.TIFF file signature
A TIFF image data file begins with the bytes 49 49 2A 00 (II*. in ASCII) at the start of the file. The signature is the same whatever the file is named, which is why a renamed or extensionless TIFF file is still recognisable.
Known signatures
| Offset | Hex | ASCII |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 49 49 2A 00Little-endian (Intel). | II*. |
| 0 | 4D 4D 00 2ABig-endian (Motorola). | MM.* |
MIME type: image/tiff · usual extensions: .tiff, .tif
How to check a file's signature
Without installing anything: drop the file on our detector. It reads the bytes in your browser and shows the hex dump alongside the verdict; nothing is uploaded.
macOS and Linux (Terminal):
xxd -l 32 file.tiff
file file.tiffWindows (PowerShell):
Format-Hex -Path file.tiff -Count 32If the bytes do not match
A file named .tiff whose first bytes are something else is not a TIFF file. The common explanations are a wrong or deliberately misleading extension, a download that saved an HTML error page instead of the file, or a container such as ZIP wrapping the real content. The detector reports what the bytes say; the TIFF guide explains what a genuine file should contain.