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Need help?How to Re-save TIFF to TIFF with New Compression
- Upload Your TIFF File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select one or more
.tif/.tiffimages. Batch upload is supported, and every file in the queue receives the same compression settings. - Pick Compression Type: Open Advanced Options and choose the codec from the Compression Type dropdown — it opens on JPEG (lossy size reduction), so switch it to LZW for universal compatibility, Deflate (ZIP) for smaller 16-bit files, PackBits for fast run-length encoding on scans, or None for an uncompressed archival baseline. WebP and ZSTD are also available. Leave CCITT Fax 4 and JP2K alone: both reject colour input and leave a truncated, unreadable file instead of reporting an error.
- Set Quality Preset and Resolution (Optional): Choose a Quality Preset (Very High is the default), target a Specific file size in MB, or pick a Preset Resolution (4320p down to 144p). Width x Height accepts pixels or percent if you need exact dimensions. There is no DPI control on this path.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files process server-side and are deleted from our servers shortly after — no sign-up, no watermark, no email required.
Why Re-save a TIFF as a Different TIFF?
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a container, not a single codec. The TIFF 6.0 specification, released by Aldus/Adobe on June 3, 1992, defines slots for multiple compression methods inside the same .tif wrapper — LZW, PackBits, JPEG, CCITT Group 3/4, and (via TIFF Technical Note 2) Deflate/ZIP. Modern libtiff extensions add ZSTD and WebP on top of that. Re-saving a TIFF as a different TIFF is a lossless format-level operation that swaps the inner codec, fixes broken metadata, or normalizes a mixed batch — without ever leaving the TIFF world your downstream tools expect.
- Strip incompatible compression — A scanner saved your masters as JPEG-in-TIFF and your DAM rejects them? Re-save as LZW or Deflate to land a lossless TIFF that every reader accepts.
- Shrink 16-bit photographic TIFFs — Lightroom and Capture One export 16-bit TIFFs where LZW can actually make files larger than uncompressed. Switching to Deflate typically reclaims 30-50% on the same 16-bit data.
- Speed up tile loaders — PackBits decompresses extremely fast on scanned line-art and bilevel content; great for thumbnailing batches of 600 DPI document scans.
- Archive at maximum portability — Some legacy and government archives mandate Uncompressed or LZW TIFF. A one-click re-save brings vendor exports into spec.
- Reduce size for email or upload — Need to email a 40 MB TIFF? Switching to in-TIFF JPEG at Medium quality reaches ~1-3 MB while keeping a
.tifextension your recipient's workflow requires. - Normalize a mixed batch — Hundreds of TIFFs from different sources (PackBits from Photoshop, JPEG from a Fuji scanner, uncompressed from a microscope) all re-saved to one consistent codec for ingestion.
TIFF Compression Methods Compared
| Codec | Lossless? | Best for | Typical 8-bit reduction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None (Uncompressed) | Yes | Archival masters, legacy readers | 0% | Largest files; universally readable |
| LZW | Yes | General photography, Photoshop default | 30-50% photo, 50-70% solid areas | Universal compatibility; can grow 16-bit files |
| Deflate (ZIP) | Yes | 16-bit photography, modern workflows | 5-15% smaller than LZW | Same algorithm as PNG/ZIP; slower to encode |
| PackBits | Yes | Scanned line-art, bilevel docs | 0-20% on photos, higher on RLE-friendly | Very fast; minimal compression on photos |
| JPEG (in TIFF) | No | Embedding lossy preview in TIFF wrapper | 90%+ | Lossy; quality controlled by preset |
| CCITT Fax 4 | Yes | 1-bit black-and-white documents | 90%+ on bilevel | Only for 1-bit images; rejects color/grayscale |
| ZSTD | Yes | Modern pipelines (libtiff 4.0.10+) | Similar to Deflate, ~2x faster | Not in older readers; assigned tag 50000 |
Quality Preset Quick Guide (JPEG-in-TIFF)
| Preset | Quality (~JPEG Q) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | 100 | Master scans, print-ready |
| Very High (default) | 95 | High-quality archive |
| High | 90 | Web preview, internal review |
| Medium | 80 | Email-sized attachments |
| Low | 70 | Quick proofs, thumbnails |
| Very Low | 60 | Aggressive size reduction |
| Lowest | 50 | Smallest file, visible artifacts |
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I pick LZW or Deflate for a 16-bit TIFF?
Pick Deflate. LZW's dictionary-based algorithm struggles with the high-entropy data in 16-bit samples and can produce a file larger than the uncompressed original. Deflate (ZIP) handles 16-bit channels efficiently and typically yields 30-50% smaller files. For 8-bit images, LZW is usually 5-10% larger than Deflate but encodes considerably faster — for batch work on 8-bit content, LZW is the better speed/size tradeoff.
Why did my LZW TIFF get bigger than the original?
You almost certainly fed in either a 16-bit-per-channel image or an already-noisy 8-bit photo. LZW relies on finding repeating byte patterns; high-bit-depth and noisy data have very few of those, so the dictionary overhead exceeds any savings. Switch to Deflate, ZSTD, or in-TIFF JPEG to get real compression on that content.
Is JPEG-in-TIFF the same as just saving a .jpg?
The pixel data is encoded with the JPEG codec, but it's wrapped in a TIFF container that preserves TIFF tags (resolution, ICC profile, EXIF, image description, multi-page support). If a downstream tool requires a .tif extension or TIFF-specific metadata, this is the way to deliver a small file without changing the wrapper. If you only need the smaller file and don't care about the TIFF wrapper, just save as TIFF to JPG instead.
Will my multi-page TIFF stay multi-page after re-saving?
Yes. Each page (technically each IFD — Image File Directory — in TIFF parlance) is re-encoded with the new compression and stitched back into a multi-page output. This is the easiest way to recompress a 200-page scanned document TIFF without splitting and re-merging.
Does CCITT Fax 4 work on my color photo?
No. CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 (Fax 4) are defined only for bilevel (1-bit, black-and-white) images. Pick CCITT for a color or grayscale TIFF and the job does not fail cleanly — it leaves a truncated, unreadable file behind, so there is nothing to salvage and no error to read. Use LZW or Deflate instead; if you genuinely need Group 4, threshold the image to 1-bit in a document-imaging tool that writes the fax TIFF itself.
Are LZW patents still a concern?
No. Unisys's LZW patent (US 4,558,302) expired worldwide by July 2004, which is why LZW is now freely usable in every TIFF reader and writer. The patent concerns that historically pushed some software to default to PackBits or Deflate no longer apply.
Will Photoshop and macOS Preview open the output?
LZW, PackBits, JPEG, Uncompressed, and CCITT have been part of TIFF 6.0 since 1992, so virtually every TIFF reader handles them. Deflate is supported by Photoshop, GIMP, Affinity Photo, ImageMagick, and macOS Preview. ZSTD and JP2K compressions require modern libtiff (4.0.10+, January 2019) — if you need to share with someone on legacy software, stick to LZW or Deflate.
Can I batch a folder of mixed TIFFs all to one compression?
Yes. Upload all files at once and they'll re-save with the same Compression Type and resolution settings. This is the typical use case for normalizing an export from a scanner or microscope before ingestion into an asset management system.
Need to drop TIFF entirely?
If you only kept TIFF for its lossless quality, the modern alternatives are smaller: TIFF to PNG for lossless web/screen use, TIFF to JPG for photo sharing, or TIFF to PDF for document workflows. To only shrink the file without re-encoding, use the Compress TIFF tool instead.