Viewing TIFFs in Windows 7

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In XP, the best way to view a TIFF was via Microsoft Document Image Writer. It showed the pages on the left side and the current page on the right side, very much like in a PDF.

That is not available in Windows 7. I was hoping that the Microsoft XPS Document Writer would replace the Imager Writer, but it does not.

Can anyone tell me what is comparable to the Image Writer from XP in Windows 7?

In my office, faxes come via eMail and we cannot easily view them.

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TIFF files are set to open by default in Windows Photo Viewer: this should give you a simple clean interface, but I agree, there is not much that one can do with it.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager will give extra functionality, including thumbnails and a filmstrip preview option – if you have that package available to you.

Alternatively, you may like to try TIFFViewer {which I have not personally tried}.

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Thank you. I guess I will try the Picture Manager.

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Please read my reply to 4 Star Lounger. Adobe will open TIF(F)s.

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Adobe will open TIF(F)s.

Adobe what? Adobe Reader doesn’t.

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The Picture Manager is not any better than the default viewer for Windows 7, but what I found out yesterday is that Adobe will open a TIF(F).

You can change the file association for a TIF to Adobe by clicking on Default Programs | Associate a File Type … | click the chevron on the right side of the screen and Adobe is available.

So, my problem is solved and hopefully anyone else who has had this problem will read my post so their problem may be solved as well.

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Also, try Irfanview.

Jerry

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you can also try the free Paint.net. It is an excellent free graphics program.

Joe

--Joe

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Did you try Brava Reader?

Bruce

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MS Discontinued support for the TIFF format with Office 2010. Thanks

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MS Discontinued support for the TIFF format with Office 2010. Thanks

I had success viewing TIFF files with evince viewer in Windows 7.
These were TIFF files that Windows Photo Viewer failed on, reported as corrupted, too large, etc.
The only other apps that would view these files were IrfanView and GIMP, sort of. I say sort of on GIMP because it imports/converts the TIFF to its own internal format and then displays it.

As background, my original problem was that Windows Photo Viewer failed to read certain multipage TIFF files, and said the file, “appears to be damaged, corrupted, or is too large.”
I also found that opening these TIFF files in IrfanView and then doing “Save As…” to a new filename resulted in TIFF files that everything else could read successfully.

I installed evince via Chocolatey.org, e.g., “choco install evince”.
It can also be found here:
https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Downloads

It’s a Windows-compatible version of a viewer app that originate in Gnome/Linux.
Another Linux-originated program, “nomacs”, failed to read the same TIFF files. So evince is the one that works.

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TIFF files are a bit notorious for compatibility problems. The TIFF format is extensible and includes multiple real extensions, in the wild, that not every viewer can handle.

That said, I’ve had pretty good success with Windows Photo Viewer. But then again TIFF has lost a lot of popularity in recent years.

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TIFF files are a bit notorious for compatibility problems. The TIFF format is extensible and includes multiple real extensions, in the wild, that not every viewer can handle.
That said, I’ve had pretty good success with Windows Photo Viewer. But then again TIFF has lost a lot of popularity in recent years.

OK, I have specifics on when Windows Photo Viewer fails, and the specific failure that was troubling me. Even though MS says there is a hotfix, it *absolutely does not work* for the scenario I am describing.
Our Canon scanners (model DRG-1130), being used with Kofax scanning software, and default settings, create grayscale TIFF images that PhotoViewer can’t read. As the Kofax KB mentions, the Canon driver plus Kofax default to creating TIFF files in the “original TIFF” format. One of the newer TIFF formats is called “Technical Note 2” format. This is the format Windows PhotoViewer reads without any issue. So, I found the setting to force Canon+Kofax to create TIFF images in the newer format. Problem solved, at least for my company.

http://knowledgebase.kofax.com/faqsearch/results.aspx?QAID=20011
QAID # 20011
Question / Problem:
Attempts to view color and grayscale TIFF images that were exported from Kofax Capture in the Windows Photo Viewer result in the following error message:
Windows Photo Viewer can’t open this picture because the file appears to be damaged, corrupted, or is too large.

Answer / Solution:
By default, Kofax Capture exports color and grayscale TIFF images using the form of JPEG compression described in the original TIFF 6.0 specification. JPEG compression in TIFF images was updated in Tech Note 2, which is a later addition to the TIFF 6.0 specification.

The Windows Photo Viewer only supports color and grayscale TIFF images that use the Tech Note 2 JPEG compression. Fortunately, Kofax Capture can be configured to create color and grayscale TIFF images that use the Tech Note 2 JPEG Compression.

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I used to receive .tif files that came in from FAX machines and were usually multi-paged, difficult to see all the pages.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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That’s hilarious, Photo Viewer supports the extended standard but not the original!?

OK, I understand. No, not really!

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Apparently it’s the JPEG compression within the TIFF file, not the TIFF file format itself, with TIFF being something of a “container” file format.
Windows PhotoViewer will read bitonal (aka B&W) images in the original TIFF format just fine.

I had one scanning end user who noticed that certain documents with photo ID pictures gave much better results (like you could actually recognize the person in the picture if you saw them in person) when he changed the scans to use GrayScale instead of B&W. So he started scanning documents in GrayScale when they had photo ID’s in them.

It was only the GrayScale scanned documents (and would be color too) that caused problems with PhotoViewer.
So it would be more clear to say that PhotoViewer chokes on the earlier JPEG compression used for GrayScale and color images within a TIFF file.

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