How do I open an unsupported Tiff?

Adobe lightroom worked for me

I had a similar problem. Several years ago I scanned a load of documents and saved them as .TIF files. I now have WIndows 7 and Office 2010 and NOTHING will open those files.
I have scoured the net and tried EVERYTHING and just one thing worked, read on:
The problem is not Photoshop.
The problem is that Windows 7 does not now suport TIFF format and previous versions of it a) did and b) tended to employ the Microsoft Document Imaging (MDI) to save tiff files - no matter what application you thought you were actually in at the time.
Now, MDI has several compression options for TIF format and the default was some weird Microsoft custom variation. So, any .TIF files you saved were saved in cant-ever-read-again-if-Microsoft-change-their-minds format.
Microsoft then proceded to change its mind.
In MDI, the compression options are in TOOLS/OPTIONS, compression-tab. In a logical, just and sane world, the "Perform lossless compression" box would ALWAYS be ticked - this saves things in "normal" tif format so other things can read it.
However, we aren't living in a world like that, we are living in a world substantially run by Microsoft. MDI was discontinued and MIcrosoft ceased support for the .TIF format, leaving people like us high and dry - thanks Microsoft !
So,What I did was:
Get my old Office 2003 installation disc and installed ONLY the MDI software (X-out everything else in the installation list).
Yes it will sit alongside Office 2010 Ok.
Start it up and do TOOLS/OPTIONS, compression-tab and tick "Perform lossless compression". Click Ok etc. to close the dialog.
Do FILE/IMPORT to pick up a .TIF file. (I found that it was faster to paste the path in rather than use the file-open dialog navigation).
Do FILE/SAVE AS and choose type .mdi (Click OPTIONS and check the quality options etc.). Click OK to save
Do FILE/SAVE AS again and this time choose type .tif. CLick OK to save.
You should now be abke to read the .tif file in things like Photoshop (I found that Camera Raw auto started to load it. I then saved it as type .jpg).
Hope this helps.

Artifex1975 wrote:   I have a folder of tiffs that were recovered from an sd card out of a Canon T3i.  The only recovery software that worked saved them as Tiff files.

I think the mystery you need to solve is how did the sd card become corrupt and require you to use a recovery software to recover files on it in the first place.

Recovery software is a program somewhat like a check disk program with a different end result in mind.  The both read the data on the media and reconcile the data structures on the media.  Check disk recovers lost space no longer accounted for in the FAT and marks the areas free. It also checkes the file structures to make sure files are not cross linked and fixing errors the best it can and creates file or parts of files the seem to exist without directory entry.  Check disk can also do more extensive recovery checks and check for bad area and reassign alternate area.

Recovery programs reads the media an book keep the data structures with a different end in mind.  It wants to rebuild the files it finds intact. It creates directory entries for file it finds intact and markes their data areas as allocated in the FAT.   Recovery programs do not trans-code or change files data formats. They just piece file back together s far as I know. 

Your Cannon T3i writes RAW and Jpeg files.  The recovered file you posted is 19MB with metadata and Chris Cox has identified its data format as an old obsolete Tiff file format.  This leads me to think that you at one point had the SD card mounted on you computer and used the files on the SD card with a program that converted the Jpeg and RAW files on the SD card to Tiff files. Deleted the Jpeg and RAW files on the SD card and wrote the Tiff files onto the SD card and in the process the SD card format was messed up.

I could be very wrong but it the only thing my  brain can think up.

Since cameras do not write tiff format image files. Try renaming the recovered file from *.tif to *.jpg. So now you have three thar agree it may be that just the ext is wrong.

I agree with Silkrooster. They could be JPEGs, after all. If Windows can show them, they cannot be that exotic. That being so, as a last resort you can always open them in Paint and save them to something else, if simply renaimg them to JPEG doesn't work.

Mylenium

I am betting it's the wrong file extention on the image. Why would a program convert the file format to one thats not popular (type of tiff that is). Try changing the extenion on one of the files to jpg and see if photoshop will open it. Just a hunch and maybe I am wrong, but at least it will rule it out.

Try Graphics Converter