CONVERT
PNG → TIFF
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Convert PNG to high-quality TIFF
PNG is a lossless raster format built around Deflate compression and a strict RGB or RGBA pixel model. It was designed for screen graphics, web delivery, and interchange between applications — not for archival image workflows or print prepress. The single most common reason to convert PNG to TIFF is that the destination workflow does not accept PNG at all: professional scanners, drum-imager RIPs, digital-asset-management systems, and most prepress pipelines treat TIFF as the canonical raster container because it encodes printing-critical color spaces (CMYK, Lab, 16-bit per channel) that PNG cannot carry. A second driver is bit depth: PNG tops out at 16 bits per channel in grayscale or RGB, always with an sRGB or gamma-corrected assumption baked in; TIFF accepts 8, 16, and 32 bits per channel, allows floating-point samples, embeds full ICC profiles, and can encode CMYK or spot-color separations — properties that scanners and color-managed workflows depend on. A third driver is metadata: PNG's ancillary chunks are ignored or stripped by many professional tools, while TIFF's rich tag set (Exif IFD, IPTC, XMP, embedded ICC profile, resolution tags at any DPI) survives round-trips through Photoshop, Lightroom, and prepress software intact.
PNG Image
Source formatPNG is a lossless image format that supports transparency. It is ideal for graphics, logos, screenshots, and any image where preserving exact pixel data is important.
TIFF Image
Target formatTIFF is a flexible, high-quality image format widely used in publishing, printing, and professional photography. It supports multiple compression methods and color spaces including CMYK.
Why convert PNG to TIFF
The clearest use case is preparing a PNG screenshot or web-exported graphic for inclusion in a print or archival pipeline that mandates TIFF. Desktop publishing tools such as QuarkXPress and older InDesign configurations refuse to place PNG for high-resolution output; they expect TIFF. Scientific imaging software — ImageJ, MATLAB's imread, many microscopy suites — defaults to TIFF for its ability to store multi-page image stacks and 16-bit grayscale without reinterpretation. Document management systems that apply lossless archival standards (ISO 19005 for PDF/A ancillary assets, for example) often require TIFF as the source raster. Legal and medical imaging workflows share this requirement.
HOW TO CONVERT
PNG → TIFF
Provide the PNG
Click or drag to upload. We accept a single PNG file per job, with an optional queue of additional images for batch mode.
Encode to TIFF
The conversion decodes the PNG, resolves the colour space to sRGB and writes the TIFF container around the pixel data.
Save the TIFF
The download is streamed back over HTTPS. If you uploaded multiple files, a ZIP with all TIFF outputs is produced instead.
Common Use Cases
Share across platforms
Send TIFF files to anyone without worrying about whether they have the right software for PNG.
Embed in documents
Drop TIFF output into Word, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Notion or a website without conversion warnings.
Optimize size
TIFF often produces smaller files than PNG for web, email and storage.
Archive & future-proof
Store in a widely-supported format that will still open on future operating systems without legacy plugins.
PNG vs TIFF — Strengths and limitations
What each format does best, and where it falls short.
PNG Strengths
- Lossless compression — every save preserves the original pixels perfectly.
- Full 8-bit alpha channel for smooth transparency.
- Excellent for text, UI screenshots, logos, and line art.
- Royalty-free and an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 15948).
- Supports 16-bit color depth for high-fidelity work.
Limitations
- Much larger than JPEG for photographs (no perceptual compression).
- No native animation in most software (APNG support is inconsistent).
- No CMYK support — web and screen only, not print.
TIFF Strengths
- Lossless by default — no generation loss on successive edits and saves.
- Supports any bit depth (1 to 32 bits per channel), any color model, any number of channels.
- Extensible tag system means vendor-specific data survives alongside standard tags.
- Multi-page containers are perfect for scanned documents, faxes, and DICOM-like stacks.
- Industry-standard for archival, museums, scientific imaging, and high-end print prepress.
Limitations
- File sizes are huge compared to JPEG/WebP/AVIF — often 10-30× larger.
- Not a web format — no browser displays TIFF natively.
- Ambiguous spec areas mean some TIFFs only open correctly in the tool that created them.
PNG vs TIFF — Technical specifications
Side-by-side comparison of the technical details.
