Open tiff (TIFF V6/TTN2 format) file?

Question

Open tiff (TIFF V6/TTN2 format) file?

I scanned more than 125 pages on a Kyocera TASKalfa machine (the 3051c model or so) onto a flash drive specially formatted as the machine requires.

I scanned the pages onto the flash drive as tif files for maximum quality. I'll be using the files to make a book in InDesign.

But...plugging the flash drive into my MacBook Pro, I can't open the tif files with either Preview or with Photoshop CS3. The Kyocera manual indicates the .tif files are in TIFF V6/TTN2 format. See the screen shots of the error messages below.

Question: Is there any way to actually open the tif files I have on the flash drive and use them on my Mac?

What about inserting both the flash drive with the scanned files and a second drive formatted for my Mac into a Windows machine and copying the tif files from one drive to the other through that Windows machine? Would that enable me to open the files on the flash drive formatted for the Mac?

Scanning to low-compression/high quality .pdf files is also an option on the Kyocera — and now I remember that I was able to open pdf files scanned from the Kyocera to my flash drive even as formatted for the Kyocera. I'd really rather not have to go back and re-scan all those pages as pdf files, though. And...

Question: What is the difference in quality, really, between an image scanned as a tiff file compared to that same image scanned as a pdf file? The images I'm working with are not photos; they're relatively simple colored line drawings.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.3), iPad mini WiFi, 9.3; iPhone 10.2

Posted on Jun 6, 2017 2:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,164 points

Jun 7, 2017 3:15 AM in response to tango_red_pearl

Try opening that tiff in Ps3 with File > Open As > JPEG. This may be the Format drop-down menu at the bottom of the Open dialog panel. Your TIFF may just be a jpg in a tiff wrapper. TTN2 is the Adobe Photoshop TIFF Technical Notes, Replacement TIFF/JPEG specification, March 22, 2002.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 7, 2017 3:12 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks! Going to the Open dialogue and changing "All Readable Documents" (all the file names are grayed out) to "All Documents" and choosing JPEG in the Format dropdown box does the job.

Seems that the tiff files as scanned used an unsupported color space.

You've saved my (vegetarian equivalent of) bacon!

Properties of a sample file:

Reply

Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

56,248 points

Jun 6, 2017 3:39 PM in response to tango_red_pearl

Hello tango_red_pearl,

The biggest difference between scanning to TIF vs PDF is that it is usually much harder to make any subsequent manipulations on a PDF. Unfortunately, your scanner is saving an obscure TIFF format that mainstream tools can't understand. I don't know if XnViewMp can handle the image or not. Would it be possible to post one of these images on DropBox or something? It is much easier to say what will open it if there is a file to try to open.

If it was me, I would open these files with GDAL and save them as some other format. GDAL is a command-line tool and somewhat difficult to get running on a Mac. You might be able to open them with QGIS (which includes GDAL). These tools are more often used for satellite imagery, but that is where you are more likely to find these funky TIFF variants. Therefore, GIS tools are more like to be able to handle these files.

Reply