Convert TIFF to GIF
TIFF is an archival container: it can hold many pages, sixteen bits per channel, and a color profile. GIF holds one frame, eight bits of palette index and nothing else. This conversion is therefore a deliberate narrowing, and it is worth knowing which parts are dropped before you rely on the result.
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What it does
- The first page of a multi-page TIFF is converted
- High bit depth reduced to a 256-color palette
- Dimensions preserved; no automatic resize
How to use TIFF to GIF
- 1
Upload the TIFF
Single page or multi-page, eight bit or sixteen bit. Scanners and fax software commonly produce multi-page files without saying so.
- 2
Page one is taken
A GIF written here is a single frame, so the first page of the document becomes the image and the remaining pages are not carried across.
- 3
Color is reduced
The palette is built from the colors the page actually uses. A bitonal scan needs two entries; a color photograph will not fit and will band.
How it works
The TIFF is opened and its first image directory is decoded. TIFF files are built as a chain of directories, one per page, which is how a scanner puts a whole document in a single file, so "the first page" is a precise thing rather than a guess.
That page is turned into a plain raster at eight bits per channel, its colors are counted, and a palette of at most 256 entries is built to cover them. Each pixel becomes an index into that palette and the result is compressed into a GIF.
What TIFF carries that GIF cannot
Additional pages, color depth above eight bits per channel, embedded color profiles, and any tag information the producing application wrote. None of these has a place in a GIF, so none survives.
This is not a defect in the conversion. It is the reason TIFF exists: it is the format you keep, and GIF is a format you send.
Where this conversion earns its keep
Document scans. A bitonal page maps onto a two-color palette with nothing lost, and the file becomes small enough to attach or embed. The same is true of screenshots and flat diagrams saved as TIFF by an application that had no better option.
Where it does not
Photographs, artwork and anything destined for print. The palette will not hold them, and the banding cannot be undone afterwards. Convert to JPG or WebP for a photographic preview, or to PNG when the result must stay exact.
Two formats built for opposite purposes
TIFF is a professional imaging format: lossless, capable of high bit depth, color profiles and multiple pages. GIF is a 1987 web format with 256 colors per frame and no color management at all.
So this conversion is a substantial reduction, and worth doing only for a specific reason — usually that something will accept a GIF and nothing else.
Two things to expect. A multi-page TIFF gives you one image, because that is what a still GIF holds. And anything photographic bands visibly as it drops to 256 colors, while a scanned document or a line drawing survives almost untouched, since those were close to a small palette already.
Examples
A bitonal fax page
Black and white fits a two-entry palette exactly, so nothing is approximated and the file is tiny. Only page one is in the GIF; the other three pages need a different target, such as PDF.
A sixteen-bit color scan
The size drop is dramatic and so is the loss: sixteen bits per channel becomes an index into 256 colors. For an archival scan keep the TIFF and treat the GIF as a preview only.
Frequently asked questions
My TIFF has several pages, where did the rest go?
A GIF produced here holds a single frame, so only the first page of the document is converted. This is common with scanned contracts, faxes and multi-page captures, which store every sheet in one TIFF without making that obvious. If you need all of the pages in one file, convert the TIFF to PDF instead: PDF is designed to carry a sequence of pages and will keep them together.
Will a sixteen-bit TIFF lose quality as a GIF?
Yes, substantially. A sixteen-bit TIFF can record tens of thousands of levels per channel, which is why it is used for archival scans and print masters. GIF records an index into at most 256 colors for the entire image. The conversion is useful for a small preview or for a legacy system, but the GIF is not a substitute for the original and should not replace it.
Is a bitonal scan a good candidate?
It is the best candidate. A black-and-white fax or document scan uses two colors, both of which fit in the palette with 254 entries to spare, so nothing whatsoever is approximated. The output is visually identical to the input page and dramatically smaller, because the compressor works well on long runs of a single value.