PNG
- MIME type
- image/png
- Compression
- Lossless — DEFLATE (zlib)
- Color depth
- 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bits per channel
- Max dimensions
- 2^31 − 1 pixels per side (2.1 billion)
- Transparency
- Full 8-bit alpha channel
- Standard
- ISO/IEC 15948:2004
TIFF
- MIME type
- image/tiff
- Standard
- TIFF 6.0 (1992); BigTIFF extension for 64-bit offsets
- Extensions
- .tif, .tiff
- Max file size
- 4 GB (TIFF); 2^64 bytes (BigTIFF)
- Compression options
- None, LZW, Deflate, JPEG, CCITT G3/G4, PackBits, JBIG
| Specification | PNG | TIFF |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | image/png | image/tiff |
| Compression | Lossless — DEFLATE (zlib) | — |
| Color depth | 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bits per channel | — |
| Max dimensions | 2^31 − 1 pixels per side (2.1 billion) | — |
| Transparency | Full 8-bit alpha channel | — |
| Standard | ISO/IEC 15948:2004 | TIFF 6.0 (1992); BigTIFF extension for 64-bit offsets |
| Extensions | — | .tif, .tiff |
| Max file size | — | 4 GB (TIFF); 2^64 bytes (BigTIFF) |
| Compression options | — | None, LZW, Deflate, JPEG, CCITT G3/G4, PackBits, JBIG |
PNG vs TIFF — Typical file sizes
Approximate file sizes for common scenarios.
PNG
- Icon or small logo 2–20 KB
- UI screenshot (1920×1080) 200–800 KB
- High-res photo (12 MP) 10–30 MB
- Print-ready illustration 5–50 MB
TIFF
- Scanned A4 page (300 dpi, B&W) 100-300 KB
- Scanned A4 page (600 dpi, color) 15-40 MB
- Print-quality magazine photo 30-150 MB
- Satellite GeoTIFF tile 50 MB - 5 GB
Quality & Compatibility
Because both PNG and TIFF support lossless storage, a PNG-to-TIFF conversion using LZW or uncompressed TIFF does not degrade any pixel value: every RGB or RGBA sample is preserved exactly. The alpha channel present in a 32-bit RGBA PNG transfers cleanly into TIFF's ExtraSamples tag, which marks the fourth channel as unassociated (straight) alpha, so transparency is not composited or discarded. What can change is colorimetric interpretation: PNG embeds an sRGB declaration or a gAMA chunk; TIFF embeds an ICC profile. If the converter writes a generic sRGB ICC profile into the TIFF this is losslessly equivalent, but if it omits the profile entirely, color-managed applications may misinterpret the primaries on output. Bit depth is preserved 1-to-1: an 8-bit-per-channel PNG becomes an 8-bit TIFF; a 16-bit PNG becomes a 16-bit TIFF. File size will increase significantly because TIFF with LZW compresses natural images less efficiently than PNG's Deflate, and uncompressed TIFF files can be three to five times the PNG size for photographic content — there is no quality loss, only a storage cost.
Tips for Best Results
- If your destination application requires an embedded ICC profile, verify after conversion that the TIFF contains one — absence of a profile in the TIFF will cause color-managed software to fall back to an assumed color space that may differ from sRGB.
- For 16-bit-per-channel PNG sources, choose LZW or uncompressed TIFF output rather than JPEG-in-TIFF compression, which would silently introduce lossy artifacts and defeat the purpose of working in 16-bit.
- TIFF files can be significantly larger than the source PNG for photographic or gradient-heavy images; if the TIFF is destined for a print workflow, uncompressed output is universally safe, while LZW is safe but may not be supported by all legacy RIP software.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the codecs involved. If both PNG and TIFF are lossy, the pixels are re-encoded and a small amount of detail is discarded — invisible at default quality settings on photographs. If TIFF is lossless (PNG, TIFF, BMP) the output keeps every pixel of the decoded PNG exactly, but cannot recover detail that PNG had already compressed away.
Often yes, especially when TIFF is lossless. PNG tuned for efficient web delivery will usually produce smaller files than TIFF's default settings. If file size matters, drop the quality in Advanced or pick a more compressed target format instead.
KaijuConverter uploads over HTTPS, processes the image in an isolated container and deletes both the source and the output within two hours. No account is required, file contents are never logged, and we do not use uploads to train any model. For confidential material, the paid plan includes a data-processing agreement.
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