Problem printing TIFF files

Judy B. · External Since: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 1

Question... have Windows Vista and am unable to print TIFF files... can print
no prob on XP computer, but unable to on Vista computer. Is there some type
of issue with Vista and printing TIFF files?

Thanks!

Ken Blake, MVP · External Since: Jun 02, 2007 Posts: 410

On Wed, 1 Aug 2007 06:08:05 -0700, Judy B.
<JudyB.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Question... have Windows Vista and am unable to print TIFF files... can print
> no prob on XP computer, but unable to on Vista computer. Is there some type
> of issue with Vista and printing TIFF files?

No.

Please help us to help you. What does "unable to print" mean? How are
you trying? From what program? What happens when you try? If you get
an error message, please quote it verbatim.

For information on how to make a good newsgroup posting, read
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm and
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

huwyngr · External Since: May 10, 2007 Posts: 411

In article <10C1DBB6-20D2-4010-8E7C-5EF4CF0A7F11.RemoveThis@microsoft.com>, Judy
B. wrote:

> Is there some type of issue with Vista and printing TIFF files?

I've seen mentioned from time to time but don't remember any solutions.

Here's a workaround that Google picked up:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Printing faxes received as .tif files

Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 11:27:55 AM | RobLigouri

This isn't a fix for the actual problem but a workaround. On a machine
with Vista Business and Office 2007 Basic, I installed Microsoft Office
Document Imaging (MODI) and made it the default program for tif and
tiff files. My Office installation did not have MODI installed by
default, so I had to go to the new Vista Add/Remove Programs (Programs
and setting i believe) and 'change' my Office installation. MODI can
be found under Office Tools, but it wouldn't install when I just chose
'Run from my computer' for MODI (maybe an error). So select 'Run all
from my computer' for Office Tools and that should do the trick. When
you change the file type associations, the executable can be found in

program files\common files\microsoft shared\modi\12.0\mspview.exe or
something along those lines (why not just the MS Office directory???).
I successfully printed a couple of tif attachments correctly with this
setup this morning. Hope this works for everyone.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Here are a couple more:

------------------------------------------------------------------
While not directly bearing on your issue, make this registry change
anyway:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930097

Some scanners produce compressed .TIF formats that Vista cannot now
handle gracefully. Samsung scanners, for instance, use a version of
compression called "JPEG (in TIFF)". I do not know what compression
method is being used, but it is clear that the image contains
grayscales and is compressed, and Vista is having an issue with the
compression schema.

Suggestion: download and install Irfranview. This is a tremendous
freeware package, that also works under Vista. Use this to open and
print your .tif documents: http://www.irfanview.com/ If you associate
the software with your .TIF and other formats, it will work seamlessly
to open any saved .tif document.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I tried many freeware viewer/editor and I had no luck.
But Irfranview did!
It worked like a charm, I was able to view and print with the same
ratio.

So it is the compression schema that Vista had a problem with...
These days many corporate level copier/scanner uses either tif or pdf.
pdf is getting popular but I think the trend is still with tif or other
image types.

I will get by with this problem using Irfranview, installing it to all
Vista users but hopefully this gets addressed quickly by Microsoft.
Is this something I can call MS and report it as a bug?

Anyway, I will change the registry and use Irfranview for now.
Thank you so much for your information!
This will really save my life.

Try a Google on [Vista and printing TIFF files] if no-one here produces
an answer for you.