TIFF is a flexible and adaptable file format. It can handle multiple images and data in a single file through the inclusion of "tags" in the file header. Tags can indicate the basic geometry of the image, such as its size, or define how the image data is arranged and whether various image compression options are used. For example, TIFF can be used as a container for JPEG and RLE compressed images. The ability to store image data in a lossless format makes TIFF files a useful method for archiving images. Other TIFF file options include multiple layers or pages. Currently Imaging uses LibTiff C library to load and save TIFFs. It can read and write most types of TIFF files. But it is currently available only in Delphi (uses LibTiffDelphi object files) and it can make your compiled binaries quite big (almost 400 KiB size increase when compiled with TIFF support). If you don't need TIFF support and want smaller exe instead you can disable it by uncommenting {$DEFINE DONT_LINK_TIFF} line in in ImagingExtras.pas unit. Native Object Pascal TIFF support is planned for some future Imaging release.

Format	TImageFormat equivalent	Loading	Saving	8 bit indexed	ifIndex8	Yes	Yes	24 bit RGB	ifR8G8B8	Yes	Yes	48 bit RGB	ifR16G16B16	Yes	Yes	32 bit ARGB	ifA8R8G8B8	Yes	Yes	64 bit ARGB	ifA16R16G16B16	Yes	Yes	8 bit grayscale	ifGray8	Yes	Yes	16 bit grayscale	ifGray16	Yes	Yes	16 bit grayscale + alpha	ifA8Gray8	Yes	Yes	32 bit grayscale + alpha	ifA16Gray16	Yes	Yes	32 bit grayscale	ifGray32	Yes	Yes	16 bit R FP16	ifR16F	Yes	Yes	64 bit ARGB FP16	ifA16R16G16B16F	Yes	Yes	32 bit R FP32	ifR32F	Yes	Yes	128 bit ARGB FP32	ifA32B32G32R32F	Yes	Yes	other types	depends on type	Yes/No	No