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tiff images disappear in preview

I am using Big Sur, 11.6.4. I have a newly created Photoshop 1.7Mb tiff image that disappears (blocks at a time) in Preview, therefore I cannot print it on a Canon 4100s large format printer. The interesting thing is that it opens just fine in Preview on my older computer using Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Also, older tiff files open just fine on Big Sur. It almost seems the creation date is causing a hiccup in Preview. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 23, 2022 10:13 AM

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Posted on Mar 23, 2022 1:41 PM

Bumblebee 2 wrote:

It almost seems the creation date is causing a hiccup in Preview.

It is more likely the format. TIFF has many, many possible options. Apple's built-in software does not handle all possible TIFF versions. And yes, the older version of the operating system might handle it just fine. The newer version in Big Sur was ported from iOS. Pretty much everything these days comes from iOS. That software is going to have more difficulty with complex file formats like TIFF.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 23, 2022 1:41 PM in response to Bumblebee 2

Bumblebee 2 wrote:

It almost seems the creation date is causing a hiccup in Preview.

It is more likely the format. TIFF has many, many possible options. Apple's built-in software does not handle all possible TIFF versions. And yes, the older version of the operating system might handle it just fine. The newer version in Big Sur was ported from iOS. Pretty much everything these days comes from iOS. That software is going to have more difficulty with complex file formats like TIFF.

Mar 23, 2022 1:07 PM in response to VikingOSX

The original Photoshop file was created by another party, and was emailed to my father and myself. I can open and manipulate the file in Photoshop. The file is not corrupted. I cannot print directly from Photoshop, as my father is in Ohio and I am in California. I have Photoshop and he does not. We are trying to print from his computer (because he has the wide-format printer), which has exactly the same operating system as my computer. We both "upgraded" to Big Sur 11.6.5, and that has not made any difference. Preview acts the same way for both of us. The preview goes away in blocks.


I am sure you are correct about Preview changing dramatically. It has not been to the best for us...



Mar 23, 2022 2:33 PM in response to VikingOSX

I have an older version of Photoshop, and it saved as a .PSB file, and Preview won't open that up.


After I opened up the .tif file in Preview, and it disappeared, I went to "Print" and saved it as a PDF at the bottom left of the dialogue box. That didn't work either.


I have a brand new M1 MacBook running Monterey, and the file opens up fine in Preview. So the "old" Preview works, and the "M1 new" Preview works, but it doesn't work for Big Sur 11.6.5...

Mar 23, 2022 2:43 PM in response to etresoft

Thank you for that insight. It seems the "sucky" software of Big Sur has been finally brought up to speed with M1 and Monterey. Now the problem is my father has an older MacBook Pro, around 2014, and the newest software it can run is Big Sur, so we're as up-to-date as we can get with the software. I hate to say it's time for a new laptop, but that might be what we're running into here...

Mar 23, 2022 8:01 PM in response to Bumblebee 2

Thank you all for your input to my problem! It is most appreciated. It was comforting to know that my father and I were not doing anything wrong, and that it is basically "sucky" Big Sur software ported from iOS. My father has decided to get a new M1 MacBook. His older MacBook Pro has served him well, but he's between a rock and a hard place with the Big Sur software, so the only real solution is a new MacBook. Thank you again!

Mar 28, 2022 12:29 PM in response to Bumblebee 2

Update: Today the creator of the TIFF files degraded the quality from 300ppi to 200ppi. Those 200ppi files did not disappear (Preview on Big Sur) and printed on my father's Canon 4100s printer just fine. As the files are bitmap/line art, the degradation from 300 to 200ppi is/was un-noticeable in the output quality. I told my father he would enjoy his new M1 MacBook laptop nonetheless.

tiff images disappear in preview

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