TIFF: Overview

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Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is a file format for storing raster graphics images that typically comes from scanners, frame grabbers, paint- and photo-retouching programs. TIFF file may contain single or multiple pages. TIFF file size cannot be greater than 4Gb.

BigTIFF is an extension of format in which TIFF file size can be greater than 4Gb.

VintaSoft Imaging .NET SDK has a set of classes for easy manipulation with TIFF and BigTIFF files.

SDK supports:

Reading and writing of TIFF and BigTIFF files in little- and big-endian formats
Reading of the following TIFF image formats:
- 1-bpp black-white
- from 1- to 32-bpp, 64-bpp grayscale
- from 1- to 16-bpp palette
- from 3- to 96-bpp, 128-bpp RGB
- 32- and 64-bpp RGBA
- 32- and 64-bpp CMYK
- 40-bpp CMYKA
- 8-, 16-, 24- and 48-bpp YCbCr
- 24-bpp CIELab
Writing of the following TIFF image formats:
- 1-bpp black-white
- 4- and 8-bpp grayscale
- 1-, 4- and 8-bpp palette
- 24- and 48-bpp RGB
- 32- and 64-bpp RGBA
Decoding of TIFF images compressed with the following algorithm:
- No compression
- CCITT Group 3 fax
- CCITT Group 4 fax
- CCITT Rle
- Macintosh Packbits
- LZW
- ZIP
- Old JPEG
- JPEG
- JPEG2000 - VintaSoft JPEG2000 .NET Plug-in is necessary
Encoding of TIFF images using the following algorithms:
- No compression
- CCITT Group 4 fax
- LZW
- ZIP
- JPEG
- JPEG2000 - VintaSoft JPEG2000 .NET Plug-in is necessary

TiffFile class

TiffFile class allows to:

create new TIFF file on a disk or in stream
open an existing TIFF file from disk or stream
get access to the collection of TIFF pages - TiffFile.Pages
save changes in TIFF file - ImageFileBase.SaveChanges
save TIFF file to another file or stream - TiffFile.Save
pack TIFF file to another file or stream - ImageFileBase.Pack

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to create new TIFF file in little-endian (Intel) format:

Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile(
        Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFileFormat.LittleEndian);

VB.NET

Dim tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFileFormat.LittleEndian)

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to load an existing TIFF file:

Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif");

VB.NET

Dim tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif")

TiffPageCollection class

TiffPageCollection class allows to:

get number of pages in TIFF file - TiffPageCollection.Count
access page of TIFF file
specify encoding settings for newly added or inserted TIFF page - TiffPageCollection.EncoderSettings
add page to TIFF file - TiffPageCollection.Add
insert page to TIFF file - ImagePageCollection.Insert
swap 2 TIFF pages - TiffPageCollection.Swap
sort TIFF pages - TiffPageCollection.Sort
remove page from TIFF file - TiffPageCollection.Remove, TiffPageCollection.RemoveAt
remove all pages from TIFF file - TiffPageCollection.Clear

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to load multipage TIFF file, add JPEG image to the end of TIFF file, insert PNG image at the beginning of TIFF file and remove third page from TIFF file:

Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif");
tiffFile1.Pages.Add(new Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage("image.jpg"));
tiffFile1.Pages.Insert(0, new Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage("image.png"));
tiffFile1.Pages.RemoveAt(2);
tiffFile1.SaveChanges();

VB.NET

Dim tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif")
tiffFile1.Pages.Add(New Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage("image.jpg"))
tiffFile1.Pages.Insert(0, New Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage("image.png"))
tiffFile1.Pages.RemoveAt(2)
tiffFile1.SaveChanges()

TiffPage class

TiffPage class allows to:

get information about image of TIFF page - TiffPage.Width, TiffPage.Height, TiffPage.BitsPerPixel, TiffPage.Resolution, TiffPage.Palette, TiffPage.Compression
get the TIFF Image File Directory associated with TIFF page - TiffPage.IFD
get image of TIFF page - TiffPage.GetImage
get part of image or scaled image of TIFF page - TiffPage.GetStripImage, TiffPage.GetTileImage, TiffPage.GetImageRect
set part of image of TIFF page - TiffPage.SetStripImage, TiffPage.SetTileImage
save image of TIFF page to a file or stream - TiffPage.Save

