Convert TIFF to PDF: 5 Free Methods That Work

TIFF files are everywhere in archival, print, and document scanning workflows — high-fidelity, lossless, trusted by publishers and government agencies alike. But when you need to share a TIFF with someone who just wants to open it on their phone, or submit a scanned document to a form that only accepts PDFs, you need to convert it first.

This guide covers five free methods: two that require zero installation (macOS Preview and Windows Print to PDF), two command-line tools for automation (tiff2pdf and ImageMagick), and one Python approach for developers who want full control. The methods handle both single-image TIFFs and the trickier case of multi-page TIFFs — where a single .tif file contains a full document spread across multiple frames.

For converting other image formats (PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF), Pixotter's format converter handles those in-browser with no upload needed.

TIFF to PDF Conversion Methods at a Glance

Method 1 — macOS Preview (Zero Install)

Preview is macOS's built-in image viewer, and it handles TIFF→PDF conversion natively without any extra software.

Single TIFF to PDF

1. Double-click the .tif file to open it in Preview.
2. Go to File > Export as PDF.
3. Choose a name and save location, then click Save.

The resulting PDF contains your TIFF image at full resolution. Preview respects the image's DPI metadata, so a 300 DPI scan produces a print-ready PDF.

Multi-Page TIFF to PDF in Preview

Multi-page TIFFs are single files with multiple frames — common output from scanners that capture a full document in one file. Preview handles them, but the workflow is slightly different:

1. Open the TIFF in Preview. You should see a sidebar showing each page.
2. If the sidebar is not visible, go to View > Thumbnails.
3. Select all pages with Cmd + A.
4. Go to File > Print (Cmd + P).
5. At the bottom of the print dialog, click PDF > Save as PDF.
6. Name the file and click Save.

This method is reliable for straightforward multi-page TIFFs. For TIFFs with unusual compression (LZW, CCITT Group 4), Preview occasionally struggles — if you see blank pages or rendering errors, use tiff2pdf or ImageMagick instead.

Method 2 — Windows Print to PDF (Zero Install)

Every Windows 10 and Windows 11 installation includes the Microsoft Print to PDF virtual printer. It converts anything you can print — including TIFF files — to PDF.

Convert a Single TIFF

1. Right-click the .tif file and select Open with > Photos (or Windows Photo Viewer on older builds).
2. Press Ctrl + P to open the print dialog.
3. Under Printer, select Microsoft Print to PDF.
4. Set Paper size to match your image. For full-bleed scans, Letter or A4 works well. For photos, use Fit to frame to avoid white borders.
5. Click Print, then choose a save location.

Limitation: Multi-Page TIFFs on Windows

The Windows Photos app displays multi-page TIFFs as a single frame — it shows only the first page. If you need all pages in one PDF, use the tiff2pdf or ImageMagick methods below, or open the TIFF in a third-party viewer like IrfanView (freeware, Windows only), which supports multi-page TIFF printing.

Method 3 — tiff2pdf CLI (libtiff 4.6)

tiff2pdf ships with libtiff, the reference TIFF library. It is purpose-built for this exact conversion: lossless, fast, and multi-page aware.

License: libtiff uses a permissive BSD-style license. Free for personal and commercial use.

Install libtiff

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install libtiff
# Installs libtiff 4.6.x and the tiff2pdf binary

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install libtiff-tools
# Installs libtiff-tools 4.5.x or 4.6.x depending on your distro release

Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install libtiff-tools

Basic Usage

# Single TIFF to PDF
tiff2pdf -o output.pdf input.tif

# Set output page size (A4)
tiff2pdf -p A4 -o output.pdf input.tif

# Set output page size (US Letter) and center the image
tiff2pdf -p letter -F -o output.pdf input.tif

# Lossless — use DEFLATE compression in the PDF
tiff2pdf -z -o output.pdf input.tif

The -F flag scales the image to fill the page while preserving aspect ratio. Without it, tiff2pdf uses the image's native DPI to determine physical dimensions, which is usually what you want for scanned documents.

For multi-page TIFFs, tiff2pdf automatically includes all frames — no extra flags needed.

