TIFF file no longer supported

[Bryan5C2A]

Hi we have an electron microscope that creates a tiff image as it's output. We've been able to open these files for years in photoshop, but since about may or so we now get a message saying "Could not open <filename.tif> because the  TIFF file uses an unsupported color space." Nothing on the microscope has changed in the software, and there are no options for adjusting the tiff export settings. So I'm guessing there was an update to adobe that removed some old reader that was being used for these files being created. Is there a way to add it back in if that was the case?

[JJMack]

Can you upload a sample Tif and post a link to it so other can see if they can open them.

[Bryan5C2A]

I can try and upload one (I have to get clearance to share data), but we've tried with 4 different individuals and they all can't open the files so it's not system dependent.

[Bryan5C2A]

@JJMack I found an image I'm allowed to share. What's the best way to link it?

[Chuck Uebele]

If you have a dropbox account, that would work.

[Bryan5C2A]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iknt03wn9bgqh13/FirstDiatom45Tilt90Photos0-36_m005.tif?dl=0

[Chuck Uebele]

Very odd. It's got a grayscale color mode with 20% dot gain. I save another image like that and was able to open it. I was able to open your image through Bridge, but opening it in Camera Raw: ctrl/cmd-R. Once open in Camera Raw, it opened in PS.

[Bryan5C2A]

I also was able to get it to open with Camera Raw, but it's not the way that the files used to open. Photoshop used to be able to open them just normally.

[D Fosse]

Actually it doesn't have dot gain 20% embedded - it opens in whatever working gray you have set. Dot gain 20 just happens to be the PS default.

So ACR treats it as untagged, whether it really is or not.

Just for the heck of it I tried to turn all color management policies "off" in Photoshop. That should get rid of any embedded profile. But it still wouldn't open directly into PS.

So it opens in Bridge/ACR, and FWIW it also opens in Windows "Photos" (not color managed) and "Windows Photo Viewer" (which is color managed). Only Photoshop refuses to open it.

[Jeff Arola]

You can report the issue over here where adobe employees hang out:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/

[Per Berntsen]

I was able to open the file in ACDSee Home 2020, and after resaving it, it would open in Photoshop 2021 with this dialog, so it is untagged. For the record, it would not open in PS 2020 either.