How to Convert TIFF to PDF (For Email, Fax, or Archival)
TIFF is the format of professional scanners, medical imaging, and old fax systems. It's lossless and high-fidelity — but unsupported by most modern viewers and email clients. Converting TIFF to PDF makes it readable everywhere without losing image quality. Here's how, free.
The problem
A doctor sends you medical scan images as multi-page TIFFs. A lawyer mails you exhibits in TIFF for archival. An old fax machine outputs TIFFs only. You can't open them in Outlook, Gmail preview, or your phone. PDF is the universal alternative — and converting preserves the image quality that made TIFF the original choice.
Use the tool now
Open the tiff to pdf tool and follow the steps below.
Step-by-step
- 1
Open the TIFF to PDF tool
Drop your TIFF file(s) into [TIFF to PDF](/en/tools/tiff-to-pdf). Multi-page TIFFs convert to multi-page PDFs in one step. Single-page TIFFs become single-page PDFs.
- 2
Set the page size
Auto (matches TIFF dimensions) for fidelity, or Letter/A4 for printing compatibility.
- 3
Pick image quality
Original (lossless — preserves TIFF's full fidelity, larger file) or Optimized (light JPEG compression, ~50% smaller, visually identical for most uses).
- 4
Add multiple TIFFs if needed
For combining multiple TIFFs into one PDF (e.g., separate fax pages), drop them all in. Drag thumbnails to reorder.
- 5
Download
Save the resulting PDF. Opens in any reader, attaches to any email, archives forever.
Pro tips
- •Medical / legal TIFFs often have 1-bit or 8-bit color depth. Conversion preserves whatever the source had — no quality upgrade or downgrade.
- •For multi-page TIFFs (one .tif file with 50 pages inside), the converter expands them automatically into 50 PDF pages.
- •After conversion, run [OCR PDF](/en/tools/ocr-pdf) to make scanned text searchable — TIFFs from scanners are images, not text.
- •For fax archives, name the resulting PDF with the date and sender — fax TIFFs lack metadata, so PDF filename becomes the only context.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose image quality?
In "Original" mode, no — the conversion is lossless. In "Optimized" mode, ~5-10% perceptual quality loss in exchange for much smaller files. For text-heavy documents, the difference is invisible.
My TIFF is huge (100+ MB). Can it convert?
Yes — large medical TIFFs convert fine in modern browsers, though it may take 10-30 seconds. The output PDF is usually 30-70% smaller than the TIFF.
Can I batch-convert a folder of TIFFs?
Drop all TIFFs into the tool — each becomes its own PDF. To combine them all into one PDF instead, use [Merge PDF](/en/tools/merge-pdf) on the resulting files.
Why does my fax TIFF look pixelated in PDF?
Fax TIFFs are typically 200×100 DPI or 200×200 DPI — low resolution by design. The PDF preserves whatever's in the TIFF. For better legibility, the original sender would need to re-fax at higher resolution.