Question

Why is Tiff the preferred document type?

Updated December 3, 2018

asked on March 27, 2018

I ran my test and after uploading my PDF as a TIFF, and then exporting it as a PDF again all of my hyperlinks and bookmarks were lost. I don’t think we can apply a blanket statement that all PDFs should be saved as TIFFs. I think the creator of each PDF should decide if there are special properties such as bookmarks, hyperlinks, or other features that exist within the document that should be preserved.

On a side note, I’m still confused why TIFF is the file of choice? It appears I can perform functions such as redaction and “email pages” from PDF files in Laserfiche.

0 0

Replies

replied on March 27, 2018

I want to speak to one potential point of confusion. You cannot actually perform redactions or send individual pages of PDFs from the Laserfiche repository. You are performing those actions on the TIFF image pages generated from the PDF.

4 0

replied on March 27, 2018

If I'm not mistaken, TIFF is the current archiving standard. Additionally, TIFF pages offer more functionality than you get with a PDF or other electronic file type.

For example, with TIFF pages you can rotate, watermark, delete/add pages, run PhotoDocs to remove color, OCR to extract text, apply annotations, etc.

0 0

replied on March 27, 2018 • Show version history

TIFF has a set standard, and TIFF files are encoded the same no matter what the source: Scanner, copier, graphics program, etc... The format dates back to the 80's. TIFF also supports annotations, which PDFs do not.

PDF does NOT have a set standard. Each software and hardware vendor encodes PDF's differently, so you get situations like what you describe. We have many clients that get PDFs from different business partners, and some send PDFs from a 3rd party piece of freeware that turn into garbage when imported. There are so many thousands of different pieces of hardware and software out there, each with their own personalized spin on the PDF format, that making a program like Laserfiche decide if a PDF should be converted or not is a Sisyphean task.

0 0

replied on December 3, 2018

A little late but I saw this blog post from Laserfiche that was also helpful:

https://www.laserfiche.com/ecmblog/looking-beyond-pdf-x-tiff-benefits/

I think the main takeaway is that TIFFs are more likely to have better longevity than PDFs due to programming changes as Glen alluded to.

0 0

You are not allowed to follow up in this post.

Question

Question

Why is Tiff the preferred document type?

Replies

Sign in to reply to this post.