UNABLE TO IMPORT TIF FILES

[RPM]

OS: Windows 2000

Filemaker Pro 5.5

I have a container field in my database, and if I import a jpg file, for example, it works fine, both directly or via a link to the file. However, if I attempt to import a TIF file, I cannot do it, either directly or via a link to the file. The error message presented is:

<filename>.tif could not be imported. The filter could not import the selected file.

Thinking that perhaps the LZW compression might be the culprit I tried it on files I knew were not compressed and got the same error.

What am I (or Filemaker?) doing wrong here?

I am planning to use Filemaker to organize several hundred photos to be used in a book I'm working on. The images are all 300 dpi TIF files, some as large as 8" x 10"

[kenneth2k1]

Hi:

Do you have Quicktime installed on the PC?

Ken

[RPM]

I have the Quicktime Player Ver. 6.3 installed. That's it.

I've dealt with my share of ID-10-T errors, but I don't think this qualifies. Or does it?

[kenneth2k1]

Hi:

Nah I dont think this is an ID 10 T error

Do you have the latest update of FM?

Ken

[kenneth2k1]

Ok, I just found this in the FM.com knowledgebase.

Are your file names long?

Ken

[RPM]

They are longer than 8.3, but not THAT long! 125 characters...ouch!

[RPM]

After talking with Filemaker and Adobe tech support I find that there is an interesting incompatibiltiy between Filemaker Pro 5.5 (and 6.0) and Photoshop.

Any tif file that I open and save in Photoshop WILL NOT import into FM.

Any tif file that I save in Microfost Photo Editor WILL import into FM.

I tried this using Photoshop 7.01 and 5.5 with the same result...no go. When saving in MS Photo Editor I could save the file any way I wanted - with/without LZW compression, different color settings, etc. and FM would import it just fine.

Photoshop saves a lot of meta data with the image file itself. In the opinion of the tech support folks at both FM and Adobe it is this additional information that is causing the FM import filter to choke. For example, a particular file that I used for testing contained meta data about the make and model of digital camera that took the shot, the shutter speed, f stop, pixel size, dpi setting and several other parameters. That same file, when saved in Photo Editor contained only two meta data entries:

x resolution = 300

y resolution = 300

and FM would import it just fine.

There is no way that I know of from within Photoshop to "turn off" all the meta data when saving a tif file. It would seem that the FM developers need to do some work on the tif file import engine, because it is somewhat out of date by not being able to handle (or ignore) this additional metadata without choking. This issue also affects FM 6.0.

[kenneth2k1]

This is good information for people having problems with TIFFs