Convert JPG to TIFF
Almost nobody converts to TIFF by choice. People do it because a print shop, a journal or a government archive specified TIFF and will not accept anything else. This does that conversion, and is clear that it improves nothing — it changes the wrapper, not the picture.
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What it does
- Meets submission requirements that specify TIFF
- Lossless container — no further quality is lost
- Much larger file, which is inherent to the format
- No watermark and no sign-up
How to use JPG to TIFF
- 1
Add the JPG
Photographs, figures for a paper, scanned artwork, or whatever the submission form is asking for in TIFF. Use the highest-quality JPG you have rather than one that has been through several rounds of saving.
- 2
Convert
The image is decoded and re-encoded as TIFF on our server. It is quick; the only slow part is the download, because the result is large.
- 3
Check the requirement you are meeting
Many specifications ask for more than TIFF — a minimum resolution, CMYK color, or a particular compression. Converting the container satisfies the format requirement and none of the others, so read the spec before submitting.
How it works
The JPG is decoded to raw pixels and re-encoded as a TIFF. The output is lossless, so every pixel the JPG decoded to is stored exactly.
That sentence is doing less work than it appears to. Lossless from this point forward is a real property and a useful one — you can now edit and re-save without accumulating further damage. It says nothing about what happened before.
Who asks for TIFF, and why
Academic journals. Figure submission guidelines frequently specify TIFF at 300 or 600 dpi. The requirement exists because figures get resized, re-rendered and printed, and a lossy source degrades at every step.
Print shops and pre-press. TIFF is the interchange format for images headed to a press, usually alongside requirements for CMYK color and an embedded profile.
Archives and digitisation projects. Uncompressed TIFF is a preservation standard precisely because it is simple, well-documented, and holds no compression that a future decoder might not implement.
Some government and legal filing systems. Often for scanned documents, and often specified decades ago and never revised.
In every case the underlying request is the same: give us something that was never thrown away.
What this conversion cannot do
It cannot undo JPEG compression. The artifacts — blocking on the 8x8 grid, ringing at sharp edges, color smearing in saturated areas — are pixel values now, indistinguishable from real image content, and they will be preserved faithfully forever.
It cannot add resolution. A 1200-pixel-wide JPG becomes a 1200-pixel-wide TIFF, which will not satisfy a 300 dpi requirement for anything printed larger than four inches across.
It cannot convert color models. RGB in, RGB out.
What to do instead, where possible
If you have the original — the camera raw file, the export from the design tool, the scan before it was compressed — convert that instead. It takes the same amount of effort and produces a TIFF that means what the requirement intended.
If the JPG is genuinely all that exists, convert it, submit it, and know what you are submitting. Most systems accept it without inspection. Some print workflows will notice, and it is better to have decided that knowingly than to be surprised by a rejection.
Examples
A figure for a journal submission
Eleven times larger and pixel-for-pixel identical to what the JPG decoded to. The submission system accepts it, which is the entire point. Nothing about the figure has improved.
A photo the print shop rejected
Worth being blunt about. The blocking and ringing from the original JPEG compression are now stored losslessly in a TIFF. A printer asking for TIFF wants an image that was never lossily compressed — if they inspect it, this will not pass.
Frequently asked questions
Does converting to TIFF improve the image?
No, and this is the most important thing on the page. A JPG has already discarded detail permanently. Wrapping the surviving pixels in a lossless container preserves them perfectly from this point forward, but it cannot recover anything, and it does not remove the compression artifacts already baked in. The picture is identical; only the file format changed.
Then why does anyone ask for TIFF?
Because a requirement for TIFF is usually a proxy for "an image that has never been lossily compressed". Print workflows and archives want a master that can be re-edited and re-saved indefinitely without degrading, and TIFF is the standard container for one. The request assumes you have such a master — converting a JPG technically satisfies the format and not the intent behind it.
Why is the TIFF so much larger?
Because it is lossless. A TIFF stores exact pixel values with mild or no compression, where the JPG stored a compact approximation. A tenfold increase is typical for a photograph and is not a sign that anything went wrong. If size is a problem, LZW-compressed TIFF is smaller than uncompressed while remaining lossless, though still far larger than a JPG.
Will it be CMYK for printing?
No. The output is RGB, because the JPG was RGB and this conversion does not change color models. If a printer specified CMYK TIFF, this file meets half the requirement — converting color models properly needs the target press profile and belongs in a tool that can apply one, not in a format conversion.
Further reading
- TIFF Was Larger Than PNG on Every Image, Including With LZWTIFF has a reputation as the professional's lossless format — the one you archive in, the one print shops ask for. PNG is treated as the web's lightweight cousin. On file size that reputation is backwards, and the gap is not small. Here is the comparison on four different kinds of image, with both common TIFF compression schemes.
- The JPEG Quality Cliff at 90, and What Actually ChangesPush a JPEG from quality 85 to 89 and the file grows by about 40 KB. Push it one more step, to 90, and it grows by 171 KB. That is not a smooth curve with a steep end — it is a switch being thrown. Something specific changes at 90, it is visible in the file itself, and knowing what it is tells you exactly which side of it you want to be on.