Solving TIFF malformation using exiftool

Title

Solving TIFF malformation using exiftool

Detailed description

The issue page describes the problem as (essentially) TIFF files being unusable, despite being "validated" by tools like JHOVE.

Solution Champion

aamato

Corresponding Issue(s)

Relevant "issues" page.

Solution details

A lot of time was spent investigating the details of the file structure, for the images which could not be opened; which ultimately was a dead-end.

Eventually, we realised that the images were claiming to be 16-bit greyscale, but in fact, were actualy 8-bit greyscale. (Which, in retrospect, should have been more obvious, based on the rare error messages tools would give us.)

This meant that detection/correction suddenly became a lot easier: check for a discrepancy between image dimension and bit-depth, and the actual file size. (See below.) Similarly, because the pixel data was actually correct, we can correct the images by setting the correct value for the "BitsPerSample" tag.

Important questions and takeaways (see slides below)

• What does "valid" mean for a file?
  • Well-formed?
  • Verified externally by a tool?
  • Matching a spec?
  • Internally consistent?

• What do we learn from this?
  • Don't always assume your vendors/digitisers are doing the job right.
  • Don't always assume that "successful validation" is meaningful. (Also: learn the limitations of your tools.)
  • The only thing better than double-checking is triple-checking.
  • KNOW WHAT YOU ARE "PRESERVING"!

Tool Registry Link

ExifTool

Evaluation

???

Slides from final day (images/PPT)