tiff file displays correctly in Preview; gets cut off when opened in Bridge or Photoshop

[Catfudd]

Greetings,

I'm using a Mac running OS X El Capitan (10.11.1) with Photoshop CC 2015 (16.01.1) and Bridge CC (6.1.1.10). The scanner is an Epson GT-15000.

The tiff file I'm working on now displays correctly (i.e. the entire scanned image is visible) in the scanner's Scan Results interface as well as in Preview.

Bridge and Photoshop both display about 75% of the file; the missing bit is cleaved off vertically on the right-hand side in a portrait-orientation view.

The problem occurs about 15% of the time, seemingly at random.

The latest Epson drivers and the TWAIN mac plug-in have been installed.

???

thank you for your time, 

~E

[gfelice2]

Okay. Attempting to share a dropbox folder publicly (which I never do).

Dropbox - Tiff problems

I only put  one problematic Tiff. I could add more and I could add one of the scans that worked fine in photoshop.

[Test Screen Name]

Thanks, I can confirm that does download a 50MB ZIP file containing one TIFF. Would be interesting now to hear from people about their success or otherwise with different versions of Photoshop. First, an ancient one: Photoshop 7.0.1 does open it in full.

[gfelice2]

Okay, this is weird.

Now, all of the sudden, scan 7.tiff can open normally in photoshop CS 2017...

Didn't open earlier today, hence my screenshots above...weird.

I even opened the original from the first folder location and that opened fine too (just in case the public Dropbox had been changed by one of you).

But I looked at one of the other ones that got cut off in the same way. That still shows up cut off.

I added scan 11.tiff to show you what I mean.

The one difference now is, the original, "scan 7.tiff" starts with the RAW image menu and I have to hit "OPEN" or whatever, but in RAW preview and when it actually opens, looks normal.

Scan 11.tiff on the other hand, just opens up into photoshop without the RAW menu. Why they would be different, I don't know. They were part of the same multi-image scan bed.

I still wonder if this is El Capitan, a certain Epson driver, an Adobe decoding problem or some cocktail of the above.

What OS is everyone using?

[gener7]

The other two you sent showed full thumbnails in the Finder, but were clipped in Photoshop. Nothing I could figure out there to fix it.

I did get lucky with an app called "Graphic Converter 9". It fixed the tiffs on resave , but the small size of the originals had me wondering.

I would suggest scanning to a file to tiff using your scanner's software and opening up in Photoshop. That would get the Import > Images from Device out of the equation.

I don't like the stock Windows or Mac scan app. It's a bit too sparse and sometimes buggy for my tastes. I have had Vuescan for years and it has paid for itself

[Test Screen Name]

Well, some interesting results. Trying scan 11.tiff. Photoshop 7.01 also shows only the left of the image, followed by transparency. I believe Photoshop is correct, because the file has transparency. I believe the other apps which seem to show it correctly, just ignore the transparency.

Very different from the first one posted. Let's compare the TIFF structure.
First file:
Size: 50MB
TIFF Directory at offset 0x3073d92 (50806162)
  Image Width: 6739 Image Length: 4079
  Resolution: 1200, 1200 pixels/inch
  Bits/Sample: 8
  Sample Format: unsigned integer
  Compression Scheme: LZW
  Photometric Interpretation: RGB color
  Extra Samples: 1<assoc-alpha>
  Orientation: row 0 top, col 0 lhs
  Samples/Pixel: 4
  Rows/Strip: 4
  Planar Configuration: single image plane
  ICC Profile: <present>, 2020 bytes
  Predictor: horizontal differencing 2 (0x2)

Second file:
Size: 7MB
TIFF Directory at offset 0x6a3590 (6960528)
  Image Width: 5946 Image Length: 3671
  Resolution: 1200, 1200 pixels/inch
  Bits/Sample: 8
  Sample Format: unsigned integer
  Compression Scheme: JPEG
  Photometric Interpretation: RGB color
  Extra Samples: 1<assoc-alpha>
  YCbCr Subsampling: 2, 2
  Orientation: row 0 top, col 0 lhs
  Samples/Pixel: 4
  Rows/Strip: 8
  Planar Configuration: single image plane
  Model: EPSON ET-16500 Series
  Software: Apple Image Capture
  Tag 317: 0
  ICC Profile: <present>, 2020 bytes
  JPEG Tables: (289 bytes)

So, what do we see. The second file uses JPEG-format TIFF, which is really considered bad and obsolete. Not a good choice. BOTH files use RGBA format, so it is no surprise if we see transparency. However, it may be that the software has an error meaning it does not correctly fill in 100% alpha for the full width. We can see the second file was certainly made by Apple Image Capture but we cannot say what made the first one; maybe it was even resaved by Photoshop, there is just no indication. It is a much more normal LZW file, but still RGBA.

