compressed TIFF of 640 × 480 pixels made a 427.15 KB PDF.

A scan stays a picture. The tool does not recognize text, so the words on a scanned page cannot be searched or copied in the PDF. It cannot put two scans on one page, add page numbers or set a password, and it copies no TIFF tags, such as the scanner name or the date, into the PDF.

Related tools

• Convert an image to another format: save a TIFF as JPG, PNG or WebP.
• Crop an image: trim a scanner border before the page goes in the PDF.
• Merge PDF files: join the new PDF with other PDF documents.
• Rotate PDF pages: turn sideways pages after the PDF is made.