Viewing TIFF's on a Mac....

*PeterAM* · 01-18-2009, 02:55 PM

My wife recently used my DS while on a trip to Europe and I put 120 of her pictures on a DVD to be sent to a friend. The DVD was created on a PC; pictures are all TIFF files and open up fine on a PC running Windows but will not work on a Mac (OSX v. 10.4.11). I don't have access to a Mac, so can't play around with the DVD. Can anyone offer a suggestion as to how to make the pictures open up on a Mac?

*X Man* · 01-18-2009, 03:09 PM

You got me. Macs were opening tiffs before pcs were so it should work.

We need more info. How is the Mac user trying to open them? A double click on one of the tiffs should open it in Preview.app unless some other program has been set as default.

What program on the pc created the dvd? Is it a data dvd with the files just burned straight to disc or was it authored in some evil MicroSloth program?

Regards,
Mike

Originally Posted by PeterAM

My wife recently used my DS while on a trip to Europe and I put 120 of her pictures on a DVD to be sent to a friend. The DVD was created on a PC; pictures are all TIFF files and open up fine on a PC running Windows but will not work on a Mac (OSX v. 10.4.11). I don't have access to a Mac, so can't play around with the DVD. Can anyone offer a suggestion as to how to make the pictures open up on a Mac?

*PeterAM* · 01-18-2009, 03:17 PM

It's a data DVD. Unfortunately, the Mac user has no idea what she is doing and without a Mac screen in front of me, I can't attempt to walk her through it.

*X Man* · 01-18-2009, 03:26 PM

Well, I'm afraid we've answered the question. It appears the problem is between the chair and the Mac.

Sometimes files don't move well between platforms, it happens. I've downloaded Mac update files and burned them on a PC and they get corrupted. I've resorted to taring and zipping these .dmg files.

Still, a tiff is a tiff and there shouldn't be an issue. Perhaps, you could zip a tiff from the DVD you created and upload it here. It can be 1.46 MB. If that's not enough space perhaps upload it somewhere else and provide a link.

Sorry this isn't easy, it certainly should be.

Regards,
Mike

Originally Posted by PeterAM

It's a data DVD. Unfortunately, the Mac user has no idea what she is doing and without a Mac screen in front of me, I can't attempt to walk her through it.

*PeterAM* · 01-18-2009, 03:33 PM

The DVD was sent to my son's mother-in-law, so I'm passing the problem along to him. He has a big tech staff at his office so he'll give a copy of the DVD to them and see if they can do something with it.
Thanks for the offer. I guess I was naive in thinking that it would just open up on a Mac. I won't be surprised however, if it does run on a Mac at my son's office.

Maxington · 01-18-2009, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by X Man

Still, a tiff is a tiff and there shouldn't be an issue.

Not quite true, there are various pixels orders, and compression types TIFFs can be saved as, which some image viewers can't read.

That's a pretty obscure problem though, I'd be surprised if that was it.

*tybeck* · 01-18-2009, 06:19 PM

The safest way to make a "universal" data DVD or CD-R is to burn it in ISO 9600 formate as a single session. Even *nix can read that. For TIFF compression not using any is the best, but if you have to use something common like format LZW.

*PeterAM* · 01-19-2009, 08:12 AM

The files weren't compressed. If/when I find out what the problem is, I'll post it. I'm betting on pilot error.

Thanks for all the input.