ARW to TIFF Converter
Initializing... drag & drop files here
Supports: ARW
Advanced Options - Our defaults are optimized for the best results. We recommend you keeping the defaults unless you have a specific need.
Reset to defaults
Need help?Convert ARW to TIF Online
Turn a Sony Alpha raw (.arw) into a flat, print-ready TIF (TIFF) image — the standard handoff for print labs, layered editing, and long-term archival. Pick a lossless compression type and the rendered pixels are preserved exactly, with no quality loss at the encode step. The one thing to know going in: the render is permanent — demosaic, white balance, exposure, and any Creative Look are baked in, and the editing latitude lives in the ARW, not the TIF — so keep the original raw as your master.
How to Convert ARW to TIF
- Upload Your ARW File: Drag and drop your
.arwfiles onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. You can queue several Sony raw frames at once — straight off an α7, α6000-series, or older DSLR-A body. - Pick a Compression Type: Open Advanced Options and set "Compression Type" to LZW or DEFLATE for a lossless TIF that opens everywhere — both shrink the file with no pixel loss. The dropdown also offers JPEG/LOSSY compression, which makes a smaller file but is lossy and not read by every professional tool, so switch away from it if you need true lossless.
- Set Quality and Resolution (Optional): Leave "Quality Preset" on "Very High (Recommended)" to hold detail; use "Image resolution" only if you want to scale the photo down. Pick the
.tifor.tiffextension under "File extension" to match your workflow. - Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your TIF. No sign-up, no watermark.
ARW vs TIF: What You Keep and What Changes
| Property | ARW (Sony Alpha Raw) | TIF / TIFF (rendered output) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Raw digital negative | Rendered raster image |
| Built on | TIFF/EP specification | TIFF container — 1986 (Aldus), TIFF 6.0 in 1992, maintained by Adobe |
| Sensor / color data | Unprocessed mosaic; 12-bit (early bodies) or 14-bit (modern α), written into 16-bit-aligned values | Rendered RGB, lossless or lossy |
| Editing latitude | Full — white balance and exposure recoverable | Limited — adjustments baked in at render |
| Compression | Lossless raw (or smaller compressed raw) | LZW, DEFLATE, PackBits (lossless) or JPEG/LOSSY (lossy) |
| Browser support | None (needs a raw viewer) | Safari only; not a web delivery format |
| Best for | Master archive, re-editing | Print, layered editing, archival delivery |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does converting ARW to TIF lose any image quality?
Choosing LZW or DEFLATE compression keeps the TIF mathematically lossless, so no pixel data is discarded at the encode step. The trade-off is in the render itself, not the file: to write a TIF, the converter demosaics the raw and bakes in a white balance, exposure, and tone curve to produce a viewable image. That baked-in interpretation is what you can no longer freely undo — the pixel fidelity of the TIF is intact, but the editing latitude of the raw is not. Pick the JPEG/LOSSY compression type instead and the file also becomes lossy, so leave it on LZW or DEFLATE for archival work.
Do I get a 16-bit TIF, and does it matter for a Sony ARW?
This conversion renders a standard TIF and does not expose a separate 8-bit/16-bit selector, so treat the output as a high-quality rendered image rather than a hand-tuned high-bit master. Worth knowing about the source: Sony sensors capture 12-bit (early Alpha bodies) or 14-bit (most modern α models) of real tonal data, and the ARW writes those into 16-bit-aligned values — the top bits are padding, not extra detail, as photographers note on the pixls.us forum. If your workflow depends on a guaranteed 16-bit-per-channel file for heavy grading, do the raw development in a dedicated editor where you can set the bit depth explicitly, and keep the .arw as your master.
Why is my TIF so much larger than the ARW file?
The ARW holds a single raw mosaic — one value per photosite, stored compressed — while a TIF stores fully rendered RGB pixels across three color planes. Even with LZW or DEFLATE, a TIF from a modern high-megapixel Sony sensor commonly runs much larger than the raw it came from. In our testing, a 24-megapixel ARW around 24 MB rendered to an LZW TIF several times that size. If size matters more than print fidelity, convert ARW to JPG instead, or downscale with the "Image resolution" control before converting.
Is TIF the same as TIFF, and which extension do I get?
They are the same format — "TIF" is just the old three-letter DOS-era spelling of "TIFF," and the bytes inside are identical. The TIFF container dates to 1986 (Aldus) with TIFF 6.0 standardized in 1992 and maintained by Adobe. This tool lets you pick either the .tif or .tiff extension under "File extension" depending on what your workflow expects, since some legacy software is picky about three characters. If you specifically need the four-letter name, use ARW to TIFF. TIFF is built for print and archival, not the web — browsers other than Safari can't display it (per MDN), so for sharing or web delivery use ARW to JPG or ARW to AVIF instead.
How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?
Your ARW is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, and your photos are never shared or made public. The main practical limit on a big upload is its size and the time it takes to send, since Sony raws often run tens of megabytes each. For privacy-sensitive originals, keep the .arw locally and convert only the copies you need.