Stands for "Tagged Image File Format." It is graphics file format, created back in the 1980's to be the universal graphics translator across multiple computer platforms. The TIFF format can handle color depths ranging from 1-bit to 24-bit. However, with smart people constantly making small improvements to the format, there are now around 50 variations of the TIFF format. So much for a universal format. In the last few years, JPEG has become the most popular universal format, because of it's small file size and Internet compatibility.
TIFF
Meaning of TIFF in English
English glossary of computer and Internet terms. Английский глоссарий компьютерных и Интернет терминов. 2012