Frequently Asked Questions

ACTIVATION

1) Start the program and insert your serial number or Help | Activation.
 You can also use "activation.exe" file for that.

2) Please activate the program under USER profile if the program will be used under USER profile. After activation under ADMIN profile, program will not work under USER profile.

3) If there are problems with automatic activation:

a) Run the program, start the activation [Help | About or activation.exe], select "Manual" activation type; you will be provided with hardware code.

b) Go here: https://proactive.star-force.com/2.0/activate.php and type in your serial number and hardware code from a); in case of success you will be displayed an activation code.

c) Go back to protection system window, press "Next", enter the activation key from b) and press "Activate".

More information about activation, deactivation and reactivation

Q:
I though that I would receive the latest upgrade with the purchase of the Advanced TIFF Editor. I am using your program since purchased with good time savings. I am looking forward to the latest.

A:
Registered users can visit Upgrade Page (http://www.tiffedit.com/upgrade.shtml) on our site and download the latest version of their purchase.

As a registered customer, you are entitled to free upgrades during one year from the date of purchase and download the latest version of the program whenever you like.

If you purchased the software more than one year ago, you are no longer entitled to free upgrade; however, you can purchase an upgrade to the latest version at a discounted price (50 - see the table below).

If you don't want to purchase an upgrade, you can use the program forever;
it will never expire, but you won't be able to use the latest version.

Q:
How do I turn off anti-aliasing so that the pixels are sharp instead of being blurred? I need them to be visible when I am using the drawing or erasing tools. The drawing tool shows the pixels sharp only when I depress the left mouse button and the eraser does not show them sharp at all, not even when I depress the mouse button. I would like them to be sharp all the time or at least to be able to switch it on or off.

A:
Mode - mode

Settings | Users settings | View tab | Zoom filter = None

Mode - Eraser, Draw, Text

Settings | Users settings | Edit tab | Zoom filter = None

Q:
Stamp-Modus. The modus after adding a stamp always changes to the select-function. For quickly usage of those stamps (adding a few stamps after each other) it would be really great that the change of the function to the select-modus would not happen.

So, is it possible that the function after adding a stamp stays in the stamp-modus?

A:
Settings | Users settings
Annotation tab
Insert mode = Group

Q:
What programming language and database is this program written in? I would not want to load any dll's or runtimes that are not well behaved in my system.

A:
The program is written on C++, consists of one EXE-file and does not require any additional  modules and DLLs.

Q:
I purchased the Program this evening. Apparently my purchase was confirmed, but I still have not received any information about upgrading my demo copy of the software to a fully registered copy.

A:
The information about downloading the full version of program is in the post order message.

Q:
I made a mistake of uninstalling your software. I tried downloading but coundn't. Please help me!!!

A:
Go on http://www.tiffedit.com/download.shtml page.

In appeared dialogue window press button "Save" and choose a place on a disk where it is necessary to save the program.
Wait the endings of loading.

Q:
When I purchase software I like to have the software on disks or a CD in case a virus or PC crash ruins my copy on my PC...

A:
You may order the program on CD. CD-ROM with full version (via Air Mail) US $9.95.
Disks will be shipped from Canada.

http://www.tiffedit.com/purchase.shtml

Q:
We are looking at purchasing a product for 20-25 users. This client is a government agency and will balk at paying $49.95 per user. Please supply your "runtime" pricing for users.

A:
See our Volume Discount Price:

http://www.tiffedit.com/purchase.shtml

Q:
The attached .dcx file opens correctly in kodakimg, irfanview and 32bit fax.
Can you please help re opening correctly with TIFF Editor

A:
Use the menu items
File | Users settings | View tab | Auto Adjust DPI = Switch off

File | Open ...

Q:
When opening a fax received as a letter size, it is displayed at only one half height.
How do I get it to display as it was received?

A:
File | User settings ...| View | Initial zoom = Best fit (or Full size)

Q:
When I open certain pictures in TIF format the picture appears dark (like a negative), how do I solve it?

A:
File | Open
Tools | Negative images

Q:
Printing tif images from Advanced TIFF Editor view is very slow is there a way to speed this up?

A:
You can use the Fast Print check box on the Print dialog box.

Q:
If I open a tiff image with multiple pages, how can I extract single pages from it to make a separate image of it?

A:
Select required pages or use <Ctrl+A> to select all pages
File | Save Pages as
Type file name
"Save selected pages" dialog
Save to separate files
OK

Q:
We are still having problems scanning.

A:

Try to scan using our program and send please scanlog.txt file from the program folder.

Q:
Can Advanced TIFF Editor program combine two multi-pages tif files into one file?

A:
File | Open (first file)
Pages | Insert All Pages from file (or Append All Pages from file) and select second file
File | Save as

or

File | Merge files

Q:
When converting a 75-page Tif file to a pdf file, the size change from 12 MB to over 256 MB.
Is there a way to control the size of conversion?

A:
File | Save | Advanced | Compression

or

Settings | users settings | Saving | PDF compression

Q:
Will "Advanced TIFF Editor for Windows" allow me to edit and enter text (ex. enter Name and date) on the TIF attachment in an email before forwarding.

A:
Yes.
Use "Mode | Annotation | Text (or memo)" for the text inserting.

Q:
I am using the trial version and cannot combine annotations with the backgrounds or save the annotated drawing.

