TIFF to PDF Converter
Scanners, fax servers and document archives produce TIFF files that are large and awkward to share. Convert them into a PDF that keeps the scanned page size, opens in any browser and meets the PDF/A archive standard.
Image to PDF
or drop JPG, JPEG, JFIF … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 50 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
White space around each image: small is 5 mm, medium 10 mm, large 20 mm. Ignored when page size is the same as the image.
Fit shows the whole image with white space if the shapes differ; fill covers the page and crops the edges; actual size places it at its print size from DPI.
Put 2 or 4 images on each page in a grid, for ID cards front and back or contact sheets.
Custom page width in millimetres (A4 is 210 mm).
Custom page height in millimetres (A4 is 297 mm).
One PDF with a page per image, or a separate PDF for every image downloaded as a ZIP.
The order you added the files (drag to rearrange), alphabetical by file name, or by the date the photo was taken.
JPEG quality of photos inside the PDF. 85 keeps them sharp; with a target size this is the starting point.
How to use this tool
- 1
Add the TIFF scans
Upload up to 50 .tif or .tiff files, up to 95 MB each. They are ordered by file name, which matches the numbering most scanners use (scan_001, scan_002 and so on).
- 2
Keep the archive settings
Page size is Same as image and Image on page is Actual size, so each page comes out at the physical size it was scanned at. PDF/A (archive) is ticked for records that must be kept long term.
- 3
Convert to one PDF
Press Convert to PDF. The download is a single PDF; switch Output to One PDF per image if each scan is a separate document.
TIFF is the scanner's native format and PDF is the format people actually open. Converting keeps every page at its scanned size and makes the file small enough to email or upload.
Convert TIFF to PDF for sharing and archiving
Offices end up with TIFF files from three places: flatbed and sheet-fed scanners, multi-function printers that scan to a network folder, and fax servers that receive pages as TIFF images. The format is reliable and lossless, and it can store many pages in one file, but a phone or a web form rarely opens it, and some image viewers show only the first page of a multi-page fax.
PDF fixes those problems without touching the scan. Each TIFF page is placed on a PDF page, the physical size is read from the resolution stored in the file, and the result opens in every browser. Ticking PDF/A (archive) produces a PDF/A-2b file, the variant of ISO 19005 that records offices and some court portals ask for when they say archival PDF.
If the scans are going into an existing case file or report, combine them afterwards with merge PDF. For scans that need to be images again, for a website or an email body, use TIFF to JPG instead.
Scan sizes in pixels at 150 and 300 DPI
| Size | Pixels | cm | in | DPI | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A4 | 1240 × 1754 | 21 × 29.7 | 8.27 × 11.69 | 150 | Readable on screen, small file |
| A4 | 2480 × 3508 | 21 × 29.7 | 8.27 × 11.69 | 300 | Print and OCR quality |
| Letter | 1275 × 1650 | 21.59 × 27.94 | 8.5 × 11 | 150 | Email and portal uploads |
| Letter | 2550 × 3300 | 21.59 × 27.94 | 8.5 × 11 | 300 | Archive and reprint |
| Legal | 2550 × 4200 | 21.59 × 35.56 | 8.5 × 14 | 300 | Contracts and court forms |
TIFF
Tagged Image File Format
TIFF was created by Aldus in 1986 and is now maintained by Adobe. It is a flexible container that can store images uncompressed, with lossless LZW or ZIP compression, or with lossy JPEG compression, and it supports layers, multiple pages, high bit depths and transparency. Printers, publishers, scanners and archives rely on it because it preserves full quality and colour information. The downside is very large files and inconsistent support for some of its options between programs. Browsers do not display TIFF, but most image editors and operating system viewers do.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1986 · Aldus (now Adobe)
Portable Document Format
PDF was created by Adobe in 1993 and became the open ISO 32000 standard in 2008. It fixes text, fonts, images and layout so a document looks the same on every screen and printer. PDFs can contain forms, signatures, links, attachments and searchable text, and the PDF/A variant is used for long-term archiving. The fixed layout makes PDFs hard to edit, and scanned PDFs contain only images unless OCR is applied. Every browser and operating system can open them.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1993 · Adobe
People convert TIFF to PDF to share or archive scanned paperwork in a format every reader opens; converting a PDF to TIFF is mostly done for old fax and imaging systems that only accept TIFF.
TIFF and PDF: how the two formats came about
1986
TIFF released
Aldus publishes the Tagged Image File Format so desktop scanners and publishing software can exchange images.
1992
TIFF 6.0
The last major revision of the specification, still the version most software reads. Adobe takes it over when it acquires Aldus in 1994.
1993
PDF 1.0
Adobe ships Acrobat and the Portable Document Format for exchanging finished documents.
2005
PDF/A-1
ISO 19005-1 defines PDF for long-term archiving; PDF/A-2 follows in 2011.
2008
PDF becomes ISO 32000
PDF 1.7 is published as an open ISO standard, no longer controlled by one company.
TIFF to PDF converter questions
Can a multi-page TIFF be converted to a multi-page PDF?
TIFF is one of the few image formats that can hold several pages in one file, which is why fax software and document scanners use it. Upload the multi-page file and each page becomes a page of the PDF, in the same order. Check the page count when you open the result.
What is PDF/A and do I need it?
PDF/A is the ISO 19005 family of standards for long-term archiving. It embeds everything needed to display the file in the future and forbids features that depend on outside resources. Some courts, government agencies and records offices require it; for everyday sharing a normal PDF is fine, so untick the box if a smaller file matters more.
Why is my TIFF so much bigger than the PDF?
Scanners often save TIFF uncompressed or with light lossless compression. A color A4 page at 300 DPI holds about 8.7 million pixels, roughly 26 MB uncompressed. Inside the PDF the image is stored with JPEG compression at quality 90, which is typically a small fraction of that and still looks the same as the scan.
Is .tif different from .tiff?
No. It is the same Tagged Image File Format with a three-letter extension from the days of 8.3 file names. Both are accepted here, and you can mix them in one upload.
Will the PDF be searchable?
The pages are images of the scan, so the text cannot be selected or searched yet. Run the PDF through OCR in your PDF reader or document system if you need searchable text; the page size and resolution kept here give OCR the best input.
Can I print the PDF at the size of the original paper?
Yes. With Image on page on Actual size, the page size comes from the resolution stored in the TIFF, so a Letter page scanned at 300 DPI prints back on Letter paper at 100% scale without shrinking.