A multi-page TIFF is what fax gateways, cheque archives and document-management systems have quietly produced for thirty years, and it is also the one image format a phone gallery or a mail client is likely to refuse. Converting it costs nothing in quality: each TIFF page becomes one PDF page, and fax pages coded in CCITT Group 3 or Group 4 are carried across in their original compact encoding rather than unpacked into pixels, so a forty-page fax stays a few hundred kilobytes. Before anything is written, every page is listed with its pixel size, resolution, compression and colour type, and a page that cannot be decoded is marked so the rest of the file still converts. It all happens on your device.
Features
Every page of a multi-page TIFF becomes its own PDF page, in order
Fax pages (CCITT Group 3 and Group 4) and JPEG pages keep their original encoding, so nothing grows
Pages are listed with size, resolution, compression and colour type before you convert
A page that cannot be decoded is flagged and skipped instead of failing the whole file
Page size either matches the image at its own resolution — including a 204 × 98 dpi fax — or fits A4 or Letter with a margin
Drop several TIFFs for one merged PDF, or take one PDF per file inside a ZIP
Greyscale, RGB, palette and CMYK pages, striped or tiled, are stored losslessly
The finished PDF is previewed in the page before you download it
How to use the TIFF to PDF
Drop one or more .tif or .tiff files onto the page
Read the page list: size, resolution, compression and colour for every page
Choose whether pages match the image or fit A4 or Letter, and one merged PDF or a ZIP of one per file
Convert, check the preview, and download the PDF
Example
Input
fax-archive-2019.tiff — 42 pages, 1728 × 2200 px, 204 × 98 dpi, CCITT Group 4, black & white
Fax pages are re-wrapped rather than re-encoded, so the PDF weighs about what the TIFF did.
Common errors & troubleshooting
Some pages were skipped with a note about compression. — JBIG, JPEG 2000, LZMA, Zstandard and WebP pages cannot be decoded here. Re-save the file as LZW, Deflate, PackBits or Group 4 in whatever produced it, then convert again.
The PDF pages came out the size of the pixel grid rather than a sheet of paper. — The TIFF carries no usable resolution tags, so 72 dpi was assumed — the page list says so. Switch the page size to A4 or Letter and the image is fitted on the sheet instead.
The file was reported as unreadable. — It has to be a real TIFF; a JPEG or PNG renamed .tif is not one. Use Image to PDF for ordinary pictures, and note that the other files you dropped still convert.
The PDF is larger than the TIFF was. — Pages that had to be decoded are re-stored losslessly, which is usually similar in size but can grow on photographic scans. Run Compress PDF afterwards if size matters more than fidelity.
Frequently asked questions
Why will my phone not open a multi-page TIFF?
Phone galleries and mail clients typically show only the first page of a TIFF, and many refuse the fax compressions outright. PDF is the format all of them handle, which is why the archive gets converted rather than the reader replaced.
Does a Group 4 fax page get bigger inside the PDF?
No. PDF has a filter for the same coding, so the page's bytes are copied across and described rather than decoded and re-compressed. Expect the PDF to land within a few kilobytes of the TIFF.
Can I keep each TIFF as its own PDF?
Yes. With more than one file loaded, choose “One PDF per file” and the result is a ZIP holding a PDF named after each TIFF, with duplicate names numbered.
What happens to a page the reader cannot decode?
It is listed as skipped with the reason, the other pages convert normally, and the note stays on screen afterwards so you know which page numbers are missing from the PDF.
Is the writing in a converted fax searchable?
Not on its own — a TIFF page is pixels, so the PDF holds a picture of each page. Run PDF OCR on the converted file to add a text layer under those pictures.
Related tools
PDF to TIFF — Render PDF pages into a multi-page TIFF in colour, greyscale or black and white.
Image to PDF — Combine images into a single PDF (auto / portrait / landscape).
Scan to PDF — Use a camera as a document scanner and save the pages as a PDF.
PDF OCR — Recognise the text in a scanned PDF and make it searchable.
Merge PDFs — Combine multiple PDFs into one, with reordering.
Deskew PDF — Straighten crooked scanned pages automatically, with a per-page angle you can adjust.
PDF Inspector — See a PDF’s version, page sizes, fonts, images, forms, security and standards claims.
More PDF tools
Image to PDF — Combine images into a single PDF (auto / portrait / landscape).
PDF to Images — Render PDF pages to PNG or JPG images you can download.
Merge PDFs — Combine multiple PDFs into one, with reordering.
Split PDF — Extract pages or ranges (e.g. 1-3,5,7-9) into a new PDF.
Rotate PDF — Rotate all pages or a selection by 90/180/270°.
Organize PDF — Reorder, rotate and delete pages from thumbnails, then export.
Add Page Numbers — Stamp page numbers onto a PDF (position, format, start).
Watermark PDF — Add a diagonal text watermark to every page.
Crop PDF — Trim margins from every page via the crop box.
PDF to Text — Extract selectable text from a PDF as plain text or Markdown.
Compare PDFs — Diff the extracted text of two PDFs line-by-line.
Encrypt PDF — Password-protect a PDF with AES-256 or RC4 encryption.
Decrypt PDF — Remove password protection from an encrypted PDF.
Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF by re-rendering each page to a JPEG at a chosen quality and resolution.
PDF Metadata Editor — View, edit or strip a PDF’s title, author, subject, keywords and producer.
Resize PDF — Rescale every PDF page to A4, Letter or another standard size, content centred.
Flatten PDF — Lock filled form fields into the page so a PDF looks the same everywhere.
PDF N-up — Print 2, 4, 9 or 16 pages per sheet, with a booklet option for folding.
Interleave PDF Pages — Merge odd and even scan passes back into one document, reversing if needed.
PDF to Single Long Page — Stack every page onto one continuous sheet you scroll instead of paging.
PDF Form Data Extractor — Pull the answers out of a filled PDF form as JSON or CSV, field by field.
Blank Page Remover — Find and delete blank pages from a scan, with a tolerance you control.
Text to PDF — Turn typed or pasted text into a paginated, downloadable PDF.
Markdown to PDF — Render Markdown — headings, lists, tables and code — as a PDF.