BigTIFF

Action Plan: Tagged Image File Format - BigTIFF

Last Updated 2/5/2014

Description: Tagged Image File Format, or Tiff files, are some of the most common Raster Image Formats in use. Created by the Aldus Corperation which was later aquired by Adobe, Tiff'stechnical specifications have been released by Adobe. It was last updated in 1992, its current version is 6.0.

Codec: The BigTIFF format is used to store geospacial, medical imaging, and other data based on Tiff 6.0. It was created to bypass the 4GB limit built into GeoTIFF and it thus used for large medical, or geospacial image files.

Software:  Avenza’s Geographic Imager ,  USGS's dlgv32, ArcGIS 10, STIFF , ScanScope slide scanning systems and Spectrum digital pathology information management software.

Long Term Preservation Plan:  BigTIFF is a rare but high quality format. Migration is not recommended.