2006.04.20 20:27 "Re: [Tiff] TIFF + Group4 will last 10 years?", by Antoine

On 19/04/06, Gerben Vos <Gerben@zylab.com> wrote:

My question is, should i keep the compression or not? I'm not sure if in 2013 software that can deal with that compression scheme (Group4) is going to be supported or not; and if i keep the compression, should i use Group4 or another?

Lots of documents are currently being archived every day around the world using TIFF and Group 4, both in private business and government. The Group 4 standard dates from 1984, and shows no sign of decline in its use. The only real competitor at the moment, I think, is JBIG, which hasn't really caught on yet. I'd use either Group 4 or uncompressed; the latter of course has the advantage that you have a better chance of recovery if the storage medium becomes partially damaged, but you should decide yourself whether that's worth the extra storage costs.

I'm sure both TIFF and PDF will still be around too. I'd choose TIFF myself, since it's an easier format to decode.

I can second that - we do a lot of work for European aerospace companies and it is pretty much all (certainly all the b&w stuff) in either pdf + G4 or tiff + G4. At the end of the day, you can always store the entire G4 decompression scheme in a tag (OK, I know I am not worthy but wth!) and it will cost you a couple (OK maybe a few K) of hundred bytes per image. And that is if you are REALLY paranoid!

Cheers
Antoine

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This is where I should put some witty comment.