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P.M.B
P.M.B
Legend
July 12, 2017
Answered

.TIF Files

  • July 12, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 8587 views

Hi,

So my client recently made a bunch of .tif files available to me for some new something or other.

When I bring them into AE they do have alpha channels but when I bring them into Photoshop

to convert them to a 1000% smaller .png the transparency is not there.

What's even weirder to me is that the images do have alpha channels but they're not the same

as they are in AE,

When I bring the images into AE I can view the alpha channel & there is transparency.

When I bring the same image into PS there is an alpha channel but it does not match the image

and there is no transparency.

I was given about 50 images in total and in photoshop they all have the exact same alpha channel even though the images are all different.

In AE every image has its own unique alpha channel that matches the image.

What the heck is going on?

Thanks,

Paul

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Mike_Abbott

      Ps won't automatically convert the tiff alpha directly into transparency on opening - unlike AE, which does.

      But you can get transparency from the alpha very easily once open in Photoshop:

      1. open your tiff

      2. channels panel - Ctrl click on the alpha thumbnail (to load it as a selection)

      3. layers panel - 3rd button from the left at the bottom of the layers panel (add layer mask)

      ...but if you've got a lot - I'd just load them into AE and render them out as a PNG sequence with alpha at the reduced scale you want : )

      2 replies

      P.M.B
      P.M.BAuthor
      Legend
      July 14, 2017

      OK so tif/tiff files are meant to be like .psd files for apps that can't read .psd, right.  If there's no need for layers & no need for higher color depth then using a .tif is dumb, right?   For a simple 8bit image with transparency you don't ever want to use .tif?

      ~Gutterfish
      Szalam
      Community Expert
      SzalamCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 14, 2017

      Gutter-Fish  wrote

      If there's no need for layers & no need for higher color depth then using a .tif is dumb, right?   For a simple 8bit image with transparency you don't ever want to use .tif?

      TIFFs load really quickly in AE compared to, say, EXR files. Quicker than PNGs too, I think (I haven't tested this myself yet). So, there are times when you might want TIFFs even in 8 bit with no layers.

      P.M.B
      P.M.BAuthor
      Legend
      July 14, 2017

      Szalam  wrote

      TIFFs load really quickly in AE compared to, say, EXR files. Quicker than PNGs too, I think (I haven't tested this myself yet). So, there are times when you might want TIFFs even in 8 bit with no layers.

      So I received these .tif images of simple cartoon characters 1920x1080 72 ppi 8bit and each on is 8MB.  When I convert to png they're 50kb with no discernible difference in quality.    Are those huge file sizes normal for .tif or did the person who prepared the images just not know what they were doing?

      ~Gutterfish
      P.M.B
      P.M.BAuthor
      Legend
      July 12, 2017

      Little update.    So when a drag a bunch of tiffs into an already open Photoshop window (as layers) they all get the same alpha channel.  There's still no transparency but apparently PS is choosing the alpha channel from one of the images and giving it to all of the images.

      Again, even the image that does have the matching alpha channel has no transparency.  

      If I open each of the images separately as it's own tab or project then it does have it's matching alpha channel, but still no transparency.

      ~Gutterfish
      Mike_Abbott
      Mike_AbbottCorrect answer
      Legend
      July 13, 2017

      Ps won't automatically convert the tiff alpha directly into transparency on opening - unlike AE, which does.

      But you can get transparency from the alpha very easily once open in Photoshop:

      1. open your tiff

      2. channels panel - Ctrl click on the alpha thumbnail (to load it as a selection)

      3. layers panel - 3rd button from the left at the bottom of the layers panel (add layer mask)

      ...but if you've got a lot - I'd just load them into AE and render them out as a PNG sequence with alpha at the reduced scale you want : )

      P.M.B
      P.M.BAuthor
      Legend
      July 13, 2017

      Mike_Abbott  wrote

      - I'd just load them into AE and render them out as a PNG sequence

      You see.  That's why two brains are better than one.

      Thanks Mike

      ~Gutterfish
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