# Open Mac TIF's on a PC



## plejon (Jul 26, 2001)

I sometimes exchange files with Mac users, and I run into a problem.

One Mac user sends me <name>.TIF files, but I can't open them in Photoshop on my PC. I get a message "Could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document"

From another Mac user, I get <name>.TIF.SIT files. I don't know what the SIT stands for, but if I rename them to <name>.TIF, I get the same "Could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document" error message.

I did manage to open the .TIFs once, by using The Gimp on a linux machine, but the result didn't look good (pictures looked funny, with very hard contrasts) and it would be more practical if I could open the files directly on my PC.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

You could try The Gimp under Windows


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

sit file are compressed files ... similar to zip files.
http://www.stuffit.com/win/expander/index.html

Looks like they have to unzipped first.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Kodak Imaging which comes with Windows might open them.

Irfan might - freeware.
http://www.irfanview.com/

MS article
Cannot Open a Tagged Information File Format (TIFF) File in IE
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q319829&

sekirt


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## acraftylady (Jan 22, 2003)

sekirt said:


> Kodak Imaging which comes with Windows might open them.
> 
> Irfan might - freeware.
> http://www.irfanview.com/
> ...


If you are using Windows XP there is no Kodak imaging.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Thank you acraftylady for correcting that.

sekirt


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## plejon (Jul 26, 2001)

Guess what, I installed Irfanview and got the following message while opening the TIF file: "This is a postscript EPS file. Please note: irfanview can read only EPS files with a TIF/WMF inside. Try with Ghostview"

As irfanview seemed to think that my .TIF was actually an EPS file, I just renamed the file from .TIF to .EPS and Photoshop now opens it without any problem. 

So Irfanview couldn't read the file, but it indirectly solved my problem.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

Darn!
Irfan keeps getting better and better. It is even solving problems now!
  

Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)
http://www.prepressure.com/formats/eps/fileformat.htm

Glad you figured it out.

sekirt


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## guacman (Dec 7, 2001)

I was thinking you could open tiff, tif files with the good ole MS Paint and save them in different format. Am I wrong?


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## sekirt (Mar 28, 2003)

guacman

Quoting MS


> You can also use Paint to work with pictures, such as .jpg, .gif, or .bmp files.


http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/mspaint_overview.mspx

In addition, older versions and depending on which other MS programs are not installed, Paint might ONLY open .BMP files.

sekirt


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## Dataseeker (Dec 19, 2004)

The well established circumstance of fact is that in a Mac you have the choice of saving files in a PC format, while in Windows applications on a PC you have no choice to save in a Mac format. Without 3rd party software on your PC, Windows will not read Mac files. Just ask your Mac user friends to save the .tif files in PC format and when they sent them to you they should open with no problem.


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