🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Peter,

While I'm not sure I can offer a solution I think I may be able to point
out a possible cause of the problem.  Perhaps at least some small info I
can provide could be of assistance.

We tend to think of TIFF as being a standard image format, i.e. a TIFF
is a TIFF is a TIFF, etc.  This unfortunately is not the case.  TIFF is
actually a *type* of image format.  There are literally hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of different kinds of TIFF files, many of them even
proprietary.  Though the vast majority can be read by mass-market
software like Photoshop it is possible that some cannot (although I've
never heard of any specific cases like yours).  The fact that you
created your TIFFs using scanners made by different manufacturers leads
me to think of this as at least a possible reason for your difficulties.

Now I'm no expert on TIFF image formats -- I picked up this
informational tidbit at a class I attended only last week -- so the only
solution I can suggest is to limit your scanning, at least for the time
being, to the device that produces TIFFs your copy of Photoshop can
process.

Hope this helps -- and I hope someone else out there has some other
suggestions that can build upon what I've just offered.

James


Peter Nelson wrote:

> Here is a perplexing problem -- I hope someone can help us.
>
> We scanned some documents on one scanner (an HP ScanJet IIcx) and
> saved
> the image files as TIFFs.  Later, additional documents were scanned on
> a
> different scanner (Microtek ScanMaker III) and added to the previous
> group.  Both scanners are connected to PCs running Windows.  Settings
> for
> both scan jobs were identical (400 dpi bitonal, TIFF with PC byte
> order,
> LZW compression).  Now in Photoshop 4.0, we proceeded to batch-process
> the
> TIFFs (save them as grayscale GIFs). Strangely, the images produced
> from
> the Microtek scanner were processed fine, while the others done on the
> HP
> scanner couldn't be opened "because of a problem parsing the TIFF
> file,"
> quoth Photoshop.  Has this happened to anyone else, and if so: what's
> the
> cause and can any of the files be salvaged?
>
> Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this.
>
> .....................................................................
> Peter Nelson                                    pnelson@mtholyoke.edu
> Five College Archives Digital Access Project
> c/o Mount Holyoke College Archives       http://clio.fivecolleges.edu
> South Hadley, MA 01075                                 (413) 538-3020
>
> Internet is a good way to get on the Net. - Bob Dole
> ......................................................................



--
James A. Otto
Digital Projects Specialist and ERes Manager
Honnold/Mudd Library Special Collections
(The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges)
800 N. Dartmouth Avenue
Claremont, CA  91711-3991

(909) 607-7530 (x77530) (Phone)
(909) 621-8681 (Fax)
jotto@rocky.claremont.edu

"Through tower halls the Many come to talk,
Lies twisted into truth, truth into lies;
All come and go, and gossip never ends.
Talk, talk, talk, talk fills many hundred ears
That empty as a story's told, rehashed,
And told to someone else, or fiction grows...
Rumour takes in all things at sea, on land,
And, at a distance, in the skies of heaven,
Everything heard or seen throughout the Globe."
     --Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 12