TIFF images are shown as blank when embedded in some web pages

Hi,

I can see the image when I click on the link you posted.

Did you select in Safari preferences on the second tap ... *show pictures when page is loading*?

Dimaxum

Ok carrera --

Yes, it almost works.
Using 10.6.2

First of all, the U.S. Patent Office has the worst site known to man -- for years.
Macs have had great deal of trouble submitting things to them. Impossible for many here.

On your pages, The 1st page is completely blank.
I can see figures & text on the other pages.

If I were you, I would use the Develop Menu to appear to be IE browser,
and also consider converting the TIFFs (very large files) to PDFs.

One of the problems viewing here is the size of the URL (Cookie).
It's so huge, it throws off the whole thread here.
Anyway, best of luck.

You could try the Accel ViewTIFF Plug-in.
Download a free trial...
<http://www.acordex.com/browseProd/AVTinstall.html>
It work fine with Camino 1.6.10 and Snow Leopard.

Can anybody tell me a way to view TIFF files at the USPTO website using my Mac and not have to spend hundreds of dollars to do it?

Actually, the only way that I can view USPTO TIFF files on my Mac is to use Windows! I have to use XP and run firefox. Also have to make sure that Quicktime and iTunes are uninstalled.

You would think Apple would fix this. This has been going on for a long time. And it's embarrassing - their own engineers must have to use a PC to view Apple patents!

tsukashima --

Yes, it is embarrassing.
You would think that the United States Government Patent Office would
have an industry compliant website. They (or the webmaster they hired) have decided
to go below standards/written for PeeCees exclusively.

And they've been doing it for years!
Apple can't fix it. The USPTO could very easily if they wanted to.
It's ridiculous.

On the PC side this is a well-known and documented problem with Quicktime, eg:

+"QuickTime does indeed support the TIFF file format. However QuickTime does not support compression formats used in TIFFs."+ -- http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/main/helptif.htm

On my OSX system, Safari displays TIFFs, but they are highly-enlarged: My workaround is to open the image in a new window, but it becomes cumbersome when reviewing multiple images (for example, TIFFs at the US Patent Office). However, on Firefox the Quicktime logo flashes and then a blank page is shown; this is true for any alternate plugin (such as Aspator) or utility which invokes the Quicktime plugin. On the PC side, just specify a freeware solution (such as Alternatiff) as the default program for TIFFs and Voila! no problems.

IMHO, this isn't a problem with the USPTO: They've selected an image format that satisfies the vast majority of their customers. I find it hard to believe that the Cupertino brain trust can't figure out the TIFF compression format: Perhaps the format is protected by Intellectual Property, or Apple's focusing their attention on Safari 😉

Thanks for reading!

My impression is that this is recent problem with Snow Leopard, its version of Quicktime or Safari. I am positive that I read patents using Safari 4.x on Snow Leopard until some time in December. I was busy with the holidays, so it wasn't until late in December that I noticed the functionality had disappeared. I can still read the Tiffs using my old Powerbook G4 running OS 10.4.11, where both Safari and Firefox can view patents at the USPTO website. It's hard to believe that Apple cannot fix this. AccelView Tiff figured out the USPTO made some change on December 9, 2009 that messed up its plug-in. Maybe that change is to blame.

The Accel ViewTiff Plug-In works better than nothing on Firefox, but not well enough for my $59. I'd like the window to be adjustable so that I can enlarge the images at will and view them without having to scroll in that itty bitty little window.

If you already have the patent number, sometimes you can use google.com/patents. Unfortunately, Google's indexing is full of errors, and the more recent the patent, the less likely Google is to be able to find it. The images are viewable, at least.

I hope that everyone will report this as a bug using Safari>Report Bugs To Apple and will send feedback using http://www.apple.com/feedback/

The best solution is to just give up on the horrid USPTO site, and use http://www.freepatentsonline.com/
You get multipage pdf files on screen, which you can save to your local drive, and the search tools are pretty good.

Someone's post reminded me how this used to work in Safari- - by opening the patent image in a new window. The new window approach doesn't work any more, but you can open patent images in a *new tab.*

1) Follow your patent search to *USPTO Full-Text And Image Database*.
2) For older patents that are not available Full Text or for any patent abstract you want to read yourself, click *IMAGES box.*
3) On the images page (where no images are displayed in Safari!), the left margin has the following linked images:
Sections:
*Front Page*
Drawings
Specifications
Claims
4) To view any of the Sections, place the cursor on that specific section link, *depress Control and click the mouse.* The Popup/contextual menu will display among other options *Open Link in New Tab.* Select it.
5) Click the new tab to view the image. To enlarge or reduce image size, use the usual Command + or Command - .

Hello All,

For some reason I can open .tiff files generated by a scientific microscope camera, but as soon as I modify and save them (in Preview), Preview just shows a blank gray box. This is unrelated to the US patent office website. I noticed that Quick Look could partially view the modified files (but they appeared transparent). What's up with this Apple?!

Thanks,
Brian