Large print: image format preference for large file publishing

Both image formats – TIFF and PDF are widely used for all types of storage purposes and in printing industry. TIFF is more universal for scanned images. PDF is more portable. It doesn’t matter what OS, or what type of device you are going to keep your files in – the format allows displaying images exactly the same. Printing industry makes use of both image formats. Sometimes the choice is based on the file size though, and since ImageConverter Plus can process image files of really large (huge) image size, we can give some advice regarding the image format preferences in such situations. In regular situations TIFF is almost same portable as PDF. Since this file format is traditional for scanned images, a TIFF viewer has recently become a part of the installation. Both formats require similar storage space, and decision regarding the format preference will depend on other factors. TIFF stores the image data uncompressed with several types of lossless compression algorithms. It can store vector data, for example, a text. A text in a PDF file is displayed as elements which are easy to copy/paste, but are not easy to change. A text in a TIFF file is transferred into image data, which the recipient cannot use. PDF is normally the leader in printing and publishing industry. It reproduces the text really well and offers decent print-ready file with a relatively small size. Still, when we deal with large image files, TIFF can become the preferred image format. Large format printing industry may benefit from using TIFF instead of PDF due to the smaller file size due to LZW compression; due to less time required to open the TIFF files; faster image processing; smaller size to transfer files via FTP or email, and more predictable results with fewer errors. Depending on your needs, TIFF files can be easily converted into PDF files, and vice-versa. Both formats will stand the test of time and be universally accepted.