The digital world has been transformed with the emergence of different file or image formats, including the legacy TIFF format and the next-generation file type, HEIC. Choosing the best format for usage depends on its built-in capabilities or features and adoption area.
The article compares TIFF vs. HEIC regarding compression technique, file structure, web performance, support for transparency and animation, image quality, web browser support, file size, and storage demands.
When is HEIC better than TIFF?
HEIC images are smaller, high-quality, and have better web performance because they support Highly Efficient Video Coding algorithms. TIFF images are larger, suffer significant compression artifacts, and load slower on websites than HEIC.
The advantages of the HEIC file type include: It is easily manipulated, supports online video clips or animations, smaller and high-quality images with minimal bandwidth costs, less byte consumption, and less storage space demands.
When is TIFF better than HEIC?
TIFF images can support multiple layers, offer excellent color accuracy, and are suitable for info-rich and high-quality image archiving. In contrast, HEIC images are more compressed, support still images and videos, and can contain multiple images. Still, they may face compatibility issues with older operating systems, software, and applications. This makes the TIFF file type suitable for detailed, precise, professional publishing, printing, and scanning.
TIFF versus HEIC Comparison Table
| Aspect/Factor | HEIC | TIFF |
| Transparency | Supports alpha channel transparency. | Supports alpha channel transparency. |
| File Size | Smaller files than TIFF files. | Larger files than HEIC files. |
| Image Quality | High-quality images than TIFF. | High-quality images. |
| Performance | Highly web-responsive than TIFF. | Less web-responsive than HEIC. |
| Structure | Raster graphic: Has tags and comments, image tracks, and EXIF/TIF files stored using displaying indicators. | Raster graphics: Comprises Image File Header (IFH), image file directory (IFD), and the bitmap data. |
| Animation | Supports image series or still image animations. | Does not support animations or image sequences. |
| Storage | Smaller and more storage efficient than TIFF. | Larger and storage inefficient than HEIC. |
| Compression | Supports lossy and lossless compression. | Supports lossy, PackBits, and lossless compression. |
| Browser Support | Comparatively high web-browser support than TIFF. | Limited browser support compared to HEIC. |
Differences and similarities between HEIC and TIFF images
The above table compares the technical features of HEIC versus TIFF, revealing similarities in compression techniques and transparency support. However, they differ in structure, image quality, storage needs, PackBits compression, browser support, file size, animation, and web performance.
Transparency
HEIC files support alpha channel transparency the same way PNG files do. The technique allows logos and graphics to merge flawlessly with the predominant webpage backgrounds. The format supports different levels of transparency depending on the bit depth. An alpha of 0 equals transparent pixels, 255 denotes opaque pixels, and an alpha of 1-254 pixels is translucent pixels.
TIFF supports alpha channel transparency, which hardly functions in design. Its transparent backgrounds are discordant with most web-based programs. Thus, its alpha channel transparency is rarely used and might need to be supported by users' software.
File Size
TIFF and HEIC store rich multilayer metadata and data in a single file. HEIC supports and stores rich metadata, including GPS coordinates, creation dates, and image descriptions, in a single 35-megapixel code stream.
Conversely, the band of pixel data in a TIFF file can be at most 4GB. Multiple TIFF files can be larger than multilayered HEIC files based on uncompressed files. However, the differences in file sizes can be best explained using the formats' compression efficiency.
Image Quality
HEIC and TIFF are high-quality image formats, but HEIC's image quality is slightly higher. TIFF stores detailed, high-resolution, high-quality data such as varying color spaces: LAB, Grayscale, gray RGB, indexed palette, bi-level, and other color depths, including 1-16-bit color depth per channel.
HEIC supports 10-bit and 16-bit per color channel, resulting in vibrant and high-quality images. It captures and stores detailed image data, giving it the richer color depth that graphic designers and photographers need.
Performance
HEIC files are smaller than TIFF files. Because of their smaller size, HEIC files consume fewer bytes, necessitate fewer bandwidth expenses, and are highly web-responsive because they load faster on websites than TIFF.
Structure
HEIC and TIFF are raster-based file types, and their features can be compared. HEIC's structure specifies the storage of particular images, image series, and metadata in a container file based on the ISO Base Media File Format. It has Exif metadata with all the tags and comments supported by EXIF and TIFF.
The embedded TIFF files in HEIC files hardly have image data. Instead, they store individual image files and mark them as "items," with each file having a designated number of items. The HEIC format also allows image sequences called "tracks" to be saved and stored in EXIF/TIF files.
HEIC uses an indicator to indicate whether the HEIC viewer must display the files as galleries or animations later. On the other hand, TIFF supports a multilayer structure, with each value identified using a tag indicating the data type, including image width or height and the stored data layout.
The TIFF file has the tag and type, closely followed by the length of several values assigned to a specific tag. Each property, including the single-value properties, is stored in arrays. TIFFs allow different metadata for identical properties, where the image width can be saved using tag 0x0100 in a single-entry group.
Animation
TIFF files hardly support animations, while the HEIC format supports still animation or image sequences. HEIC stores multiple images and metadata in one file, producing short animations. The format can also store image sequences that can be played back as video clips, animated content, or short animations. TIFFs are a high-quality, high-resolution image format for photography, printing, Artwork and graphic design, GIS, mapping, and Desktop publishing.
Storage
HEIC files are smaller and need less space on most storage mediums such as ISO Base Media file systems, Content Delivery Networks, PCs, and Cloud. Nonetheless, TIFF's compression methods are less effective than HEIC's, resulting in more storage demands.
The compressed TIFF files can be stored indefinitely on hard drives, DVD±R, cloud services, file systems, floppy drives, and Content Delivery Network (CDN). The storage period in both cases depends on the handling process, situation, and storage medium used. For compression efficiency, choose HEIC over TIFF.
Compression
TIFF and HEIC support lossy and lossless compression. However, HEIC uses the most effective and advanced HEVC algorithms to reduce file sizes while considerably retaining higher quality than TIFF. Lossless HEIC images are smaller and demand less storage space than lossless TIFF images.
TIFF supports LZW algorithms, which minimize file sizes by 6%, although the sizes of non-photo images increase by 50% when compressed. Its PackBits compression compresses TIFFs by 20%, though the compression rate can be zero for non-photographic TIFF images.
The lossy method results in compression artifacts in TIFF and HEIC, but the efficiency of HEVC ensures a slight loss in HEIC image quality compared to TIFFs. TIFF's table-based lookup algorithms delete duplicate data and compress the remaining data, resulting in degraded image quality.
Browser Support
HEIC is a new file format created in 2017, while TIFF has existed for over four decades, making it a legacy file format. While both formats have gradually become popular across various operating systems, computer devices, platforms, applications, and web browsers, numerous compatibility issues remain.
HEIC is compatible with Android Pie, Apple iOS 11, and Apple MacOS High Sierra. It is supported by Google Marketplace, Google Workspace, and Safari but unsupported by most legacy and new top web browsers, including Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Discord, IE, and Samsung Internet. On the other hand, nearly all web browsers except Safari are incompatible with TIFF files and images.
Convert HEIC to TIFF or TIFF to HEIC
Convertjack helps you convert HEIC to TIFF while keeping all image data intact. TIFF file type is suitable because it supports high-quality, multilayered, and data-rich images and files, which boosts color accuracy and image sharpness.
Convert your TIFF files using convertjack; this TIFF to HEIC converter is reliable and can convert multiple images simultaneously. HEIC format supports HEVC compression algorithms, resulting in smaller, high-quality images with minimal storage space demands, comprehensive image metadata, and seamless web responsiveness.