TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a popular format for storing raster image data and is specified in TIFF Revision 6.0 from Adobe Systems. Additional information about the TIFF file format can be found at the Sustainability of Digital Formats site at the Library of Congress.

Currently, the Photographic Imaging, Microfilm and Textual Preservation Lab is using the TIFF file format for both preservation master and most reproduction master files. The TIFF file format is a stable, well-documented, widely adopted, uncompressed file format widely used for master files in the digital imaging community.

NARA's TIFF files are identified as PUID fmt/353 in the PRONOM database.

Although TIFF is the formal full name of the file format (Tagged Image File Format), the three character file name extension is TIF. We have used the three character file name here in keeping with the way the file format is most often expressed as a file name extension.

For more technical information about TIFF files, see the Technical White Paper.

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