Should I scan my closed paper files as PDF or TIFF electronic files?  The federal courts have chosen PDF as the format for electronic filing.  Scanner ads tout their capability of scanning directly to PDF.  But, wait, my paper files aren’t pleadings to be filed with the court.  They are folders of letters, memos, and documents arranged in chronological order that document my work.  They are my business records.  When I scan them, I convert them to digital images stored on my computer.  I get to decide the format:  PDF, TIFF, etc.  After much study, my choice is TIFF.  Here’s why.

National Archives Recommends TIFF.  Closed paper files are archival in nature.  The National Archives defines archives as “a place where people can go to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary sources.” The National Archives recommends saving image files as uncompressed TIFF files.  (Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images, June 2004, www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.html).  In comparing file formats, here are some of the technical considerations the National Archives used in recommending TIFF format for saving images:
-“De facto raster image format used for master files;
-“Uncompressed; lossless compression;
-“Accommodates large file sizes;
-“Anticipate greater preservation support in repository settings; preferred raster image format for preservation;
-“Widely supported and used;
-“Long track record (format is over 10 years old);
-“Potential loss of Adobe support of TIFF in favor of PDF?
-“Not suitable as access file—no native support in current web
Browsers;
-“Preferred format for production master file.”

Here are some of the technical considerations of the National Archives in recommending against PDF for production master files of digital images:
-“Intended to be a highly structured page description language that can contain embedded objects, such as raster images, in their respective formats;
-:Works better as a container for multiple logical objects that make up a coherent whole or composite document;
-“More complex format due to embedded/externally linked objects.”

            Florida Digital Archive Recommends TIFF.  The Florida Digital Archive is a “long-term preservation repository for digital materials in support of teaching and learning, scholarship, and research in the state of Florida” that “guarantees that all files deposited by agreement with its affiliates remain available, unaltered, and readable from media.”   It states that it has a high confidence level in images stored in uncompressed TIFF format (Recommended Data Formats for Preservation Purposes in the FCLA Digital Archive, Florida Center for Library Automation, June 2005, www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/pdfs/recFormats.pdf).

On the other hand, if text is submitted to the Florida Digital Archive in PDF format, it recommends PDF/A-1b format using only “lossless compression algorithms which are not subject to intellectual property constraints. The use of LZW compression is prohibited.” (Guidelines for Creating Archival Quality PDF Files, FCLA, June 2006, www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/pdfs/PDFGuideline.pdf).
 
Adobe Recommends PDF.  Adobe created and controls the PDF format, so it’s no wonder it recommends it for archival use.  In its white paper PDF as a Standard for Archiving (www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/pdfarchiving.pdf), Adobe pleads its case for using PDF to archive paper documents.  The white paper walks through the reasons the PDF format provides the integrity needed for archival documents.  While the sales points are good, the fact is that there is an image within the PDF file wrapper and it’s probably a TIFF so why not just use TIFF as the file format itself?

No Sedona Recommendation.  Perhaps there is no best answer.  The Sedona Conference Working Group on Best Practices for Electronic Document Retention and Production issued its updated September 2005 version of The Sedona Guidelines: Best Practice Guidelines & Commentary for Managing Information & Records in the Electronic Age but made no recommendation of preferred file format, perhaps because one of its principles is, “No single standard or model can fully meet an organization’s unique needs.” (www.thesedonaconference.org/dltForm?did=TSG9_05.pdf)

The AIIM Documents.  The issue is complex and dynamic.  It is under constant study.  So  I joined the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) to access their volumes of articles, white papers and publications.  In May 2006 it published the article Archiving Electronic Files by the consultant Bernard Chester (http://aiim.org), which says this about the file format question:

“TIFF: Tagged Image File Format is a de facto standard for storing raster images. Most document scanning systems produce TIFF as their output. TIFF provides support for a number of color spaces, densities, compression methods, and pixel formats. Few viewers can properly handle all variants, so care must be taken to choose a combination that is popular.
…
“PDF & PDF/A: Adobe’s Portable Document Format has become a de facto standard for distributing documents, since it attempts to ensure a consistent appearance across viewing environments. PDF/A(rchive) is subset that has been made an international standard specifically for use in archiving documents.
…
“With so many choices, how do you decide? Obviously, the type of information will be a big factor. But that may still leave one with a number of choices. My recommendation is to rate your choices favoring those that are least proprietary and most popular. This should give you the best chance of being able to access the record in the future. Whatever format is used, it is important to periodically check that your viewing tools still support it.”

Easily View TIFF Files with Microsoft Office.  TIFF files are easily viewed with a program much simpler to use than Adobe Acrobat:  Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MSDI).  It comes as part of Microsoft Office.  You can see it on your computer (Start | Programs | Microsoft Office | Tools).  You can easily set your computer to open all TIFF files with Microsoft Office Document Imaging.  Just open Windows Explorer, select Tools | Folder Options | File Types, and then select the file types TIF and TIFF and change them to open with Microsoft Office Document Imaging, if it’s not already shown.  By the way, TIF and TIFF mean the same thing.

Two caveats when using Microsoft Office Document Imaging: (1) when you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007, use custom install and select it as an option since it is not installed by default; (2) if you choose to recognize (OCR) the text in the TIFF file for later searching, save the file with a different name from the image-only TIFF file so that other image file viewing software can open it in case Microsoft ever decides to drop MSDI.

Conclusion: TIFF.  So, that’s why I scan closed paper files as TIFF images.  While I do not intend to submit my files to the National Archives or the Florida Digital Archive, I would like my archived scanned files kept in a file format that is recognized with confidence by archivists.  The TIFF format is such a format.

So, how can lawyers remember which format to use?  When you see your file folder, just think of your client and remember there is no PDF in plainTIFF.

[2008 Update: The author now prefers PDF over TIFF for a number of reasons. Watch for another article.]