How to Convert TIFF to PDF on Windows

TIFF keeps scans, fax pages and print-ready images without losing detail, which is why scanners and archives still use it. It is a poor format for sending, though: the files are large, and many upload forms and viewers don't open it.

A PDF opens in any browser or reader, keeps its pages in a fixed order and prints at a predictable size. That is why application portals and clients usually ask for one.

Windows turns pictures into a PDF through its built-in virtual printer. Select the TIFF files in File Explorer, right-click and choose Print (on Windows 11 you may need Show more options first). In the Print Pictures dialog, choose Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer, pick the paper size and a layout such as Full page photo, click Print and name the PDF.

Two things need attention. Fit picture to frame fills each frame by cutting off the edges of the picture, so clear it to keep whole pages. And the dialog has no page list to rearrange: the pages follow the order the files have in File Explorer, so give them numbered names, sort by name before you select them, and check the order in the finished PDF.

File Acture's Images to PDF combines TIFF, JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, GIF and BMP images into one PDF, one image per page. It reads TIFF itself, so Windows needs no extension for it, and it handles color, grayscale and black-and-white TIFFs, including LZW-compressed and fax-style Group 4 ones.

Drag the files in the list into page order, then, under Page, choose a Page size and a Margin, type a File name and click Create PDF. The PDF is saved to Documents › File Acture › PDF or the folder you choose under Output, and the TIFFs themselves stay untouched.

Pages without transparency are stored as high-quality JPEG, and pages with transparency losslessly. A TIFF's tags, such as the artist and description, are left out of the PDF, and nothing is uploaded along the way.

Choose A4 or Letter for scanned documents, and Match image for photos and screenshots that will only be viewed on screen.

• Match image: each page takes the size of its image at 150 DPI, whatever resolution the TIFF says. A 300 dpi A4 scan is 2480 × 3508 pixels, so its page comes out about twice the size of A4.
• A4 and Letter: each image is fitted on a standard page and turned to landscape when the image is wider than it is tall.
• Margin: None, Small (a quarter inch) or Large (half an inch). A small margin keeps printers from cutting off the edges.

That depends on the TIFF. A color or grayscale TIFF is usually far larger than its PDF page, because File Acture stores the page as high-quality JPEG: in our tests, an uncompressed 34.8 MB photo TIFF (3840 × 3018 pixels) became a PDF of about 1.5 MB, and an LZW-compressed 11.2 MB one did too.

Black-and-white fax-style TIFFs go the other way. They are tiny, and a grayscale JPEG page takes more room, so their PDFs come out larger. If the finished PDF is too large for an upload, compress the PDF to a target size instead of shrinking each page by hand.

Check the pages, the order and the size before you send the PDF.

• Several pages in one TIFF: a multi-page TIFF contributes only its first page, as an animated GIF contributes only its first frame.
• Page order: the order of the file list is the order of the pages. Drag rows up or down, or give the files numbered names such as 01, 02 and 03 and add them from a File Explorer window sorted by name.
• Need searchable text? Run OCR PDF on the result, so the words in scans can be found. Already have PDFs to add? Merge PDF files.
• More than 5 TIFFs: the free version takes up to 5 images per run, with 3 runs on each PC. Pro has no limit; see pricing.

Online converters need your scans on their servers before they can build anything, a poor fit for contracts, IDs and client files. File Acture builds the PDF on your PC, so the files never leave it; the free version needs an internet connection only to count its runs, and Pro works without one.

If the PDF is going to an application portal, check its size limit first.