TIFFs... What's the difference...

[Rock Lobster]

Hey all
I was wondering... what's the difference, in pre-press workflow terms, between TIFF/IT and 1-bit TIFF? or is there a difference?
I understand a color job supplied as 1-bit TIFF would be separated (a separate TIFF for each color), screened when screening is necessary, and therefore already-color-managed or un-color-managable.
Is TIFF/IT the same thing?

 

[david]

TIFF vs TIFF-IT

TIFF vs TIFF-IT

The TIFF data format is one of the oldest formats in this industry, and as a result has gone through many changes and revisions. It would be the subject of a fairly lengthy book to give your answer the detail it encompasses.

In simple terms you have implied the subsets of TIFF format for both 1 bit data and for the industry standard TIFF/IT. TIFF/IT can be compared to the older Linework/ Contone LW/CT format from the early days of CEPS (Color Electronic Prepress Systems) such as Scitex and Hell. The TIFF/IT format was intended to provide a way to distribute a contone data file set that encompassed all of the page elements, both high res line art and lower res image data. So in a general sense TIFF/IT is a contone - non screened format. This format was targeted for passing data between systems and is now largely replaced by PDF.

One bit TIFF on the other hand is a format for storing screened high res data in a one ink per file method. The file will normally have internal tags (Tagged Image Format) that specify the name of the represented ink, size, resolution and other data. A variety of compression formats can be applied as well.

So in the "intended sense" of each format they are radically different - but of course this is not always the case in actual use.

David Lewis

 

[Rock Lobster]

Thanks for the great answer.
What applications are typically generating TIFF/IT? I don't see it as an export from Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, or ArtPro.

 

[david]

None

None

It is not likely that you will find any applications producing this format anymore. It has faded out of use.

There are options - such as our TIFFITFlow software for the Heidelberg Delta Rip, there are TIFFIT output plugins for both the basic Harlequin Rip and for our I-Trap software. But again these are largely unused these days.

David Lewis

 

[prepressing]

TIFF/IT is fairly old and not used in most prepress systems now a days. Tiff-It is a standard file format used in the electronic delivery of advertising content for magazine and newspaper publishing. TIFF/IT or TIFF/IT-P1 files can be made up of FP, CT, HC, and LW files, but again these are not used much any more.

 

[mattbeals]

The only place that I know of that would still use TIFF/IT-P1 files is in roto-gravure printing. Other than that it's kind of a dead format.

You could think of this way: TIFF/IT-P1 is to CT/LW as PDF/X is to PDF. A "standard" (don't think it was ever an ISO standard like PDF/X) way of exchanging content. Nice thing about the old CT/LW / TIFF/IT-P1 days was it was all RIPped, "color managed", and sometimes trapped. Completely idiot proof. Kind of like digital film.

 

[david]

TIFFIT/IT in France

TIFFIT/IT in France

When talking about how TIFF/IT is not a currently used format, it is important to designate the location of the United States where this is true - because this is not true everywhere!

In France the TIFF/IT format is still very much alive! Dealing with language and special character issues has resulted in broad popularity of the TIFF/IT format over the PDF format.

David Lewis
[email protected]

 

[mattbeals]

I guess I should have qualified my statement. You're right about circumstances like you mentioned. But like I said, if you wanted it to be idiot proof TIFF/IT-P1 was, and still is, about as safe as sending film. There aren't "interpretation" issues with different RIPs with fonts, over prints, transparency, etc. because all of that is non-existent. It is all RIPped CT/LW data. The only big problems you would run into is if the .HC (preview file if i recall correctly) was missing or if there was data corruption. Short of that not much else could go wrong with them. As reliable as PDF workflows are now, TIFF/IT-P1 is fool proof, as long as the resolution is correct, in my opinion.

 

[gordo]

I believe that in the US TIFF/IT is still heavily used in the packaging market where trade shops send files to multiple print locations.

best, gordon p

 

[Luc St-Pierre]

So TIFF-IT being a contone, if one falls on my desk, how do I send it to my rip for output in screened, scaled, imposed format?

 

[gordo]

So TIFF-IT being a contone, if one falls on my desk, how do I send it to my rip for output in screened, scaled, imposed format?

