What’s Weighing Down PDFs?
Here are some of the factors that contribute to the large file sizes of PDF files:

• Color
• Form data
• Embedded images
• Embedded documents
• Font
• Compression

Due to the need for file viewers to handle all of the components of PDF files, PDF readers generally take longer to start up and load documents than TIFF readers.

Why TIFF is the Better Choice
This file format has been around since 1986 and has quickly become an industry standard. Part of this industry dominance is because viewers are often free of charge and there is no specific software is needed to view them. Also, back even a decade ago, PDFs were very expensive to produce and most scanners and digital cameras produced TIFF files by default. This put TIFF in the position to be the most standard file format. While consumers do not use TIFF as much because many of them send image and color heavy files best suited for PDF, businesses do not need this functionality for the majority of their transactions. Keeping files small and manageable is what makes TIFF the best choice for business.

TIFF in Action
Countrywide is a huge insurance company which receives PDFs of accident reports from its vendors. They have central processors processing documents from hundreds of venders sending in these forms. They convert all the PDFs to TIFF so documents being sent back and forth are roughly half the size of the original. They are not killing their networks with huge PDFs because the files are now lightweight, easier to transfer, and more controllable. While black and white is the most popular format there’s a lot of diversity in the TIFF family. There are formats like black and white, TIFF color, Tiff jpeg, etc. You’re able to store text and photos beyond just the original black and white, adding even more value to the TIFF format.

Final Thoughts
TIFF is far and away the best choice for businesses with large amounts of data and forms (e.g. insurance and mortgage companies) TIFF is historically a black and white file format, making it a good fit for sending things like checks, faxes, plain text documents, insurance forms, mortgage forms, etc. The bottom line: their small size saves business time and money by efficiently using both bandwidth and storage.

Well, for one, it means that there is now universally public access to those specifications in electronic form. Previously, there was some documentation available in paper form, but trying to work collaboratively was no easy task. Those who did have access couldn’t easily share the documents internally, and they were covered by a confidentiality agreement and were not allowed to be freely distributed to just anyone.

Second, the available documentation wasn’t really well laid out, and read more like a complicated technical dictionary rather than an organized specification. The new documentation is a good step forward in making a complicated format a bit more clear. Navigation through the document becomes easier with links, and the general structure and flow is improved, including a specific section on where each Office version behaves differently with regards to the specification, which of course has been a big complaint with the Office Open XML specification.

Third, with an official 1.0 release, we can hope that the documentation will be improved in the future, incorporating feedback from those who are using it, fleshing out confusing or lesser documented areas, etc.

Last, the fact that this documentation is now public means that more people may begin to work with Office formats. Those with current solutions will be able to more easily improve them, and it may encourage new solutions to be created, as rather than guess at how to implement the formats, something tangible exists to assist the effort.

The bottom line is that only good can come of these formats becoming more accessible and understandable, and I hope Microsoft (and others) continue to open up previously proprietary technology.