CR2 vs TIFF

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a versatile, high-quality image format widely used in professional photography, publishing, printing, and document archiving. Created by Aldus (now Adobe) in 1986, TIFF supports multiple compression methods including LZW (lossless), ZIP, and JPEG, as well as uncompressed storage. TIFF can store images in various color spaces (RGB, CMYK, LAB, grayscale) and bit depths (8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit float), making it essential for color-critical workflows. The format supports multiple pages/layers in a single file, alpha channels, clipping paths, and extensive metadata (EXIF, IPTC, XMP). TIFF/IT is used for prepress data exchange, and GeoTIFF embeds geospatial data for mapping applications. While TIFF files are larger than JPG or PNG, they're the preferred archival format for preserving maximum image quality and metadata.