TIFF/IT simply stands for Tag Image File Format Image Technology. My understanding is that it can contain contone or bilevel bitmap (i.e. screened) data. Many of the packaging shops that I've visited receive screeened bitmap files from trade prepress shops in TIFF format which they simply downloaded to their output devices. Maybe I used the term TIFF/IT incorrectly?

best, gordon p

 

[Sev]

Our workflow is Nexus, and Nexus can both accept and create TIFF/IT, but there is not much need for it these days, since most publishers would rather accept PDF/X-1a as a lock-down file, that has been certified as PDF/X-1a. The publishers that we send files to in the UK, France, and USA all now prefer PDF/X-1a files.

-Sev

 

[Tomten]

TIFF, the Tagged Image File Format, was originally a specification for storing data from scanners, it was developed by the Aldus Corporation in the mid 1980s.

TIFF became the de facto standard in desktop publishing for contone images, the standard is now owned by Adobe and can be found at:
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tiff/TIFF6.pdf
if you’re interested.

1 bit TIFFs are simply monochrome tiff files, they’re frequently the format of choice for ripped and screened data for plates.

The TIFF/IT standard (ISO 12639) was developed to try to make a standard format for CEPS systems and overcome the problems caused by the existence of several proprietary formats at the time.

The “CT” part of a TIFF/IT file is essentially a TIFF file, the “LW” part of the file is high res data like line art and text, the optional “HCT” was used for high res ct data, it was used differently by various venders but was often data that filled the edeges of the CT portion to prevent jagges where images met, the FP was the file that had the job data; it contained the names of the other files and told the system what the elements of the job were. Although it is somewhat old David McDowell’s document linked below has a lot of information if you’re interested.
http://www.ipa.org/pdf/bulletin/ddap_tiff_pdf.pdf

 

[mattbeals]

TIFF/IT-P1 files I made were from my Brisque which is all CT/LW until output when it is actually screened. The TIFF/IT-P1 files I received from advertisers were the same. Everything was unscreened until output time. We placed them with a Quark Xtension. We tried converting them to a PDF2Go PDF to place into Quark but that was a complete disaster. Way too much work involved. InDesign CS4 I would think can place the .hc file and export a composite high resolution PDF(/x). If not, I'm sure that Robert Z. at Impresse.de or David Lewis of Lucid Dream has something.

TIFF/IT-P1 contains basically two "layer" (files really). The first is the CT, contone images. The second is the LW, line work, file which contains all the vector objects rasterized at a given resolution. Usually at 2400 or 2540 DPI. There can be NCT (New CT) and NLW (New Line Work) files depending on the original RIP and number of colors. But that's besides the point.

If you really want to be absolutely positive that nothing will go wrong with your art and that no one will mess with it then TIFF/IT-P1 is a wonderful format. Otherwise for most purposes PDF/X works extremely well.

 

[claude72]

TIFF/IT simply stands for Tag Image File Format Image Technology. My understanding is that it can contain contone or bilevel bitmap (i.e. screened) data.

Not exactly : a TIFF/IT is not a screened file ready to send to an imagesetter, but it is a picture-based file...
... but an unique picture is not able to render correctly all the elements of a page layout, (because a contone picture cannot handle crisp text and other lines, and a linework picture cannot render neither gray levels nor colors), and it is not possible to mix linework mode and contone mode in one picture...


... so, a TIFF/IT file contains 2 pictures :

• a CT (=contone) picture in CMYK mode at 300 ppi, containing the contone elements of the page (basically, the photos and the colorization of logos),
and
• a LW (=linework) picture in 1-bit mode at 2400 ppi (or sometimes 1200 ppi), containing all the linework elements of the page (basically the black texts, strokes of elements like logos...)
... plus a "FP" file that makes the positionnement of the 2 pictures to rebuilt the page.

It's a very safe format, as everything is rasterized, and there is no more PostScript, no font, no vector, no possible interpretation, no possibility of mistake : printing a TIFF/IT file needs to print only pixels!

What applications are typically generating TIFF/IT?

AFAIK, there is no application to generate TIFF/IT: you need either a RIP, or a workflow... like Harlequin RIP or Creo RIP (or Nexus, says Sev)



(sorry for my language mistakes... that kind of explanation is a little bit beyond my english knowledge...)


(Edit: sorry again, I write quite slowly... and mattbeals has been quicker than me...)

 

[mattbeals]

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[Laurens]

Whatever happened to TIFF/IT P2?

Whatever happened to TIFF/IT P2?

Much to my surprise my web page on the TIFF/IT file format is still fairly popular. I haven't updated it in ages and wonder what ever happened to the TIFF/IT P2 standard that was so long in the works.