2004.04.15 04:41 "Re: [Tiff] Large TIFF files", by Chris Cox

With the AMD-64 and Intel 64-bit clone of it, we are on the verge of a transition to inexpensive 64-bit computer systems.

And yet most applications still can't deal with files over 2 Gig....

TIFF needs to evolve in preparation for 64-bit systems. The file format probably needs a extension for large files with 64 bit offsets, and it would be nice if these files could be read on 32-bit systems.

Unfortunately, anything that uses 64 bit offsets would no longer be TIFF. TIFF can't evolve that way.

But we can create a new, TIFF-like format that can handle larger file sizes (and hopefully reuse most of the libTIFF code).

Also, 32 bit systems can read 64 bit offset file formats without any problems (assuming they use the correct file APIs).

Chris