The following image compression algorithms are supported for images stored in TIFF page:

None (read/write)
CCITT Group 3 fax (read)
CCITT Group 4 fax (read/write)
CCITT Rle (read)
Macintosh Packbits (read)
LZW (read/write)
ZIP (read/write)
Old JPEG (read)
JPEG (read/write)
JPEG2000 (read/write)

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to get the first page of TIFF file as VintasoftImage object:

Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif");
Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage pageImage = tiffFile1.Pages[0].GetImage();

VB.NET

Dim tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif")
Dim pageImage As Vintasoft.Imaging.VintasoftImage = tiffFile1.Pages(0).GetImage()

TiffImageFileDirectory class

TiffImageFileDirectory class allows to:

get access to a tag collection of TIFF page - TiffImageFileDirectory.Tags
get access to an EXIF tag collection of TIFF page - TiffImageFileDirectory.ExifTags
get access to a GPS tag collection of TIFF page - TiffImageFileDirectory.GpsTags
get access to an Interoperability tag collection of TIFF page - TiffImageFileDirectory.InteroperabilityTags

TiffTagCollection class

TiffTagCollection class allows to:

get number of tags - TiffTagCollection.Count
access tag - Tags[i]
add tag - TiffTagCollection.Add
insert tag - TiffTagCollection.Insert
remove tag - TiffTagCollection.Remove, TiffTagCollection.RemoveAt
remove all tags - TiffTagCollection.Clear

Tag with ID from the ReadOnlyTiffTagId enumeration cannot be added/modified/removed.

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to add/modify/delete tags of TIFF file:

using (Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile(@"image-with-tags.tif"))
{
    Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagCollection tags = tiffFile1.Pages[0].IFD.Tags;
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.Software, "VintaSoft Imaging .NET SDK v8.2");
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.Make, "VintaSoft LLC.");
    tags.Add((ushort)0xE001, "BarcodeInfo");
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime, "2009:03:03 10:20:05");
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.XResolution, 
        new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffRational(100, 1));
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.YResolution, 
        new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffRational(100, 1));
    tags.Remove(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.PrintImageMatching);
    tiffFile1.SaveChanges();
}

VB.NET

Using tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("image-with-tags.tif")
    Dim tags As Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagCollection = tiffFile1.Pages(0).IFD.Tags
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.Software, "VintaSoft Imaging .NET SDK v8.2")
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.Make, "VintaSoft LLC.")
    tags.Add(CUShort(&He001), "BarcodeInfo")
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime, "2009:03:03 10:20:05")
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.XResolution, New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffRational(100, 1))
    tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.YResolution, New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffRational(100, 1))
    tags.Remove(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.PrintImageMatching)
    tiffFile1.SaveChanges()
End Using

TiffTag class

TiffTag class allows to:

get information about tag data - TiffTag.Id, TiffTag.Name, TiffTag.Type, TiffTag.Count, TiffTag.Data

Here is C#/VB.NET code that shows how to add/modify data of the DateTime tag of the first page of TIFF file:

Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile tiffFile1 = 
    new Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif");
Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTag dateTimeTag = 
    tiffFile1.Pages[0].IFD.Tags.Find(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime);
if (dateTimeTag != null)
    dateTimeTag.Data = "01/09/2013 11:45:51";
else
    tiffFile1.Pages[0].IFD.Tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime, "01/09/2013 11:45:51");
tiffFile1.SaveChanges();

VB.NET

Dim tiffFile1 As New Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffFile("multipage.tif")
Dim dateTimeTag As Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTag = tiffFile1.Pages(0).IFD.Tags.Find(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime)
If dateTimeTag IsNot Nothing Then
    dateTimeTag.Data = "01/09/2013 11:45:51"
Else
    tiffFile1.Pages(0).IFD.Tags.Add(Vintasoft.Imaging.Codecs.ImageFiles.Tiff.TiffTagId.DateTime, "01/09/2013 11:45:51")
End If
tiffFile1.SaveChanges()

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