TIFF isn’t a format you choose by taste — it’s a format you endure by requirement: a fax gateway that accepts nothing else, a print shop, an archiving document system that refuses JPEG. When the time comes, you need to convert each PDF page into a TIFF image, at the right resolution, without going through an online service.
What the tool produces, exactly
The conversion goes through the pdf.js rendering engine — the same one as your reader — then through a TIFF encoder written for the occasion, compliant with the TIFF 6.0 subset:
- 24-bit RGB, uncompressed: the most compatible there is — and the heaviest.
- One TIFF file per page, delivered in a numbered ZIP.
- Three resolutions: 72, 150 or 300 DPI, the resolution being written into the file metadata (fax and print systems read it).
- 100 pages maximum, 50 MiB, local processing.
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Choosing your resolution
- 72 DPI — screen rendering. Enough for a preview or a web workflow, not for printing.
- 150 DPI — the default. A good archiving/size trade-off for office documents.
- 300 DPI — the print standard and a comfortable floor for downstream OCR. An A4 page is then ~2,480 × 3,508 pixels — and ~25 MB uncompressed.
The warning that matters: uncompressed means bulky. A 50-page folder at 300 DPI produces more than a gigabyte. Plan for the space, or export only the useful pages — splitting or extracting before conversion avoids generating everything.
When TIFF, when PNG or JPG
The choice depends on the requirement in front of you:
- TIFF: when the target system imposes it (fax, desktop publishing, some archiving systems) or when the mandate is “lossless and archiving standard”.
- PNG: lossless too, but compressed — much lighter for the web and documentation, transparency as a bonus.
- JPG: if weight outweighs fidelity (photos, quick sends).
Only convert to TIFF because you’re asked to: at equal quality, PNG produces the same image in far less space.
Limits
- No single multi-page TIFF — one image per page in the ZIP.
- No LZW or CCITT G4 compression (Group 4, the black-and-white fax standard, isn’t encoded yet): for a monochrome fax, convert to grayscale first if needed.
- Text becomes pixels: the result is no longer searchable or selectable — keep the source PDF.
In short: a requirement-driven format, served at the most compatible standard (uncompressed RGB, DPI metadata), in three resolutions and locally — to be reserved for workflows that genuinely demand it.
