2012.02.28 15:59 "[Tiff] BigTiff support (libtiff 4.0.1 vs libtif f4.1)", by Cip Cipper

2012.02.29 15:07 "Re: [Tiff] BigTiff support (libtiff 4.0.1 vs libtif f4.1)", by Olivier Paquet

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 9:43 AM, Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:

For what it's worth, it's one of my long term wishes as well. I don' t know if I'll ever have time to implement it though.

I can't think of any reasonable way to implement this. a single image  With

Two options:

  1. Leave some space so directories can be converted to BigTIFF in-place.
  2. Rewrite all directories at the end of the file when the conversion happens.

Neither is perfect but I think both are useful as long as they are optional. It allows writing an application where the output files "just work" until they reach 4 GB while still having support for the occasional larger file.

> People dealing with 4GB+ files are well aware of the file sizes.  Such large

files take considerable time to read and write, and require lots of storage. consideration is required before deciding to write a 4GB+ file, part  Since of that consideration can be if BigTIFF is needed.

That's not true in all applications. Our users deal with terabytes of data but files are typically in the 10-500 MB range. There is however occasional need for a few much larger files. There is also a need for the common files to work with all the other software out there.

Users of libtiff 4.X should not be alarmed if a BigTIFF file is encountered since it will just plain work. has been paying attention to BigTIFF  Adobe all along and we can hope that eventually Adobe software will support BigTIFF.

Eventually, yes, this will no longer be an issue. But we're not there yet.

Olivier