Image Capture might just decide to do this, but maybe there is an option that affects it.

[Test Screen Name]

This identifies the same bug, and notes it is a bug in Image Capture which, as of Sierra, is saving a TIFF with an alpha channel which is often wrong, requiring rescan. Is there a reason Image Capture Preview now loo... |Official Apple Support Communities

[Test Screen Name]

Conceivably in fact a bug in the scanner driver, which returns junk Alpha channel info, and which Image Capture has started to use. If so, this will spread to other software in time.

[gener7]

May be. I used Images from Device to scan from my Brother 6920DW and I get a flat tiff/no alpha channel. I'm just using Get Info, so not sure what you use for the detailed information.

OSX 10.12.3

[Test Screen Name]

tiffinfo, part of the libtiff Open Source library. It's a command line tool.

[Ric Cohn]

I just experienced the same thing. Scanning using the Mac OS Image Capture with a Canon Maxify MB5320. Sierra 10.12.5. The solution I found was to open it in Preview and save a copy, but I saved it as a TIFF! This allowed me to turn off alpha channels and any compression. The trick is to duplicate and then immediately save which brings up the Save dialog. When I renamed the file before saving it seems to revert to whatever default was set for the original and saves without the dialog-- and without fixing the problem.

Not any better of a solution, but I do believe this confirms that it is some sort of Alpha channel issue. Shooting mostly digital I rarely scan any more. I used to use Silverfast with a high end scanner and that never gave me a problem, however, this reminded me I originally bought Silverfast because I discovered that under some circumstances the software that came with the scanner made dogs meat of the Tiffs. Seems to me that this is an Apple software issue.

[gfelice2]

I was able to confirm that  these "broken" tiff files were fixed when I opened them up in Preview, did a Save As and removed Alpha channels on the option panel. After that, it could be opened up in Photoshop without losing part of the image.

This, of course, is tedious beyond belief and still doesn't explain what's wrong and why this bug only happens sometimes.

I have actually abandoned the Mac built in scanner function for the most part. It's gotten very buggy and ocasionally won't even open. So I am getting used to the Epson scan utility, which is great for documents and less great if you want to fill the 11x17" bed full of photos and have it scan and save all of the images in one fell swoop. Epson makes you keep clicking buttons for each subsequent scan.
Like so many computer problems lately, no fixes, just workarounds. Maybe Apple shares some of the blame? still a lot of Apple users out there for Adobe to ignore.

[WorldShooter]

I think it's an Alpha channel problem.

Used the MacOS (Sierra 10.12.6) scanner software for an HP OfficeJet Pro 8500A Plus to scan a 2400dpi TIFF.

When opened directly in Photoshop (CC 2017.1.1) it showed the cut-off with transparency (25% off the right hand side).
Opened the TIFF in Preview, then immediately exported again as a TIFF, but without compression, and Alpha channel off.

Opened the exported TIFF in PS without any issues.

[edit2ksk]

Thanks WorldShooter! I was having the same exact problem that everyone else here described.  Exporting the file from Preview, selected lossless TIFF (personal preference) and deselected Alpha - Bingo! The file opens perfectly in Photoshop.  Cheers!

[robotbacon]

Experiencing this as well. First bunch of scans were fine, last few are cutting off in the exact same place. Scanning from the Mac interface. Using a Canon MG6820. Surprised that Apple hasn't tried to fix this yet.

[jonathan_gunnell]

Just wanted to jump in a with a "same problem here". Working on a large family photo project. Super annoyed.

[katp8460142]

Did anyone have any success with this? Im experiencing it also on my mac. After much googling took me forever to even find this thread on the issue (mind-boggling). Would love a fix though

[Pieter_Hartman]

I am experiancing same problem with PSE15. In the organizer i get damiged or not supported format. The editor stops at 2/3 of the picture. This with high sierra. But on Windows 10 it works fine for organizer and editor. Something is wrong but if the files work on windows iT is not capture image.

[gener7]

PSE is Photoshop Elements, a different program than Photoshop CC with its own forum and helpful users.

Here's the link:

Photoshop Elements

[stevenseelig]

I have had this problem, and unsolved for about 1-2 years now.  Apple has bailed a couple of times.  The one observation I can add is if the capture area is rotated, I get the problem.  If it is NOT rotated it captures properly.  This is true across 2 computers and 4 scanners.  It seems to happen with scanning to tiff, but jpeg or png.  The preview looks fine.  If I save the preview as a tiff, that saved tiff is corrupt.  If I save as JPEG and then open the jPEG and save back as a tiff, then that tiff is ok.  This is not really a working solution, but an observation.

I would add the ON1 Photo RAW 2018 also fails to open the problem tiff files so it is not isolated to Photoshop.

