TIFF images not supported as attachments

[Doug]

TIFF is an image file type that dates back early in the scheme of digital images. It has never been popular for use on the internet as initially it did not support compression (i.e. the files were high resolution, but big) and by the time it did other formats like JPEG surpassed it in popularity. Many newer internet browsers do not support the viewing of TIFF, and some that do are dropping support. If you try to force the display the image in the browser, it makes you save the file locally or use a local app (like an media viewer) to open it outside of the browser.

The impact is that if you use a TIFF image as an attachment, while your browser might be one of the few that display it, other folk's browsers will display a blank rectangle. So do not use TIFF images.

For the time being, TIFF files will remain as one of the file types that the forum will allow to be uploaded. The reason being is that if you try to attach a file that is not allowed, when you Preview or Post your message the forum will return the error message "You cannot upload that type of file." On returning to the message window, depending on the browser you use, all the text you have typed will be erased! The angst of loosing a large amount of typing is not worth the convenience of having TIFF attachments removed from the list of permissible attachments.

Where Admin/Moderators encounter TIFF images as attachments, we will convert them to JPEG. By avoiding the use of TIFF images, you will save us some maintenance work.