Check Your Version

tiff2pdf --version
# Example output: LIBTIFF, Version 4.6.0

Method 4 — ImageMagick 7.1 (Most Flexible)

ImageMagick handles virtually any TIFF variant and gives you full control over compression, DPI, and page layout. It is the right tool when tiff2pdf fails on unusual TIFF encodings.

License: ImageMagick License (Apache 2.0 compatible). Free for personal and commercial use.

Install ImageMagick 7.1

macOS:

brew install imagemagick
# Installs ImageMagick 7.1.x

Ubuntu/Debian (ImageMagick 7):

# Ubuntu's default apt package is often version 6. Install 7 via snap:
sudo snap install imagemagick
# Or build from source: https://imagemagick.org/script/install-source.php

Windows: Download the installer from imagemagick.org. The Q16 HDRI build handles most use cases.

Check Your Version

magick --version
# Example: Version: ImageMagick 7.1.1-43 Q16-HDRI

Note: ImageMagick 6 uses convert instead of magick. The examples below use the ImageMagick 7 binary name.

Convert TIFF to PDF

# Single TIFF to PDF
magick input.tif output.pdf

# Multi-page TIFF to PDF (all frames become PDF pages)
magick input-multipage.tif output.pdf

# Multiple separate TIFF files into one PDF
magick page1.tif page2.tif page3.tif combined.pdf

# Set DPI explicitly (useful when source TIFF lacks DPI metadata)
magick -density 300 input.tif -compress jpeg -quality 85 output.pdf

# Lossless conversion (larger file, no quality loss)
magick input.tif -compress lzw output.pdf

ImageMagick Policy Warning

Some Linux distributions (Ubuntu in particular) ship with a restrictive ImageMagick security policy that blocks PDF output by default. If you see not authorized errors, edit /etc/ImageMagick-7/policy.xml (or /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml for version 6) and change the PDF policy from none to read|write:

<!-- Change this: -->
<policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="PDF" />
<!-- To this: -->
<policy domain="coder" rights="read|write" pattern="PDF" />

Method 5 — Python (img2pdf or Pillow)

Python gives you the most flexibility if you are writing a script or need to process hundreds of files. Two packages cover the main use cases.

img2pdf is the better choice when lossless conversion is the priority — it wraps the raw image data directly into a PDF container without re-encoding. Pillow is useful when you need to manipulate the image first (resize, adjust DPI, apply filters) before producing the PDF.

img2pdf (Lossless, Recommended)

License: img2pdf is LGPL-3.0. Free for personal and commercial use; check LGPL requirements if embedding in a closed-source commercial product.

pip install img2pdf==0.5.1

import img2pdf

# Single TIFF to PDF
with open("output.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(img2pdf.convert("input.tif"))

# Multiple TIFFs into one PDF
with open("output.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(img2pdf.convert(["page1.tif", "page2.tif", "page3.tif"]))

# Set explicit page size (A4 in points: 595 x 842)
import img2pdf
a4_layout = img2pdf.get_layout_fun(img2pdf.mm_to_pt(210), img2pdf.mm_to_pt(297))
with open("output.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(img2pdf.convert("input.tif", layout_fun=a4_layout))

Pillow (When You Need Image Manipulation)

License: Pillow is MIT/HPND. Free for any use.

pip install Pillow==10.3.0

from PIL import Image

def tiff_to_pdf(input_path, output_path, dpi=300):
    img = Image.open(input_path)
    
    # Convert to RGB if needed (PDF doesn't support all TIFF color modes natively)
    if img.mode not in ("RGB", "L"):
        img = img.convert("RGB")
    
    # Handle multi-page TIFF
    pages = []
    try:
        while True:
            pages.append(img.copy().convert("RGB"))
            img.seek(img.tell() + 1)
    except EOFError:
        pass
    
    if pages:
        pages[0].save(
            output_path,
            save_all=True,
            append_images=pages[1:],
            resolution=dpi
        )
    else:
        img.save(output_path, resolution=dpi)

tiff_to_pdf("input.tif", "output.pdf")

The Pillow approach re-encodes the image as JPEG inside the PDF by default. Use img2pdf when you need true lossless output.

Multi-Page TIFF to PDF: What You Need to Know

Multi-page TIFFs (sometimes called multi-frame TIFFs) are common output from flatbed scanners, fax systems, and document imaging software. A single .tif file can contain dozens of pages — all stored in sequence inside the file.

