# Photoshop, Tif!!



## tomand (Mar 7, 2007)

hey, i recently scanned some images and saved them as tif image files to use in photoshop as i was told both tif and jpg were compatible with photoshop but when i try opening them it comes up with "could not open because file is not a TIFF file". I've also tried opening them with other camera programs and even paint none of which work. I'm using photoshop 6.0.
Is there anyway of converting these files to jpg. format or something similar so i can use them in photoshop


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

If it's not too many, you could try Zamzar.

http://www.zamzar.com/


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

are you sure you saved them as .tiff

if you saved them as .tiff and cannot see them, then converting to .jpg will probably not help as either format should be readable by Photoshop


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## tomand (Mar 7, 2007)

yeah, i was on someone else's computer and changed some from tiff to jpg using photoshop CS2, didn't have time to change them all and the ones i didn't change won't open on photoshop 6


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

Have you tried opening them in paint and then saving to a different format


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

strange... I thought PS6 handled .tiff with no trouble

in ps6 under file types is it set to see .tiff


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## tomand (Mar 7, 2007)

Yeah tried paint, it just comes up with the error message "Paint cannot read this file. This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported. The pictures are saved as .tif this doesn't seem to comply with anything although i managed to change some of them to jpgs before using Photoshop CS2 on someones Mac. Im using a Windows PC. Is that important?


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

I will leave you in the capable hands of Buck52

nice to see you by the way


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

tomand said:


> The pictures are saved as .tif this doesn't seem to comply with anything although i managed to change some of them to jpgs before using Photoshop CS2 on someones Mac. Im using a Windows PC. *Is that important?*


 It would seem so...

can you zip one of the ones that you can't open and attach it here?

what program did you scan/save them with?

are they .tiff or are they .tif?


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## tomand (Mar 7, 2007)

i can't remember the program used, it was done in a shop. they're definitely saved as .tif files. il try and send one in a second


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

if you can't zip it don't bother, it will be to big a file to upload here

you can try uploading to a hosting site and providing a link...


.tif and .tiff are not the same... do you know that?


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

Since you were able to open them on your friend's CS2 I would guess you used a TIFF compression not handled by PS6. Which means the images are probably fine. PS6 had LZW compression because 5.5 had it. It might not have had ZIP compression. CS has a JPG compression for TIFF as well, which still gives a TIF extension and is fairly new to Photoshop. You also get a message that earlier TIF converters can't read it.

You might try the freeware Irfanview with the plug-ins at www.irfanview.com


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

I was hoping you would pop in *slipe*. I am not familiar with earlier versions of PS


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

> I am not familiar with earlier versions of PS


And I am not familiar with CS2 as I usually skip a version in my upgrades. There might be even more new TIFF compressions if you would care to check.



> .tif and .tiff are not the same... do you know that?


Must be a CS2 thing. When I select TIFF from the CS dropdown menu it adds a .tif extension. And I get the display in the attachment, which would lead me to believe CS considers them interchangeable.

What is the difference?


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

slipe said:


> Must be a CS2 thing. When I select TIFF from the CS dropdown menu it adds a .tif extension. And I get the display in the attachment, which would lead me to believe CS considers them interchangeable.
> 
> What is the difference?


They're the same, they just made .tif since Windows could only have 3 letter extensions. Just like jpg and jpeg, which are interchangeable.


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## lister (Aug 10, 2004)

Macs (as far as I know) do not read file extensions, unlike Windows, so Photoshop on a Mac would have no problem opening these files.

*Most* Windows programs will rely on the File extension to tell it how to open the file, so if the extension is wrong, the software won't/can't open it.

I say *most*, as one popular bit of graphics freeware here on TSG is Irfanview; which, amongst it's many other capabilities, is the ability to identify and rename graphics files with incorrect extensions.


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## slipe (Jun 27, 2000)

ferrija1 said:


> They're the same, they just made .tif since Windows could only have 3 letter extensions. Just like jpg and jpeg, which are interchangeable.


Well *buck52* says they arent. So I would suspect there is something there beyond our simple understanding.


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## lister (Aug 10, 2004)

No, they're the same.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

slipe said:


> Well *buck52* says they arent. So I would suspect there is something there beyond our simple understanding.


As lister said, they're the same, Ps might not support it, though. I don't know much about the older Ps versions.


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## davmar (Apr 17, 2007)

did you type tif in or did you use the format dropdown and select tiff ? if you selected in dropdown you should have had no trouble opening the file except - in file options where it shows lzw it shows a byte order, one for ibm pc and another for mackintosh. when you hover over the one that's not ticked it tells you that some tiff readers may not be compatible. (maybe you had mackintosh ticked). it may be worth you checking i always tick the pc one by the way as i don't have any mac friends lol.


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