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Richard24679877kp6p
Participant
May 31, 2022
Answered

Tiffs won't open in Photoshop or Illustrator

  • May 31, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 6187 views

I'm trying to drag grayscale tiff files into Illustrator and I get an error ("The file is not readable").  I also tried opening the same files in Photoshop and it says that they use an unsupported color space.  This is using Illustrator 26.3.1 and Photoshop 23.3.2 desktop versions in Windows 10.  There is a trick I found on YouTube where if you open an image file in Paint and immediately re-save, it will suddenly work in Illustrator/Photoshop but I've got 100s of these files so this isn't exactly practical! Attached is an example of one of the tiffs.  

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Anubhav M

What version of Photoshop?  I rolled back to an earlier update and had the same problem before I posted here.  And did you have any luck with Illustrator (that is the key program for my purposes here).


Hello @Richard24679877kp6p,

 

Sorry to hear about this experience. As suggested by Marliton, I would request you try opening it in a different program and then re-saving it to open it in Illustrator. Kindly try these steps to process the images in batch using Adobe Bridge:

  • Open Adobe Bridge
  • Select the TIFFs you want to process and then choose the option for Custom Export
  • Choose where you want to save the processed file and what format you want to save it as.
  • You could also save these settings as a Preset by clicking on the save button, and then it will be a one-click option to process these images.

 

You may now try opening these processed images in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and check if it works.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

5 replies

Mario Arizmendi
Mario Arizmendi
Legend
June 1, 2022

I tried this on my Mac computer, OSX Catalina 10.15  and give me the following results:

 

1. Opened in Phtoshop 2019 and then in Photoshop 2022, the latest version didnt work, error as follows:

 

2. Opened the file with the Preview app with no problems, exported as tiff file and then opened with photoshop succesfully

3. Opened the file with the Acrobat app with no problems, exported as tiff file and then opened with photoshop succesfully

4. Opened the file with  Illustrator 2019 app with no problems, the file is embeded, so I did unembed and save a .psd file wich opens with Photoshop with no problem.

5.  Placed the file linked into a blank Illustrator 2019 app document with no problems, how ever the linked file doesnt show up in photosop, same error (Unsuported Color Space)

 

So I think may be you can try any of this method to see if work for you and then try to automate a  process to do it to a bunch of files

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Richard24679877kp6pAuthor
Participant
June 1, 2022

These images are from a scanning electron microscope.  I've produced images with it for many years and have no trouble manipulating them in Adobe products until this week.  The instrument is not under my control and is at another institution but I can inquire if they changed image capture settings recently.  However, the fundamental issue I have is how to process these recently taken images that are causing the problem.  

marliton
Community Expert
marlitonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 1, 2022

Hi. You can try opening that image with a previous version of Photoshop. If the problem persists maybe they changed some configuration. I opened the file on Preview (mac), resave it, and it works.

You can search for some utility that allows creating batch tasks: https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/179597-batch-file-script-convert-jpeg-png-using-ms-paint.html

 

Marlon Ceballos
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Richard24679877kp6pAuthor
Participant
June 1, 2022

What version of Photoshop?  I rolled back to an earlier update and had the same problem before I posted here.  And did you have any luck with Illustrator (that is the key program for my purposes here).

John Mensinger
Community Expert
John MensingerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 1, 2022

What's the origin of those images?

 

Attaching the example like you did doesn't get us the file; only a preview. Can you post one on a file sharing site where we can download it?

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Richard24679877kp6pAuthor
Participant
June 1, 2022

Sure: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7lb68smw95l7xc/160901A_mon7A.tif?dl=0

sishamIAGD
Community Expert
sishamIAGDCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 1, 2022

How are the tiffs produced? Are they created from another software? If so is there not settings that you can adjust that will enable you to be able to exoport them in a way that both Illustrator and Photoshop can read them..?

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