The TIFF iamge file from Windows XP

This is the initial about a study for understanding how a TIFF file is created, of course the basis must be catch before we are able to view the whole picture from the top to the bottom.

1. download the skybook (天書, this is the direct translation for stuff of manual / data book / data sheet or something). here a complete document for TIFF format, it is able to download by following, http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tiff/TIFF6.pdf
   also, take a look for the beginning of the technical information for TIFF file structure,
   http://schmidt.devlib.org/file-formats/tiff-image-file-format.html
2. download the TIFF TAG Viewer following,
   http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/astifftagviewer.html
3. Read some information from the web about the basis of Fax Theory, following is one of the tons,
   http://home.maine.rr.com/randylinscott/fax.htm
   

Now, it is ready to see what can be seen from scratch pad. Open one TIFF file from Windows XP with TIFF TAG Viewer, for sure, need to be received and stored somewhere in the computer; display is something like the following,











TIFF TAG Viewer, it prompts the BYTE ORDER is in INTEL format, use the HEX editor to open this TIFF file, should be able to see the first two byes are "II" in ASCII or 0x49, 0x49. used to verify this following. The










The data storage with INTEL FORMAT or MOTOROLA FORMAT, it is a little out of the topic, but further reading form here or here would be benefits. As wisdom said, nothing new under your sunshine, remember the skill of Aisan style or more specific, the Traditional Chinese penmanship for horizontal styling (書法 橫匾), it used to be writing from right to left before, but most likely, the latest writing style close to western, a left to right. Most of the Chinese are able to read the following without improper interpretation, for example,

INTEL FORMAT = Right to Left = 禧新賀恭 = Little Endian
MOTOROLA FORMAT = Left to Right = 恭賀新禧 = Big Endian





















OK, so far no lost the heading direction, we are going to understand and preview the file format of TIFF file used from fax copy by Windows XP. Because the Windows XP are running and designed with Intel CPU, no matter how, only the INTEL FORMAT for data storage will be there. It is time to look more seriously from a graphical representation about the data structure of these TIFF file. most of the pictures following are captured from the screen when visited the webpage below,

http://www.fileformat.info/format/tiff/




the next step, to check a TIFF file from the fax template and the HEX dump, simple but effective to see whether Image File Header (IDF) cab be seen from the scratch.