Convert PSD to TIFF
TIFF is what print shops, archives and scanning workflows ask for, and it is the one raster format that has never lost a pixel to compression. The output here is LZW-compressed, which is lossless — the pixel checksum matches the source exactly — and roughly a hundred times smaller than the uncompressed TIFF most converters hand back.
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What it does
- Lossless — the pixel checksum matches the source
- LZW compressed, around 100x smaller than uncompressed TIFF
- 16-bit documents keep their depth
- The flattened composite, never a single layer
How to use PSD to TIFF
- 1
Add the PSD
Drop it in. The flattened composite is read — the image the document shows on open, not one of the layers behind it.
- 2
Written as compressed TIFF
LZW compression, which is lossless. A 16-bit document stays 16-bit.
- 3
Download it
Every print and archival tool reads LZW TIFF. Nothing needs to be decompressed first.
How it works
The flattened composite is read from the PSD and written as a TIFF with LZW compression. Nothing is resampled, re-quantized or converted between bit depths, so the pixels in the output are the pixels in the document.
The compression nobody turns on
TIFF supports several compression schemes and defaults, in both common encoders, to none of them. That default is why TIFF has a reputation for being enormous, and the reputation is deserved only because of the default.
Measured on this site's own routes, before the encoders were told otherwise:
| conversion | uncompressed | with LZW |
|---|---|---|
| png → tiff | 360,264 B | 2,588 B |
| psd → tiff | 360,264 B | 3,702 B |
| eps → tiff | 1,044,554 B | 5,730 B |
The pixels are identical in every case — the checksums match. The only thing that changed is that repeated patterns are stored once instead of a hundred times.
LZW rather than the slightly smaller Deflate, deliberately: people who ask for TIFF are usually asking for compatibility, and LZW is the compression that every print RIP, archival system and thirty-year-old imaging tool reads. Ten per cent is not worth a file that a press might refuse.
What TIFF is actually for
Three destinations, and they explain the format's oddly long life.
Print. A raster image processor needs pixels, at a known size, with no generational loss. TIFF has done that since 1986 and no newer format has displaced it in that niche.
Archives. Libraries and museums specify TIFF for master copies because it is lossless, uncompressed or losslessly compressed, and readable by software that will still exist in twenty years. A JPEG master is a decision you cannot undo.
Scanning and imaging. Scanners, microscopes and medical devices write TIFF because it carries multiple pages, arbitrary bit depths and custom metadata tags without argument.
None of those is a web page. For a website use /psd-to-webp or /psd-to-png; a TIFF on a web page is a file most browsers will simply refuse to display.
Flattening is not optional here
A point that surprises people moving from Photoshop's own Save As.
Photoshop can write a layered TIFF — the format has a private extension for it, and Photoshop reads its own back. Almost nothing else does. Open one in a print RIP, a scanner utility or an archival validator and you get the flattened composite at best, and a complaint at worst.
This tool writes an ordinary single-image TIFF, which is what every one of those destinations expects and what "TIFF" means outside Adobe's software. The composite is read from the PSD and written as one image.
If you actually want the layers to travel, the file that carries them is the PSD. Send that, and send a TIFF or a PDF alongside it for whoever cannot open it.
Examples
Artwork going to a print shop
TIFF is what many printers ask for and every RIP reads. Nothing is lost between your file and theirs.
A master copy for an archive
Archives specify TIFF because it is lossless and has been readable for thirty-five years. LZW does not change either of those.
Frequently asked questions
Is LZW compression really lossless?
Yes, and it is checkable rather than a claim. LZW is a dictionary algorithm — the same family as ZIP — that finds repeated byte patterns and stores them once. Nothing is approximated or discarded. Verified here by comparing pixel checksums before and after: identical. A 300 by 200 test image went from 360,264 bytes uncompressed to 2,588 with the same pixels.
Why do other converters give me enormous TIFFs?
Because they take the default, and both common TIFF encoders default to no compression at all — the raw samples with a header on the front, six bytes per pixel for a 16-bit color image. This produced a 360 kilobyte file for a 300 by 200 gradient before it was fixed here. Nothing is gained by it; compressed TIFF is read by everything that reads TIFF.
Does the bit depth survive?
Yes. A 16-bit Photoshop document comes out as a 16-bit TIFF, verified. That matters for print and for anything that will be adjusted further — 16 bits per channel leaves room for curves and levels that would band visibly in 8-bit. If your document is 8-bit it stays 8-bit; nothing is invented.
What about CMYK and color profiles?
A CMYK document is converted to sRGB, which is the honest limitation to state: this pipeline works in RGB. For a print job where the CMYK separation matters — a specific ink set, a spot color, a proofed profile — export from Photoshop itself, because that decision belongs with whoever knows the press. For everything else sRGB is what the destination expects.
Should I send TIFF or PDF to my printer?
Ask them, but PDF is the more common answer now, and /psd-to-pdf produces one. TIFF is right when they want a flat raster at a known size — large format, textile, some packaging — and PDF is right when the job has pages, bleed, or anything vector in it. Both are lossless from a PSD, so the choice is about their workflow rather than about quality.