TIFF to PDF
Convert TIFF and TIF scanned documents, archival images, and CAD/GIS exports into a single PDF document. Files are processed in your browser — they never leave your device.
TIFF to PDF converts Tag Image File Format images — the standard for document scanning, archival photography, and publishing — into a single PDF document. Decoding runs in your browser via UTIF.js, supporting LZW, ZIP, and JPEG-in-TIFF compression variants. The PDF assembly uses pdf-lib. Multi-page TIFFs convert the first IFD page only in this version. Embedded EXIF, IPTC, and XMP metadata are stripped automatically.
What is TIFF to PDF?
TIFF (Tag Image File Format) was designed by Aldus in <strong>1986</strong> and is now maintained by Adobe. It became the standard format for document scanners, professional photography, publishing workflows, geographic information systems (GIS), and medical imaging because it supports lossless compression (LZW, ZIP), arbitrary bit-depth (1-bit faxes through 16-bit-per-channel HDR), CMYK colour spaces, multi-page documents, and a flexible tag-based metadata system. Most office scanners save scans as TIFF or PDF; some still default to TIFF for legal compliance reasons.
Converting TIFF to PDF is common when you need to share a scan with someone who doesn't have TIFF-aware software (most modern image viewers handle TIFF, but messaging apps and email previews often don't), or when downstream tools require PDF input — most legal-discovery, contract-management, and HR systems accept PDF only. Most online TIFF-to-PDF tools upload your scan to a remote server, which is awkward for confidential documents like contracts or medical scans. This tool runs the conversion entirely in your browser.
How does the in-browser TIFF conversion work?
Pikowl loads each TIFF into a Web Worker — a background thread inside your browser. The worker uses UTIF.js, an open-source TIFF decoder also used by Photopea, to parse the file's IFD (Image File Directory) structure and decompress the pixel data. The first IFD's RGBA bitmap is painted onto an OffscreenCanvas, re-encoded as JPEG at quality 0.92, and embedded into a new PDF using pdf-lib. The finished PDF is offered as a downloadable Blob via URL.createObjectURL. Nothing is sent to any server.
Is it safe to convert sensitive TIFF scans here?
Yes. Open the network tab in DevTools while you use the tool — you'll see the UTIF.js chunk download once on first use, and zero outbound requests after that. TIFFs are read locally via the File API, decoded inside a sandboxed Web Worker, and the resulting PDF lives only in your browser's memory until you download it. Scanned legal documents, medical records, and confidential contracts are common TIFF use cases — keeping the conversion local matters.
What metadata gets stripped from TIFFs?
TIFF's tag system is rich: EXIF blocks (carried over from the camera or scanner), IPTC captions and copyright info (common in publishing workflows), Adobe XMP packets, ICC color profiles, and scanner-specific tags like model number, scan timestamp, DPI, and even the operator's name in some enterprise scanners. Because Pikowl decodes the TIFF and re-encodes the pixels via canvas, none of those tags survive in the PDF — only the visible image.
What are the limits and why?
Up to 20 TIFFs per conversion, 50 MB per file, with a soft warning at 100 MB combined and a hard cap at 150 MB. The per-file limit is double the limit for JPG/PNG/WebP because TIFFs from professional scanners (600 DPI legal-size colour scans) routinely exceed 25 MB. The file count is lower because TIFF decoding is more memory-intensive than JPEG and the decoded RGBA bitmap can be 4× the source file size.
How does Pikowl compare to Smallpdf and iLovePDF for TIFF?
The substantive differences are processing location, daily-use limits, output options, and pricing. Numbers below reflect the public free-tier offers from each service as of April 2026.
| Feature | Pikowl | Smallpdf | iLovePDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where files are processed | Your browser | Remote server | Remote server |
| Sign-up required | No | Optional | Optional |
| EXIF / GPS handling | Stripped automatically | Preserved | Preserved |
| Max file size (free) | 25 MB | 5 MB | 200 MB (combined) |
| Price | Free | $9/mo for unlimited | $7/mo for premium |
Sources: smallpdf.com/pricing and ilovepdf.com/pricing, retrieved April 2026.
Common Uses
- Scanned legal contracts: Most office scanners save as TIFF; convert to PDF for sharing without exposing the scanner's tag metadata.
- Archival photography: Museum and library archives often store images as TIFF; PDF makes them shareable with researchers who don't have TIFF software.
- Medical imaging exports: X-rays and other scans are often delivered as TIFF; PDF is the universal format for inclusion in patient records.
- Faxed document conversion: Many fax systems still produce TIFF outputs; convert to PDF before forwarding to email.
- GIS and CAD exports: Mapping and engineering software often exports TIFF rasters; PDF makes them embeddable in reports and presentations.
- Publishing prepress: Magazine and book layouts use TIFF for high-quality images; converting to PDF creates a portable proof.
FAQ
What's the difference between TIFF and TIF?
Nothing functional — they're the same format. .tif is the older 3-character DOS-era extension (Windows historically restricted file extensions to three letters); .tiff is the modern variant. This tool accepts both and treats them identically.
Does this support multi-page TIFFs?
Not in this version. Multi-page TIFFs (which contain multiple Image File Directories, or IFDs, in one file — common for scanned multi-page documents) are decoded as their first page only. We'll likely add full multi-page support in a follow-up release. For now, if you have a multi-page TIFF and need every page, use the Photos app on macOS (File → Export As → PDF) or the Print to PDF dialog on Windows, both of which preserve all pages.
What TIFF compression formats are supported?
UTIF.js handles the common ones: uncompressed RGB and grayscale, LZW, PackBits, ZIP/Deflate, and JPEG-in-TIFF (where the strips contain JPEG-encoded data). Less common variants — CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 fax compression in particular — may not decode. If a TIFF fails to decode, you'll see a clear error with the filename.
Why is my TIFF so large?
TIFF defaults to lossless compression (or no compression at all). A 600 DPI legal-size colour scan can easily exceed 50 MB. That's why our per-file limit is set at 50 MB instead of the 25 MB used for JPG/PNG/WebP. If your TIFF is larger, you can re-save at lower DPI in your scanner's settings, or split into smaller pieces and merge the resulting PDFs.
Will image quality be reduced?
Yes — slightly. TIFF is typically lossless; the canvas re-encode pass that strips metadata produces a JPEG at quality 0.92. For scanned text and ordinary photos this is visually indistinguishable, but for archival-quality master images preserving every pixel exactly, the conversion is a one-way trip. Keep the originals if you need lossless.
Why TIFF-only? Many of my files are PNG.
Each image-to-PDF tool restricts to one format so the conversion path is right for that format. TIFF needs UTIF.js for decoding; PNG, JPG, and WebP each have their own optimised paths. For mixed-format batches, convert each format separately with the right tool and combine using our Merge PDF tool.
Are TIFFs uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser — open DevTools' network tab and you'll see no outbound requests during the process. TIFF files are read from your disk via the File API, decoded by UTIF.js in a Web Worker, embedded into a PDF using pdf-lib, and offered back as a download. Nothing leaves your device.
By the Numbers
- TIFF was designed by Aldus in 1986 and is now maintained by Adobe; the format hasn't substantially changed since the TIFF 6.0 specification published in 1992.
- TIFF supports over 100 standard tags for metadata — covering EXIF, IPTC, XMP, ICC profiles, geo-tagging, and proprietary scanner data — making it both flexible and a privacy-leak risk if uploaded raw.
- Despite being almost 40 years old, TIFF remains the default format for many document scanners and is mandated by some legal-compliance frameworks (US 21 CFR Part 11, German GoBD) for archival document storage.