Not every tool handles them correctly. Here is the breakdown:

• macOS Preview — supports multi-page TIFFs via the print workflow (see Method 1). Export as PDF only captures the first frame.
• Windows Photos — only shows the first frame. Use tiff2pdf or ImageMagick for multi-page files on Windows.
• tiff2pdf — handles multi-page TIFFs automatically. No extra flags needed.
• ImageMagick — handles multi-page TIFFs. Each frame becomes a PDF page.
• img2pdf — handles multi-page TIFFs automatically.
• Pillow — requires the loop in the example above to iterate through frames.

To check whether your TIFF is multi-page before converting:

# Using tiffinfo (ships with libtiff)
tiffinfo input.tif | grep "^TIFF Directory"
# Each "TIFF Directory" line = one page

# Using ImageMagick
magick identify input.tif | wc -l
# Output = number of frames/pages

For related conversions, see our guides on converting TIFF to JPG and converting TIFF to PNG. If you are working with other image-to-PDF conversions, converting images to PDF and converting PNG to PDF cover the same workflow for those formats.

FAQ

Can I convert a multi-page TIFF to a multi-page PDF?

Yes — tiff2pdf, ImageMagick, and img2pdf all handle multi-page TIFFs automatically. Each frame in the TIFF becomes a page in the PDF. macOS Preview also supports this via the print-to-PDF workflow, though not through the standard Export as PDF option.

Does converting TIFF to PDF reduce quality?

Only if you choose a lossy conversion method. tiff2pdf with the -z flag and img2pdf both produce lossless output — the image data is preserved exactly. ImageMagick with -compress lzw is also lossless. JPEG-based compression (ImageMagick's default for certain TIFF types) reduces file size but introduces subtle artifacts at lower quality settings.

What is the difference between TIFF and PDF for document archiving?

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) stores raw image data — it is a raster format suited for individual scans or photos. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a container that can hold images, text, vector graphics, and metadata in a single file. For long-term archival of scanned documents, PDF/A (an ISO-standardized subset of PDF) is the preferred format. TIFF/EP is also used in specialized archival contexts. For most practical purposes, PDF is more interoperable.

My TIFF uses CCITT Group 4 compression — will these tools handle it?

tiff2pdf handles CCITT Group 4 natively and can even carry the compressed data directly into the PDF without re-encoding, making it ideal for fax-format TIFFs. ImageMagick also handles it but will re-encode by default. Pillow has partial support — convert to RGB first if you see errors.

How do I convert TIFF to PDF on Linux without a GUI?

Install libtiff-tools and run tiff2pdf -o output.pdf input.tif. Alternatively, use ImageMagick: magick input.tif output.pdf. Both work headlessly, making them suitable for server-side batch processing or cron jobs.

Can I batch convert multiple TIFF files to separate PDFs?

Yes. With bash and tiff2pdf:

for f in *.tif; do
  tiff2pdf -o "${f%.tif}.pdf" "$f"
done

With ImageMagick:

for f in *.tif; do
  magick "$f" "${f%.tif}.pdf"
done

With Python and img2pdf:

import img2pdf
from pathlib import Path

for tiff in Path(".").glob("*.tif"):
    with open(tiff.with_suffix(".pdf"), "wb") as f:
        f.write(img2pdf.convert(str(tiff)))

Related Guides

Each conversion scenario has its own quirks. If you are working with a different format:

• How to Convert JPG to PDF — Windows, Mac, mobile, and CLI methods
• Convert PNG to PDF — includes bulk conversion and lossless options
• Convert SVG to PDF — preserving vector quality through five free methods
• Convert Image to PDF — format-agnostic guide covering the full range
• Convert TIFF to JPG — when you need a compressed, web-ready output instead
• Convert TIFF to PNG — lossless conversion that stays in raster format
• What Is a TIFF File? — compression types, color modes, and when TIFF makes sense

For format conversions that Pixotter handles directly — PNG, JPG, WebP, and AVIF — the Pixotter format converter does the job in-browser with no upload. If your TIFF needs resizing before PDF conversion, Pixotter's resize tool handles exact dimensions. For reducing file size on the resulting images, use Pixotter's compressor.