Convert TIFF to PDF

Then the conversion produces a picture of the text rather than the text itself, and searching it finds nothing. Run /pdf-ocr/ to add a recognised text layer first; optical character recognition turns the scanned pixels into selectable, searchable characters that the conversion can then carry through properly.

Yes, and the TIFF would not have. Browsers ship a decoder for PDF and none for TIFF, so a TIFF link forces a download while a PDF renders inline. That is usually the deciding factor when the file is going onto a web page rather than into an application. A PDF looks byte-for-byte identical on every machine and every printer, which is why contracts, invoices and academic papers all live in it.

EXIF travels with the embedded image data, which means GPS coordinates can end up inside a document you intend to publish. Use the strip-metadata option during conversion if the PDF is going anywhere public — once it is embedded it is no longer obvious that it is there.

They are flattened into one picture on the way in, in the order and at the opacities the file specifies, and there is no way back — a PDF has no concept of a layer stack, so what it receives is the composite. Hidden layers are dropped rather than merged, which is worth checking first if the file has old versions of an element switched off inside it. Keep the layered original alongside the document; it is the only copy that stays editable. TIFF handles CMYK, 16-bit depth, embedded ICC profiles and multi-page documents, which is exactly what print and archival workflows require.

They are composited against the page, which is white by default, so a transparent background becomes a white one. If the image is meant to sit on a coloured page, set the matte colour before converting rather than trying to fix it afterwards in the document.

Slightly, if the image is in CMYK. A TIFF can carry print colour, and a document renders on a screen, so the conversion maps those inks into RGB — and the ink gamut contains deep cyans and rich blacks that a screen cannot reproduce, which come back a little duller. Images already in RGB pass through untouched. If the document is heading for a printer rather than a screen, convert late and keep the CMYK original for the press. TIFF’s flexibility is its weakness — two TIFFs can be structured so differently that software reading one fails on the other — and files are large.

Yes for text-bearing TIFF (DOCX, ODT, HTML, TXT) — fonts are embedded into the PDF so the output looks identical on every viewer. Image-only TIFF (JPG, PNG) just centers the image on the page; layout is N/A.

Yes — drop multiple TIFF files into the upload zone and choose the "merge into one PDF" option. They appear as sequential pages in the PDF in upload order; drag-to-reorder is supported before conversion.

Defaults: A4 portrait (international) or letter portrait (US). The advanced options expose page-size (A3, A4, A5, letter, legal, tabloid, custom) and orientation (portrait / landscape). For image TIFF, "auto-fit" picks orientation to match the source aspect ratio.

Yes for TIFF formats that have real hyperlink metadata (DOCX, ODT, HTML). Image-based TIFF (JPG, PNG, TIFF) have no hyperlinks to preserve. The PDF file uses standard PDF URL actions so links work in every PDF reader.

Yes when the TIFF contains real text (DOCX, ODT, HTML, TXT). Image-based TIFF produces an image-only PDF — to make it searchable, use /pdf-ocr/ after conversion to run optical character recognition.