How do you compress a Tiff photo image on a mac so that it can be sent in an email?

If you want to reduce its file size then you can open in Preview and use Tools > Adjust Size to change the resolution.

Or if you are happy to just attach the image to the email then you can Control click on the file and select the Compress menu item.

Or, in Preview you can convert it to a compressed picture format such as JPEG or PNG by using File->Export...

Right-click on it and select the compression option. I don't remember the exact wording as I am not at my Mac right now. It will create a Zip file.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that you can compress a TIF enough to make it suitable for email. This is where services like MobileMe and Dropbox are worthwhile.

Or, if you want to send the TIFF itself compressed, so that the person receiving it will have the original image, control-click the file in the Finder and choose Compress "filename." The resulting .zip file will often be quite a bit smaller than the original. Your ISP or the ISP of the receiver will likely limit the size of the file you send, but in general if it's less than 10 MB or so, you're good to go.

All depends on the file. I did a test compress, brought a TIFF down from 72 MB to 4.7 MB. Original was a huge poster in PDF with vector and raster information.

I don't believe .tifs are a web compatible format. Two options:

1. You either have to compress it, where it becomes a .sit or .zip file that is emailable. Your receiver will need to be able to decompress the file.

2. Change it to a .jpg or .png file which are emailable.

Like Mr. Perkins says your ISP may limit the size of files that can be emailed.

Carl Perkins wrote:

All depends on the file. I did a test compress, brought a TIFF down from 72 MB to 4.7 MB. Original was a huge poster in PDF with vector and raster information.

Just for giggles, I tried a 100MB file with zero vector information (a photo). Compression brought it down to 95MB.

Kanihoncho wrote:

I don't believe .tifs are a web compatible format. Two options:

1. You either have to compress it, where it becomes a .sit or .zip file that is emailable. Your receiver will need to be able to decompress the file.

2. Change it to a .jpg or .png file which are emailable.

Like Mr. Perkins says your ISP may limit the size of files that can be emailed.

I don't see where web compatibility relates to this issue in any way.

I'd be shocked if any computer whatever is unable to decompress a zip file. However, as Mr. Perkins and I have confirmed via testing, the amount of compression can range from negligible to significant, depending on the original TIF file.

As far as changing to JPG or PNG, I don't know if that helps the OP. The question was specifically related to TIFs. Personally, I still prefer the MobileMe or Dropbox solution. The recipient receives exactly what the sender wishes to send and email is not clogged up in any manner.

Folks, use the tools that were designed for the job. JPEG was specifically designed for photo compression. That is what the "P" stands for, after all. Here's a simple example of the same photograph in three different formats: TIFF: 24 MB. zip: 14.5 MB. JPEG: 1.4 MB. Low-res JPEG (which you can convert to in Preview): 319 KB.

And, for completeness, JPEG-2000 (.jp2) lossless compression, which could presumably be converted back to TIFF on the other end if necessary: 7.4 MB.

GlennW wrote:

Folks, use the tools that were designed for the job. JPEG was specifically designed for photo compression. That is what the "P" stands for, after all. Here's a simple example of the same photograph in three different formats: TIFF: 24 MB. zip: 14.5 MB. JPEG: 1.4 MB. Low-res JPEG (which you can convert to in Preview): 319 KB.

I disagree. JPG is a lossy compression. If someone is serious about photography, the only time that JPEG is used is to distribute the abolute final product. It's NEVER used in any intermediate step.

GlennW wrote:

And, for completeness, JPEG-2000 (.jp2) lossless compression, which could presumably be converted back to TIFF on the other end if necessary: 7.4 MB.

I can convert ANY image file to a TIF. However, that does not mean that the resulting TIF will contain all of the information that was present in the original TIF. Bear in mind that I'm including the information that might not be visible on the image without additional processing. However, if the information is gone, the additional processing can not recreate the missing information.

If the file needs to be kept in TIFF at both ends of the connection, you are of course correct, including that email is not the way to transfer large files. It all depends on what the OP's requirements are.

They should be able to tell you what their format and resolution requirements are, and you can then decide accordingly.