TIFF G4

Action Plan: Tagged Image File Format - G4 Encoding

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 TIFF G4 encoding is often used by to create master bitonal images (mostly scans of text). It has been adopted as the official codec for Government Printing Office preservation Tiff files. It is compressed and can only be used to create bitonal images (An image consisting only of a foreground colour and a background colour.).

Software:  Tiff is supported by all major browsers and image manipulation software suites.

Long Term Preservation Plan:  Uncompressed Tiff is the prefered format for master image files at the LC. It is far and away the most popular file type present in LC's CTS system. It is heavily supported, open source, and maintains a good image quality. There is no reason at present to consider migration to other formats.

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