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GIF to TIFF Converter

Convert a GIF into a lossless TIFF. Every pixel comes across exactly, and transparency survives. Two things worth knowing first: TIFF is a print and archive format, but converting to it does not make an image print-ready — and if your GIF is animated, you get one image, not one page per frame.

Deleted automatically Uploads removed within 30 minutes

Drag and drop your GIF images here

Add several at once. Each file is processed and then deleted from our server.

Up to 20 MB per file Batch ready

Step by step

How to convert GIF to TIFF in 3 steps

  1. Add your GIF

  2. Nothing to configure

    The conversion is lossless.

  3. Download your TIFF

Format comparison

GIF vs TIFF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

256 colours

The long-standing format for simple animations, limited to a palette of 256 colours per frame.

  • Animation that plays almost anywhere
  • Tiny files for flat graphics with few colours
  • Only 256 colours, so photographs look grainy or banded

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

Lossless

A flexible container used in scanning, printing and archiving, where quality matters more than size.

  • Lossless, with high bit depths and CMYK for print
  • Standard in publishing and scanning workflows
  • Large files, and web browsers cannot display it

Frames are not pages

Both of these formats can hold more than one image, which makes it tempting to expect an animated GIF to become a multi-page TIFF. They mean entirely different things by it.

GIF frames are an animation: pictures shown in rapid succession, each replacing the last, with timing attached. TIFF pages are a document: sheets meant to be read in order, at rest — which is why scanners produce them.

Turning a forty-frame animation into a forty-page TIFF would produce a document no scanner, fax system or print workflow expects. So this conversion takes the first frame, and when a GIF has more than one, the tool counts them and says so.

If you genuinely want every frame on paper-like pages, GIF to PDF is built for exactly that: one page per frame, in order.

TIFF does not add print quality

This is the misconception most worth clearing up. TIFF is strongly associated with print, so it is natural to assume converting to TIFF prepares an image for printing. It does not.

What makes an image print well is its pixel count and its colour. A typical GIF is a few hundred pixels across — sized for a web page — and holds 256 colours. Printed at any reasonable size, that is soft and banded. Moving the same pixels into a TIFF changes the container and nothing else: the print will look exactly as it would have from the GIF.

A printer asking for TIFF usually wants a high-resolution original in TIFF form. If the GIF is all you have, it is worth saying so rather than sending a converted file and hoping.

What TIFF genuinely offers here

  • Lossless storage — every pixel exact, with nothing lost to recompression however many times the file is saved.
  • Transparency, kept — the TIFF carries a proper alpha channel, so transparent areas stay transparent.
  • A format built for editing and archiving, and accepted by professional imaging, publishing and archival software that may not take a GIF.

Quality

Quality and file size

There is no quality setting. The TIFF is lossless, so the image is identical to the GIF's first frame, pixel for pixel.

The file gets larger, but not dramatically

TIFF here uses LZW compression — the same family of compression GIF itself uses — but stores full colour for each pixel rather than an index into a 256-colour palette. So it grows, but nowhere near as much as an uncompressed format would. Measured, both kinds of GIF came out about two and a half times larger:

  • A flat diagram: 3.5 KB → 8.5 KB.
  • A photograph saved as GIF: 107 KB → 267 KB.

Compare GIF to BMP, where the same diagram became 720 KB — BMP applies no compression at all.

The 256 colours come with it

TIFF can store millions of colours, but only the ones in the GIF exist. Banding or dithering that is visible in the GIF is carried across faithfully. If the GIF was made from a better original, converting that original to TIFF will be far more useful.

When GIF to TIFF makes sense

  • Archiving old web graphics in a lossless, well-documented format that preservation institutions favour.
  • Feeding a publishing or imaging workflow that accepts TIFF but not GIF.
  • Editing, where a lossless working copy is safer than repeatedly saving a GIF.
  • Document systems that store everything as TIFF, including images that started life as GIFs.

If it is for print

Check the pixel dimensions before sending. For a sharp print you want roughly 300 pixels per inch of printed size: a 4 × 6 inch print needs about 1200 × 1800 pixels. A GIF that is 400 pixels wide will print at a little over an inch across at that quality — and converting it to TIFF will not change that number.

If the GIF is too small, the only real fix is a larger original. Upscaling invents no detail; it makes existing detail softer and the file larger.

Related

TIFF to GIF goes the other way, and runs into the same frames-versus-pages mismatch from the other side. GIF to PNG is lossless and keeps transparency too, at a smaller size, if TIFF is not specifically required. GIF to PDF keeps every frame of an animation, one page each.

What happens to your file

Browsers cannot write TIFF files, so this runs on our server. Your upload is deleted the moment conversion finishes, the result is deleted as you download it, and anything abandoned is swept automatically.

Privacy

What happens to your file

This tool runs on our server, so it works the same on every phone and computer. Your file is uploaded, and this is exactly what happens to it:

  • Stored outside the public web root under a random name, never under your file's name.
  • Processed, with the original upload deleted immediately — whether it succeeded or failed.
  • The result sits behind a signed link that only you receive, which stops working after 20 minutes, and the file is deleted the moment you download it.
  • Anything never collected is deleted automatically within 30 minutes.
  • The image itself is never logged or kept. If a conversion fails, we record the formats involved and the error — not the file.
  • Camera metadata, including any GPS coordinates recording where a photo was taken, is removed from the result. Only the rotation needed to show the image the right way up is kept.

Questions & answers

GIF to TIFF: frequently asked questions

Will my animated GIF become a multi-page TIFF?

No. GIF frames are an animation and TIFF pages are a document, and a forty-frame animation as a forty-page TIFF would be a document no scanner or print workflow expects. You get the first frame, and the tool tells you when the GIF had more. For one page per frame, use GIF to PDF.

Will converting to TIFF make my image print-ready?

No — this is the most common misconception about TIFF. Print quality comes from pixel count and colour, and a typical GIF is a few hundred pixels across with 256 colours. Changing the container changes neither. A printer asking for TIFF usually wants a high-resolution original in TIFF form.

Is transparency kept?

Yes. The TIFF carries a proper alpha channel, so the GIF's transparent areas stay transparent.

How much bigger will the file be?

About two and a half times, measured on both a flat diagram (3.5 KB to 8.5 KB) and a photograph saved as GIF (107 KB to 267 KB). TIFF uses LZW compression here, so it grows far less than an uncompressed format — the same diagram became 720 KB as a BMP.

Is anything lost?

Nothing in the first frame — the TIFF is lossless and pixel-identical to it. Any further frames of an animation are not included. And the GIF's 256-colour limit comes across unchanged, since those are the only colours that exist to be stored.

How large does my GIF need to be to print well?

Roughly 300 pixels per inch of printed size — about 1200 × 1800 pixels for a 4 × 6 inch print. A 400-pixel-wide GIF prints sharply at only a little over an inch across, and converting to TIFF does not change that. Upscaling invents no detail, so the real fix is a larger original.

Keep going

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