tiffcp Command in Linux
The tiffcp command in Linux copies and converts TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files. It can merge multiple TIFF files into one, extract individual images, or change compression and other parameters.
Table of Contents
Here is a comprehensive guide to the options available with the tiffcp command in Linux −
- Installation of tiffcp Command
- Syntax of tiffcp Command
- Options of tiffcp Command
- Using tiffcp Command in Linux
Installation of tiffcp Command
The tiffcp command is part of the libtiff-tools package in Linux. Make sure the package is installed before using the command. To install it on Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Raspberry Pi OS, Debian, and other Debian-based distributions, use the following command −
sudo apt install libtiff-tools
To install it on Arch Linux, use the command below −
sudo pacman -S libtiff
To install libtiff-tools on Fedora, use the following command −
sudo dnf install libtiff-tools
To verify the installation of the tiffcp command, check its binary using the which command −
which tiffcp
Syntax of tiffcp Command
The syntax of the tiffcp command in Linux is as follows −
tiffcp [options] input.tiff⦠output.tiff
In the above syntax, the [options] argument is used to specify options that modify how the command processes the input file. The input.tiff... is one or more source files, and the output.tiff is the destination file where the processed data will be saved.
Options of tiffcp Command
The options of the tiffcp command in Linux are as follows −
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| -a | Append to an existing output file. |
| -b image | Subtract a monochrome image from all others to remove noise bias. |
| -B | Force output with Big-Endian byte order. |
| -C | Suppress strip chopping for a single strip/tile of uncompressed data. |
| -c | Specify compression type (e.g., none, lzw, zip, jpeg, g3, g4, etc.). |
| -forder | Set FillOrder (lsb2msb or msb2lsb). |
| -i | Ignore non-fatal read errors. |
| -l length | Specify tile length in pixels. |
| -L | Force output with Little-Endian byte order. |
| -M | Disable memory-mapped file reading. |
| -o offset | Set initial directory offset. |
| -p config | Set planar configuration (contig or separate). |
| -r rows | Set the number of rows per strip. |
| -s | Force data organization into strips. |
| -t | Force data organization in tiles. |
| -w width | Specify tile width in pixels. |
| -x | Add sequential PageNumber tags to output pages. |
| -8 | Write in BigTIFF format. |
| -,= char | Substitute character for ',' in filenames. |
| -m size | Set max memory allocation size in MiB (0 = no limit). |
Using tiffcp Command in Linux
This section explores how to use the tiffcp command in Linux with examples −
Copying the Existing TIFF to a New TIFF
To copy the existing TIFF file to a new TIFF file, use the tiffcp command followed by the source file −
tiffcp sample.tiff output.tiff
The above command copies sample.tiff to output.tiff without modifications.
Combining Multiple TIFF Files into One
To combine multiple TIFF files into one, use the tiffcp command in the following way −
tiffcp sample1.tiff sample2.tiff output.tiff
The combined TIFF file is as follows −
Another way to verify the number of TIFF files, use the following command −
tiffinfo output.tiff | grep directory
The number of directories corresponds to the number of images (IFDs) within a single TIFF file. Each image in a TIFF file is stored in a separate structure called an Image File Directory (IFD).
Appending a TIFF File to an Existing Multipage TIFF
To append a TIFF file to an existing multi-page TIFF file, use the -a option −
tiffcp -a sample3.tiff output.tiff
Changing the Compression Type
Copy the input TIFF to the output TIFF file using LZW compression, run the following command −
tiffcp -c lzw sample.tiff output.tiff
The -c option is used to specify the compression type. To combine multiple TIFF files with different compression types, use the tiffcp command in the following way −
tiffcp -c zip sample1.tiff -c lzw sample2.tiff output.tiff
Specifying the Number of Rows
To specify the number of rows, use the -r option. To set the strip size to 10 in the output file, use the following command −
tiffcp -r 10 sample1.tiff output.tiff
Organizing Data into Tiles
To force the data to be written into tiles rather than strips, use the -t option −
tiffcp -t -w 256 -l 256 sample.tiff output.tiff
The -w and -l options are used to specify the width and length of the tile in pixels.
Forcing Output to Include Page Numbers
To force the output file to include the page number in sequence, use the -x option −
tiffcp -x sample1.tiff sample2.tiff output.tiff
Ignoring Non-Fatal Errors
To ignore non-fatal read errors and continue processing the source file, use the -i option −
tiffcp -i sample.tiff output.tiff
Conclusion
The tiffcp command in Linux is used to copy and convert TIFF image files with various options to customize the output, such as compression type, data organization, byte order, and error handling. It supports combining multiple TIFF files, modifying strip or tile layout, and managing image attributes like page numbers.