TIFF for Print and Scanning: How to Prepare Files Right

Why print shops insist on TIFF

When a designer sends a layout to a printer, the images inside are almost always TIFF — and that's not nostalgia, it's cold calculation. TIFF stores the picture losslessly: what you hand over is what hits the press, with none of the JPG artifacts that accumulate from repeated saving. It holds CMYK — the exact color space print shops print in — and up to 16 bits per channel, which matters during edits and on smooth gradients. And it records resolution precisely in its tags: the file knows it's 300 DPI and won't drift in size.

If you're just getting to know the format, start with the overview, what TIFF is — here we won't rehash how the format works, but dig into pure practice: how to set up a file so it prints well or sits safely in an archive for decades.

The DPI rule: resolution by output size

The classic beginner mistake is thinking "300 DPI" is a property of the file. It isn't: DPI only means something paired with a physical size. A 2000×3000-pixel image gives a luxurious 300 DPI at roughly 7×10 inches — and a sad 85 DPI if you stretch it across a 24×36-inch poster. So the right question is: "how many pixels do I need for the print size I want?"

The formula is simple: pixels = size in inches × DPI. Where does the magic number 300 come from? In offset printing, the image is broken into a grid of dots (a halftone screen), and the standard for coated paper is 150 lines per inch (LPI). The "rule of two" applies: image resolution should be twice the screen ruling. 150 × 2 = 300 DPI. That's the whole secret behind the round number.

Viewing distance changes the requirement: a building banner is seen from 30 feet away, where the eye can't resolve dots even at 100 DPI. A business card is held in the hand — that needs the full 300. Here's a guide for typical jobs:

Color for print: RGB, CMYK and profiles

A screen glows and mixes red, green and blue (RGB). Paper doesn't glow — four inks are laid onto it: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). These are physically different ways to make color, and their gamuts don't match: a bright saturated green or an electric blue from your monitor often simply can't be reproduced with ink — it'll dull down in print. Better to learn that before the run than after.

Who should convert to CMYK — you or the print shop? There's no single answer, and it's the first question to ask. Many modern print shops prefer to receive good RGB (sRGB or Adobe RGB) and do the separation themselves, with their own profile for the specific paper and press — it's more accurate that way. Others require ready CMYK. If they want CMYK, convert to the correct profile: for offset on coated paper that's usually Coated FOGRA39 or ISO Coated v2; newsprint has its own.

Bit depth and headroom for edits

An ordinary file stores 8 bits per channel — 256 shades of each color. TIFF can do 16 bits per channel — that's 65,536 shades, 256 times more. You won't see the difference on the finished print, but it saves you during the process: when you lift shadows, add contrast or push curves, an 8-bit file starts "tearing" into bands on smooth transitions (a sky, skin, a gradient background). 16 bits give you the headroom so edits don't leave steps.

The logic is simple: edit in 16 bits, print in whatever the shop asks for. Shoot in RAW, edit in a 16-bit TIFF, deliver the final to spec. Most print processes work in 8 bits — and that's fine: by print time all the edits are done and the depth headroom is no longer needed.

Compression: print vs archive

TIFF lets you store a file in different ways, and the choice depends on the goal. For print, use lossless compression — LZW or ZIP (Deflate). Both cut the weight (ZIP is often more efficient on photographs) without throwing away a single pixel, and print RIP processors read them without trouble. Never use JPEG-in-TIFF mode for print — it's lossy and undoes the whole point of the format.

For archiving the logic flips — weight isn't the priority, longevity is: the file must be guaranteed to open in 20 to 30 years. That's why digitization standards (from national archives and libraries, for example) recommend keeping master copies as uncompressed baseline TIFF: the simpler the file structure, the higher the odds that any future program can read it. LZW is recognized as safe too, but "no compression" is the most conservative, dependable choice.

• Print: LZW or ZIP — lossless, smaller file.
• Archiving master copies: uncompressed (baseline TIFF) — maximum longevity.
• Black-and-white document scans: CCITT Group 4 — lossless, very compact for text.
• Never for print/archive: JPEG-in-TIFF — it's lossy compression.

How to scan a document and a photo right

Scanning is "printing in reverse," and it pulls the same three levers: resolution, color and format. Get the input wrong and you'll re-scan the whole archive, so it's better to capture with headroom from the start. The baselines below are proven by archive practice:

• Text documents — 300 DPI. Enough for both printing and text recognition (OCR). Color: grayscale for ordinary pages, pure black-and-white (bitonal) for crisp text.
• Photos for archiving — 600 DPI. The headroom lets you crop and enlarge later without losing sharpness.
• Small prints, film, negatives — 1200 DPI and up. A tiny original needs to be "unfolded" into a large size.
• Color always 24-bit for photos and anything with tones — even old black-and-white shots: that preserves the paper tone and the patina of age.

Multi-page scans: one file, not ten

Scanning a twenty-page contract? Don't breed twenty files. TIFF can hold several pages in one file — which is exactly why scanners and old fax machines love it. The whole document stays a single unit: pages won't get shuffled or lost. For more on how this works, see our piece on the multi-page TIFF and compression.

But a multi-page TIFF has a weak spot: it's awkward to view and share. Browsers don't open TIFF, and it won't open everywhere on a phone either. So the practical workflow is this: combine the pages into a TIFF while scanning for quality, then convert the TIFF to PDF for sending to a client or print shop — any device opens it, and the multi-page structure is preserved.

Need a single picture for a slide or a website rather than a page? Then TIFF to JPG is handier. And the full list of conversions is always on the all formats page.

The preflight before the print shop

"Preflight" is the final check of a file before printing, like a pilot's run-through before takeoff. Five minutes down the list saves a day of rework and the cost of a reprint. Run through these points: