TIFF image format

[Andrew Chen]

Could anyone either explain to me or point me to a reference that would
explain the difference between some of the major file formats? In
particular, I am looking for how effective certain types of compression
are with the type of images concerned (mostly black and white documents).

These are the types of formats:
G3
G4
LZW
Packbits

Also, is there any way to get integrated viewing of TIFFs within Explorer
or Outlook? Any help would be appreciated. If possible, please e-mail me
instead of posting, because I don't frequent newsgroups much. Thanks.

Andrew

[Jason Summers]

Andrew Chen wrote:
>
> Could anyone either explain to me or point me to a reference that would
> explain the difference between some of the major file formats? In
> particular, I am looking for how effective certain types of compression
> are with the type of images concerned (mostly black and white documents).
>
> These are the types of formats:
> G3
> G4
> LZW
> Packbits

* G3 aka CCITT Group 3 fax: Black & white only, decent compression, but
there seem to be some portability problems. Different programs display
the same fax3 file differently, sometimes inverting the colors or
skipping the first scan line.

* G4 aka CCITT Group 4 fax: Black & white only, excellent compression of
most scanned documents if the encoder does it right. Compression is
asymmetrical; a document that is mostly white may compress much better
than one that is mostly black.

* LZW: Good general compression, including color images. Unfortunately,
LZW is patented and requires paying for a license. It is no longer part
of the baseline TIFF specification, and should be avoided if at all
possible.

* Packbits: Poor compression, but it is the only baseline compression
method that can compress color images.

There's also:

* CCITT modified Huffman RLE: Black&white only; adequate compression;
very portable.

* Deflate (ZIP): Not widely supported yet, but good general compression,
including color.

* ... And an infinite number of other rarely-used compression methods.

>
> Also, is there any way to get integrated viewing of TIFFs within Explorer
> or Outlook? Any help would be appreciated. If possible, please e-mail me
> instead of posting, because I don't frequent newsgroups much. Thanks.
>
> Andrew

The Wang Imaging utility included with most copies of Windows 95/8 can
display most TIFF files.

There are a number of TIFF plug-ins and ActiveX controls. I am partial
to AlternaTIFF :).

http://www.mieweb.com/alternatiff/other.html

My humble opinion: Use Fax 4 compression or don't use TIFF. Use PNG
instead.

--
Jason Summers
ja...@med-web.com http://home.mieweb.com/jason/