DDS to TIFF Converter

Encoding: the DDS uses block compression (BC1 to BC7, also called DXT) or uncompressed RGBA; TIFF uses none, LZW, PackBits, Deflate or JPEG, chosen per file, and the download is an uncompressed 8-bit RGBA TIFF with the resolution recorded.

Bit depth: 8 bits per channel for common texture formats in the DDS; TIFF allows 1 to 16 bits per channel, or 32-bit floating point, and the TIFF written here has 8 bits per channel.

Colour: RGB(A); normal maps and packed masks store data rather than colour in the DDS; TIFF supports RGB, CMYK, Lab, greyscale or palette, often with an ICC profile, written here as 8-bit sRGB.

Transparency: the DDS stores it as alpha inside the compressed blocks (BC2, BC3, BC7) or a 1-bit cut-out (BC1); the TIFF keeps it as an extra sample declared in the ExtraSamples tag.

Other images: the DDS can hold mipmaps, cubemap faces or texture arrays; only the main image is converted.

Metadata: the DDS can carry a 128-byte header (plus a DX10 header) describing the pixel format, nothing about the picture; TIFF can carry EXIF, XMP, IPTC and ICC, all stored as tags, but nothing is copied across.

DDS is a GPU texture format used by DirectX games. It stores block-compressed textures (DXT/BC) and mipmaps that graphics cards decode directly.

A DDS file starts with 'DDS ' and a 124-byte header giving the size, mipmap count and pixel format: a FourCC such as DXT1 or DXT5, or 'DX10' followed by an extra header naming a DXGI format. The largest mipmap comes first.

DDS files usually come from DirectX games, game mods and texture tools such as NVIDIA Texture Tools and Intel's texture plugin.

TIFF is the professional archive and print format. It can hold multiple pages, high bit depths and lossless data, and is common in scanning, publishing and GIS.

A TIFF begins with 'II' or 'MM' for the byte order and the number 42, then an offset to the first image file directory (IFD): a table of tags giving the size, compression, colour model and the location of the strips or tiles of pixels. Each further page is another IFD.

TIFF is the better choice for printing, scanning and archival masters, while DDS suits game textures and mods.

TIFF strengths: Lossless and print-ready; Multiple pages in one file; Preferred by print shops and archives. Drawbacks to weigh: Very large files; Browsers cannot display it; Many variants and compression schemes.