Convert PDF to TIFF

Many companies and people recognize the power of the portable document format (PDF) as a relatively foolproof method of transmitting documents as WYSIWIG. For many people, that’s the desired end result and nothing more need be done. So when products are offered that convert PDF documents to raster TIFFs, those people generally don’t understand the point.

The truth is that when you convert PDF to TIFF, it remains a WYSIWIG, but it is much reduced in size. This allows the transmission of such documents over the web at a much faster rate. It also eliminates the need to bring up Adobe’s PDF reader – which is powerful but often quite slow. Instead, Microsoft’s Photo and Fax viewer will easily read most TIFF images.

In fact you can also choose to convert your PDF documents to PNG where you retain most of the size benefits of converting to TIFF and additionally you can have almost any web browser view your document directly. But that topic is for another day.

Many existing document storage and retrieval systems, even going back 20-30 years, were designed to work with TIFF. It is actually more of a universal format than PDF. A lot of archivists trust the likelihood that TIFF will survive to the next century more than PDF, both because it is less complicated and also because the standard has a life of its own, independent of any company, unlike PDF from Adobe.

The above explains why people like converting from PDF to TIFF. But what’s the right way to do it?  Because many people are converting massive numbers of images, the typical scenario is to acquire an application or a tool that efficiently and quickly performs PDF to TIFF conversion. And that application needs to be robust and reliable – remember many people are converting millions of documents at a time. Also, because PDF documents are created by dozens of different applications today, many who don’t conform to all the standards, when acquiring a conversion system you need to evaluate and insure you’re your system correctly processes your likely documents.

Additional resources on converting PDF to TIFF:

• Convert PDF to TIFF - Without A Print Driver
• Creating TIFF files for electronic filing with the USPTO

-Simon

Comments

[Andreas Andreou]

"PDF to TIFF, it remains a WYSIWIG, but it is much reduced in size"
Is this really the case? Doesn't it depends on the content? I bet pdf is better for all text or vector graphics.

But anyway, problem is that non-tech people know + understand + demand PDF.