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TIFF to GIF Converter

Convert a TIFF into a GIF. If your TIFF has more than one page — and scanned documents usually do — you will get page one only. Both formats can hold several images, but they mean entirely different things by it, and there is no sensible translation between them.

Deleted automatically Uploads removed within 30 minutes

Drag and drop your TIFF images here

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

Up to 20 MB per file Batch ready

#ffffff

GIF cannot store transparency, so it is filled with this colour.

Step by step

How to convert TIFF to GIF in 4 steps

  1. Check whether your TIFF is multi-page

    If it came from a document scanner, it probably is — and TIFF to PDF is what you want.

  2. Add your TIFF

  3. Choose a background colour for transparent areas

  4. Download your GIF

Format comparison

TIFF vs GIF

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

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

Two kinds of "multiple images"

This is the interesting part, and it is specific to this pair.

A multi-page TIFF is a document. Page one, page two, page three — they are meant to be read in sequence, at rest, like sheets of paper. Scanners and fax systems produce them for exactly that reason.

A multi-frame GIF is an animation. The frames are meant to be shown in rapid succession, each replacing the last, with timing information attached.

These are not the same thing wearing different clothes. Turning a three-page contract into a GIF that flickers between pages several times a second would be a genuinely absurd document.

So this conversion takes the first page and stops. That is defensible, but it would be silent data loss — so it is not silent: if your file has more than one page, the tool tells you how many it had and that you are getting page one. A download that quietly contains a tenth of what you uploaded is the worst kind of result, because it looks like success.

What to do with a multi-page TIFF instead

  • TIFF to PDF — the right answer nearly always. Every page becomes a PDF page, in order, losslessly. PDF is a multi-page format, so the mapping is exact.
  • Split first, then convert — if you genuinely need each page as a GIF, extract the pages with an image editor and convert them individually.
  • Use this tool — only if page one is all you actually wanted.

The usual GIF trade-offs still apply

TIFF is a high-fidelity format: lossless, often 16 bits per channel, frequently CMYK for print work. GIF stores 256 colours and nothing else.

So a photographic or print-quality TIFF loses a great deal — expect banding and dithering. The file does get much smaller, since uncompressed TIFFs are enormous: a 720 KB TIFF became a 129 KB GIF in testing.

For a scanned document — black text on white — the palette limit costs almost nothing, because the image barely uses any colours to begin with.

Quality

Quality and file size

There is no quality setting. GIF has none to offer.

What is lost besides pages

  • 16-bit depth becomes 8-bit, then a 256-entry palette. If your TIFF was a high-bit-depth master, this is a very large step down.
  • CMYK is converted to screen colours. Print-accurate values do not survive, and the round trip does not return to where it started.
  • Layers and alpha, where present, are flattened. GIF's transparency is a single on-or-off colour, so soft edges become hard ones.
  • Embedded profiles and metadata are not carried across.

Better targets for a TIFF

  • PNG — lossless, keeps every colour and real transparency. The natural choice for a single-page TIFF.
  • JPG — much smaller, ideal for photographic content going onto the web.
  • PDF — for documents, and the only one that keeps every page.

GIF is the right answer only when something specifically requires GIF.

Where TIFFs come from

  • Document scanners, which default to multi-page TIFF in a lot of office software.
  • Fax systems, historically and still in healthcare and legal work.
  • Print and pre-press, where TIFF is the standard interchange format.
  • Archives and libraries, which favour it for preservation.
  • Microscopy and satellite imaging, where flexible bit depths matter.

Notice how little of that overlaps with what GIF is for. TIFF is a storage and production format; GIF is a delivery format from the dial-up era. The conversion is usually a compatibility step rather than a natural progression.

When it is genuinely the right call

  • A single-page TIFF of a simple graphic — a logo, a diagram, a line drawing — going somewhere that accepts GIF.
  • A legacy system that whitelists GIF and nothing else.
  • Frames for an animation where each source is a separate TIFF.
  • Scanned line art, which converts beautifully — bitonal scans use two colours and lose nothing at all.

A note on bitonal scans

Fax-style TIFFs are often black and white only, using CCITT Group 4 compression. Those convert to GIF very well: two colours is comfortably inside 256, the image is unchanged, and GIF compresses runs of identical pixels efficiently — which is exactly what a page of text is.

It is the one case where TIFF to GIF loses nothing whatsoever. It still only gives you page one, though.

What happens to your file

Browsers cannot decode TIFF, 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.

Worth stating plainly: the TIFFs people convert are frequently scanned documents.

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

TIFF to GIF: frequently asked questions

My TIFF has several pages. What happens?

You get page one, and the tool tells you how many pages the file had so it is not a surprise. Both formats hold multiple images but mean different things by it — TIFF pages are document pages meant to be read at rest, GIF frames are animation meant to play in rapid succession. Turning a three-page contract into a flickering GIF would be absurd, so the conversion stops at page one. For a multi-page scan, use TIFF to PDF.

How do I keep all the pages?

Convert to PDF instead. Every TIFF page becomes a PDF page, in order and losslessly, because PDF is genuinely a multi-page format and the mapping is exact. If you specifically need each page as a GIF, split the TIFF in an image editor and convert the pages individually.

Will my scan look worse?

It depends what is on it. A scanned document of black text on white barely uses any colours, so the 256-colour palette costs almost nothing. A photographic or print-quality TIFF loses a great deal — expect banding and dithering — and PNG or JPG would serve far better.

What happens to CMYK and 16-bit data?

Both are lost. CMYK is converted to screen colours, and the round trip does not return to where it started, so print-accurate values do not survive. 16-bit depth becomes 8-bit and then a 256-entry palette, which is a very large step down from a high-bit-depth master.

Is there a case where nothing is lost?

Yes — bitonal scans. Fax-style TIFFs are often black and white only, and two colours sits comfortably inside 256. The image is unchanged, and GIF compresses runs of identical pixels efficiently, which is exactly what a page of text is. It still only gives you page one, though.

What should I convert a TIFF to instead?

PNG for a single page you want kept losslessly, JPG for photographic content going onto the web, and PDF for documents — the only target that keeps every page. GIF is right only when something specifically requires GIF.

Keep going

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