TIFF to FITS Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
TIFF is the standard format of the scanner, fax and print industries. It stores very high quality — usually lossless — and can hold multiple pages in one file, at the cost of large file sizes. Convert FITS frames to PNG or JPG to preview telescope data, or pack them into a ZIP for sharing.
Because the whole conversion happens on your device, it is instant, unlimited and genuinely private — no accounts, no watermarks, no files on anyone's server. Multiple files are converted in one go.
How TIFF compares to FITS
| TIFF | FITS | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless (LZW/ZIP) or none | None (optionally Rice/GZIP) |
| Transparency | Supported (alpha channel) | Not supported |
| Animation | Not supported | Not supported |
| Metadata | Rich tag system (EXIF, GeoTIFF) | Rich text header (WCS) |
| Best for | Print, scanning, archival | Telescope frames, science data |
How to convert TIFF to FITS
- 1
Select your files
Drag & drop your TIFF files onto the area above, or click to browse. You can add multiple files at once for batch conversion.
- 2
Convert instantly
Click "Convert to FITS". The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no upload, no queue, no waiting.
- 3
Download results
Download each converted FITS file individually, or grab everything at once as a ZIP archive.
About the TIFF format
TIFF, introduced by Aldus in 1986 and maintained by Adobe since, is the workhorse of the scanning, printing and archiving industries. It is a tag-based container: baseline RGB, CMYK, grayscale and indexed color, compressed with lossless LZW or ZIP (or not at all), with 8- or 16-bit depth and even multiple pages in a single file. A scanned contract or a print-ready magazine page lives in TIFF.
Its historical weakness is dialect fragmentation: the tag system is so flexible that exotic TIFFs — GeoTIFFs, fax TIFFs, certain 16-bit CMYK variants — still trip up careless readers. Files are huge, and no browser displays TIFF natively, so it never escaped its professional niches.
+Strengths
- ✓Lossless with up to 16-bit-per-channel depth
- ✓Multipage support — one file, many scans
- ✓CMYK and print-industry color handling
- ✓Rich, extensible tag metadata for archiving
!Limitations
- −Very large files, even compressed
- −Dialect fragmentation trips up simple readers
- −No native browser display
About the FITS format
FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) has carried professional astronomy data since 1981: every file opens with a plain-text header that records telescope, instrument, exposure, filters and world coordinates, followed by raw pixel arrays — often 16-bit or float, sometimes data cubes.
Values can be negative or far above display range, so FITS never looks right in a photo viewer. Converting to PNG applies a simple scaling pass that reveals the nebula or galaxy in the numbers — good for previews, while science pipelines keep the original.
+Strengths
- ✓Self-documenting science headers
- ✓High bit depth (16/32-bit, float)
- ✓The standard of every observatory
!Limitations
- −Not display-ready
- −Files are large and uncompressed
Why convert TIFF to FITS?
Converting makes sense where the strengths of FITS meet what TIFF cannot give you. Self-documenting science headers Meanwhile Very large files, even compressed One pass through the converter above puts your file on the right side of that trade-off.
Frequently asked questions
Is this TIFF to FITS converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Will I lose quality converting TIFF to FITS?
No — FITS is a lossless format, so every pixel of the converted image matches your original TIFF file. You can also adjust the quality/size balance before converting when the target format supports compression.
Will transparent areas survive the conversion to FITS?
Transparency is kept whenever FITS actually supports an alpha channel. If the target format has none (like JPG), transparent areas are flattened onto a white background — that is a property of the format, not of this tool.
Can I convert several TIFF files at once?
Yes — drop as many files as you like into the tool and they are converted in one batch. When more than one file comes out, everything is bundled into a ZIP for a single download.