from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Tagged Image File Format
TIFF
<file format, graphics> (TIFF) A {file format} used for
still-image {bitmaps}, stored in tagged fields. {Application
programs} can use the tags to accept or ignore fields,
depending on their capabilities.
While TIFF was designed to be extensible, it lacked a core of
useful functionality, so that most useful functions (e.g.
{lossless} 24-bit colour) requires nonstandard, often
redundant, extensions. The incompatibility of extensions has
led some to expand "TIFF" as "Thousands of Incompatible File
Formats".
Compare {GIF}, {PNG}, {JPEG}.
(1997-10-11)