TIFF → PDF

Convert single or multipage TIFF scans to a PDF, with every TIFF frame as its own page.

How to convert TIFF to PDF

Add one or more TIFF files and wait for each row to show its frame count.
Tick the images to include and put them in order with the arrows.
Rotate any image that is on its side.
Choose Match each image or Fit inside A4, and an orientation and margin for A4.
Press Create PDF and download the PDF.

Options

Order and selection: Tick a TIFF to include it and use the arrows to move it. A multipage TIFF moves as one block, and its frames stay in their stored order.
Rotate: Turns a file 90° clockwise per click. The turn applies to every frame in that TIFF.
Page size: Match each image makes every page the size of its image, one pixel to one point, with no margin. Fit inside A4 puts every image on a 595 × 842 pt page: large images shrink to fit, smaller ones stay at their own size and are centred. Images are never cropped or enlarged.
Orientation: Shown with Fit inside A4. Portrait or Landscape applies to every page in the PDF.
Margin: Shown with Fit inside A4. None is 0 pt, Narrow is 18 pt (a quarter inch) and Standard is 36 pt (half an inch) on every side.
Output PDF name: Up to 120 characters, without slashes or control characters. The .pdf extension is added. Left blank, one image keeps its own name and several become images.pdf.

What you get

One PDF with one page per TIFF frame. Three files with four frames each give 12 pages.
Each frame is decoded and saved into the PDF as a JPEG at quality 90 on a white background. A crisp black-and-white scan can look slightly softer and take more space than the TIFF did.
16-bit frames are reduced to 8 bits per channel. Transparency becomes white.
TIFF tags such as scanner resolution, author and date are not carried into the PDF.

Limits

The decoder reads uncompressed, LZW and Deflate TIFFs. Fax-compressed (CCITT) scans and other compressions may be refused.
Greyscale, RGB and palette colour at 1, 8 or 16 bits are supported. CMYK TIFFs are refused.
A frame over 16 megapixels on a computer or Android device, or 4 megapixels on iPhone and iPad, is scaled down to that size. A frame over 64 megapixels, or 25 megapixels on iPhone and iPad, is refused before you start, and the disabled button names the file.
Scaling does not change the page size. With Match each image the page is still sized from the original pixel dimensions; only the embedded image has fewer pixels.
Page size comes from pixels, not the scanner's DPI tag. With Match each image, a 300 DPI A4 scan becomes a page about 34 × 49 inches. Choose Fit inside A4 to get a real A4 page.
Frames cannot be reordered or removed one by one here. Use Organize PDF on the result.
There is no page preview for TIFF, and the text in a scan is not searchable.

Check the result

Deckle checks that the PDF opens, has one page per frame and that each page has the planned size. Compare the frame count on each row with the page count of the download, and check each page for orientation and legibility.

Questions

Does a multipage TIFF become a multipage PDF?

Yes. Every frame becomes a page in the order it is stored in the file. The frame count is read when you add the file, so the row shows it before you convert.

Why was my TIFF refused?

Most refusals are fax (CCITT) compression or CMYK colour, which this decoder cannot read, or a frame over 64 megapixels (25 on iPhone and iPad). The message names the file. Re-saving the scan as LZW-compressed RGB or greyscale fixes the first two.

Why is my scanned page huge in the PDF?

With Match each image, one pixel becomes one point, so a 300 DPI scan is about four times its paper size. Choose Fit inside A4 and it shrinks to fit the page.

Will TIFF to PDF lose quality?

Frames are re-encoded as quality-90 JPEG. Photos and colour scans look the same at normal zoom; sharp black-and-white text can show faint artefacts when zoomed in.

Can I make the scanned text searchable?

Not in this tool. The PDF holds images of the pages, so the text needs an OCR tool to become searchable.

Are my scans uploaded?

No. The TIFF is decoded and the PDF is built in your browser.