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How-To Guide

How to Convert TIFF to PDF

TIFF is the archival image format used in scanning, medical imaging, and print production. Converting TIFF to PDF is essential for sharing scanned documents, combining multiple TIFF pages into a single document, and meeting requirements for submissions that accept PDF but not TIFF. Multi-page TIFFs convert cleanly to multi-page PDFs.

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FormatDrop doesn't convert TIFF to PDF yet. The methods below use free tools that do. FormatDrop's own converters cover common image, audio, video and PDF formats, all in your browser.

Other ways to convert TIFF to PDF

  1. 1

    ImageMagick (command line — handles multi-page TIFF)

    Single TIFF to PDF: `magick input.tiff output.pdf`. Several TIFFs into one PDF: `magick page1.tiff page2.tiff page3.tiff document.pdf`. Only some pages of a multi-page TIFF: `magick 'multipage.tiff[0-5]' output.pdf`. Add `-compress zip` for lossless pages, or `-compress group4` for black-and-white scans.

  2. 2

    tiff2pdf (libtiff, lossless)

    `tiff2pdf -o output.pdf input.tiff` turns every page of a multi-page TIFF into a PDF page and can copy JPEG and fax (Group 4) data into the PDF without re-compressing it. Install: `brew install libtiff` (Mac) or `sudo apt install libtiff-tools` (Ubuntu). To join several TIFFs first: `tiffcp page1.tiff page2.tiff all.tiff`.

  3. 3

    Python Pillow (batch automation)

    `from PIL import Image; import glob; images = [Image.open(f).convert('RGB') for f in sorted(glob.glob('*.tiff'))]; images[0].save('document.pdf', save_all=True, append_images=images[1:])`. This takes the first page of each TIFF; for a multi-page TIFF, loop over its frames with ImageSequence.

  4. 4

    Preview or Finder on a Mac

    Open the TIFF in Preview, then File → Print → PDF → Save as PDF; this includes every page of a multi-page TIFF. For several TIFFs, select them in Finder, right-click → Quick Actions → Create PDF.

Why convert TIFF to PDF?

TIFF is the archiving standard; PDF is the sharing standard. Converting makes scanned documents universally viewable and archivable.

Frequently asked questions

Will the TIFF quality be preserved in the PDF?
The pixels keep their full resolution. Whether they stay lossless depends on the compression: with ImageMagick, add `-compress zip` (or `-compress group4` for black-and-white scans). tiff2pdf goes further and can copy the TIFF's own compressed data into the PDF unchanged.
How do I combine multiple TIFFs into one PDF?
ImageMagick: `magick page1.tiff page2.tiff page3.tiff combined.pdf`. Python: `images[0].save('combined.pdf', save_all=True, append_images=images[1:])`. libtiff: `tiffcp page1.tiff page2.tiff all.tiff && tiff2pdf -o combined.pdf all.tiff`. (Ghostscript can't read TIFF files, so it doesn't work here.)
Can a TIFF to PDF conversion be searchable (OCR)?
Not automatically — if the TIFF contains a scanned document (image of text), the PDF is also an image and not searchable. For searchable PDF: use OCRmyPDF: `ocrmypdf input.tiff output.pdf`. Adobe Acrobat Pro also offers OCR for scanned TIFFs.
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