monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (05/03/88)
Hi, I have a question. What if TIFF format? Is it IFF with a different name? I was reading an article in Dr. Dobb's (may 88) on TIFF image files and it stated that: "Anyone who works with bit-mapped images should support the Tag Image File Format (TIFF). Why? Simply because TIFF has become the industry-standard format for storing bit-mapped images; the format is supported by almost all the desk-top-publishing and scanner software in both the Macintosh and MS-DOS communities." Is this the same as Amiga/? IFF format? Have we been `overlooked` by the big name magazines again? If it is different then IFF. How so? I have a big buffer for e-mail so don't be afraid to answer that way. Monty L. Saine "Softwood where are you?????"
doug-merritt@cup.portal.com (05/07/88)
There is no relation whatsoever between IFF and TIFF. The authors
of the article in question on TIFF made some very provocative
comments about TIFF being *THE* standard, and implied that anyone
who did not support it is hopelessly behind the times and probably
no fun to invite to parties.
This is basically a bunch of BS; they are trying to create a
self-fulfilling prophecy by making these statements. They let
slip elsewhere in the article that there's actually only a few
companies/products currently supporting it, but that Real Soon
Now everyone will.
There is no single standard, although there are a whole bunch of
different proposed standards. One thing I *particularly* dislike
about the TIFF standard is that there's no magic number to identify
them as such, unlike IFF. By this late point in history, I'd say there's
good reason to think that any binary file format that is not
self-identifying is very likely to be hopelessly brain damaged
in other ways, too.
Doug
Doug Merritt ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
or ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug