2012.02.29 14:43 "Re: [Tiff] BigTiff support (libtiff 4.0.1 vs libtif f4.1)", by Bob Friesenhahn

On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 3:22 AM, Cip Cipper <cipper82@gmail.com> wrote:

Adobe will offer support for BigTiff, or maybe a future libTiff version will behave like I have described and automatically update a file to BigTiff only when it is necessary.

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. With a single image frame it may be possible to reliably estimate when BigTIFF is needed, but only if the image dimensions and properties are known in advance. With multiple image frames written over time, it seems impossible.

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. Since consideration is required before deciding to write a 4GB+ file, part of that consideration can be if BigTIFF is needed.

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

Bob
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Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/