If I open the file in Preview and do an export turning off alpha channel and switching the compression to LZW, then the exported tiff seems fine.  Does anyone know how to change how Image Capture settings for exporting?

I really believe the problem lay in Image Capture and how it outputs the tiff files.

Sad to hear that the problem persists in High Sierra.

[redjazz]

My colleague found a workaround that is working for us. This example is for an 11x17 inch poster with the same .tif scan issue where the right 25% of the image is cut off when trying to open in Adobe products.

1. Open .tif file in Preview
2. Export as PDF
3. Open PDF in Photoshop
   1. Switch "Crop To" to "Art Box"
   2. Uncheck "Constrain Proportions"
   3. Leave "Image Size" as 8.5x11 (or whatever Photoshop interprets the file as, even though this is an 11x17 poster)
      
4. Change "Image Size" HEIGHT to 17 inches. Allow aspect ratio for WIDTH to be constrained with your changes.
5. Change "Canvas Size" WIDTH to 11 inches. Leave "Canvas Size" HEIGHT at 17 inches.

That gives us a perfectly sized .psd file for our 11x17 inch poster. Hope this helps other people too!

[Jeff Arola]

You should look at those tif scans that are cutoff, since a lot of times those tifs use jpeg compression and the quality is not as good as it should be with a tif scan, Check the file size in finder and see if it seems rather small for a tif scan.

That seems to be common issue with all the tif scans that are cutoff in photoshop, at least in our experience.

[lovelaceness]

Don't know if this is still a problem for original poster, but I literally just started having this problem as of yesterday. This is also after installing the latest high sierra update. After reading the entire thread and all the replies I can offer a modest appraisal of my experience and solution to this VERY annoying problem, hopefully it will help someone as this is a bad issue that it seems is being allowed to fester. After isolating the various factors at play (machine:laptop, desktop etc, scanner, software, and scanning software) and combining that with various ideas offered in this thread, I have found the culprit is image capture. Without getting in the weeds of whats is going wrong with it technically, the bottom line is something is going on with the sierra update( and it seems to be a recurring problem with every update since mac launched el captian) where image capture automatically applies a setting to tiff files which does not work in concert with photoshop. The result is the problem listed above.

I found 2 solutions to this.

1- The preview work around. Exporting file as a tiff and setting compression to either lzw or none. This worked without a hitch. The new tif file opened in photoshop exactly the way its supposed to.

2- Do not use image capture! Instead I switched to using image acquire and scanning with TWAIN. This worked without any issue on the first try. And its how I will proceed going forward as the extra step having to use preview just to get to photoshop is 5 minutes more time then I want to spend on this issue. Using Twain works just like image capture in terms of steps and its just a much better designed interface why a host of file saving and scanning options.

So that's it. I hope that helps someone and thank you to all the previous posters whose input helped me solve this problem on my end. On a side note, Apple and Adobe SERIOUSLY need to get it together. The bugs with software since over the last couple years of updates and the seemingly lack of response is pretty outrageous. Entirely too much money is being spent by their customers to allow these issue to persist for literally years on end and the solutions come from users left to their own to cobble together backyard solutions. It's disrespectful and its how giants suddenly topple when they're consumer base gets fed up at the same time an up and coming product breaks in, thats looking to exploit that gap in customer service. my 2 cents.

[gener7]

I thought Twain (with the exception of Vuescan Twain) was discontinued in 64 bit versions of Photoshop. Where would you find Twain now?

[lovelaceness]

Thats a good question and honestly I'm not sure. What I know is on my imac which can and does run CC at 64bits and I still have image acquire as an app in my launch pad. Since "image Capture" is apparently the systems default image importer, when I decided to use "image acquire" it asked me if I wanted to make the "switch" as it were. Once saying yes I was automatically routed to my scanners scanning software, in this case Epson Scan. So going forward when I need to scan, I go to either launch-pad or my app folder, pick epson scan and that's that. I repeated the process on my laptop and was also successful.

I can't categorically state this is a cure all, as various factors present on a given persons rig always play into these types of situations; which is exactly why Adobe and Apple really need to take point on these type of issues.

But like I said since image capture is the default software, the first step that I found that allows me to correctly scan and save the file straight away, is to first undo that coupling. When I was troubleshooting this before finding this thread, I tried scanning through epson scan, but it automatically routed me back through image capture. It was only after switching to image acquire that now when I launch epson scan I am properly brought to the epson software. I'm not a tech head so there are aspects of this that are beyond my ability to fully break down. But by process of elimination it all started and ended with me removing image capture from the process.  Hope that helps.

[gener7]

I see. I use a Brother Multi Function Copier and their software is not installed. I use VueScan Scanner Software for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and it supplies it's own Twain software. So far it's good.

Sometimes just scanning to file is best and then opening up in Ps, because Twain software locks up Photoshop until the scan is done.