A:
To combine annotations with background you can use:

Mode | Annotation

- for selected object - press "Combine selected object with background" button (on toolbar)
- for all objects - press "Combine All annotations with background"

OR you can use settings

Settings | Users settings | Annotations tab
Automatic combining with background | At saving = ON

Q:
I am sorry to report that we are experiencing problems with the images I sent you.
They are using very high memory resources.

A:
Try to switch off the check box
File | Users settings | View | Image caching

Q:
When annotating a fax with text, how do I enter multiple lines in text box. ie wrapping of entered text

A:
Try to use the Memo object from toolbar or menu.

Q:
It can not save a single page when I open a multi page file?

A:
Select required pages or use <Ctrl+A> to select all pages
File | Save Pages as
Type file name
"Save selected pages" dialog
Save to separate files
OK

Q:
Do you know of a good way to clean up .tif files?  Mine are a little sloppy and I was looking for a good imaging editor to clean them up.

A:
Tools | Remove noise
or
Tools | Remove Isolated Pixels

Q:
I couldn't rotate pages except by 90, 180 or 360 degrees.

A:
Tools | Effects | Rotate

Q:
As well another feature we would like is the ability to email the tiff without having to save it to disk.

A:
File | Send as E-mail

Q:
I have one file composed of 39 .tif files all less than 125KB, the combined file is 550+MB, why?

A:
Probably you have saved the resulting file without compression.
File | Save As | Advanced | Compression (LZW or G3FAX)
or
Settings | Users settings | Saving | Compression

Q:
we changed copiers and the new one will not work with the program

A:
File | User settings | Acquire | Problem-solving | Variant1 or Variant2

Q:
It seems a bit difficult to select more than one area from the original fax and put these areas together into a single fax (page).

A:
You can use the SHIFT button to select more than one area.

Q:
Would it be possible to have the ruler annotation tool enhanced to provide measurement in cm and/or inches in addition to pixels? This would allow us to print drawings to scale (with a simple calculation against the scale bar or a dimensioned element) even when they are not scanned from a document that is to scale. It would also allow us to measure features without having to print out the drawings when we know that they were scanned from scale drawings.

A:
File | User settings | Annotation | Measurement unit

Q:
I am receiving 25-50 page Tiff faxes (around 6|such daily). Every 2-3 pages represent information on 1 individual of a specific group. I will be saving the pages on each individual in a specific folder. That means that in a month I may end up with 1000s of multiple tiff files, which would make it impossible to find the correct file in case I need to refer back to a particular person's information. What I was thus thinking was that I could "annotate" each page with the individual's name and summary information, when I first open and review the fax. Then, if I had a "Search" function in the software, that could quickly "search" through all the annotations (or index of the same) and locate the correct page or Tiff file, it would make life much simpler for me.

A:
Annotation | Search file
It allows to search a text strings in a TEXT and MEMO objects.

Q:
would it be possible for the annotation icon bar to appear automatically when entering the program rather than having to select and deselect "Annotations" in order for the icons to  appear.

A:
Users settings | View tab | Startup mode = Annotation

Q:
The second comment is concerning the size and visibility of the stamp. Advanced TIFF Editor, it looks OK. In Kodak Imaging (Windows 2000), it looks OK. In Linux and in some other (Windows-based) image viewers, the stamp is not present at all.

A:
The stamps are inserted as vector objects and not all programs allow to view them.
You can combine these objects with a background and can them see in anyone viewer, but can not edit.
Use the menu items
Annotation | Combine with background

Q:
The only other comment we have had from our operations staff is concerning the annotation. Before we upgraded to Windows XP, we were using Imaging for Windows to "stamp" the documents with a standard text string. This is a more complex to achieve in Able, where it is necessary to load / save / copy and paste the annotations from a different folder from the current one; using a standard stamp is much easier to achieve with one key entry.
This was an option with the old imaging utility which was provided with Windows pre-XP. It might be something you could perhaps look at in future.

A:
Use the menu items
Annotation - Object - Stamp - Modify
for creating or editing
and
Annotation - Object - Stamp - your string ...
for inserting.

Q:
It wouldn't convert cmyk tiff files to cmyk jpg's

A:
File | Open | Select your CMYK TIFF file
File | Save as | Advanced | Mode = CMYK | Ok

Q:
I need to be able to save individual (not all) pages from within the multipage .tif file as individual .tif files (Ie if I receive a fax with 1 attachment Todayfax.tif, I might need to save only pages 3, 5 and 9 of 10 total pages).

A:
Select required pages or use <Ctrl+A> to select all pages
File | Save Pages as
Type file name
"Save selected pages" dialog
Save to separate files
OK

Q:
Is is possible to implement a little function to your viewer - we need a tiff-viewer for sap.
One important thing is to start the viewer with a list (ascii-list with one filename per line).
After opening the list, you can navigate in the files (list) like in a multipage tif.

A:
View | Files list
and
File | Files list | Load

Q:
I would like the annotations  to be saved directly on the document, when the user click on "send via email"

A:
File | Users settings | Annotation tab | Automatic combining...

Q:
Users sometimes want to crop an image to a particular size. Displaying the current selected area height/width in the user's default units (pixels/inches/cm) would make this possible.

A:
Users settings | Annotation | Measurement unit

Q:
I would like to buy a program that automatically converts the multipage tif files I scanned in greyscale and high resolution (several hundreds,) into b/w low/medium resolution multipage tif files.

A:
File | Batch process

Q:
I would like to use your application in a batch mode to open Tiff files in a directory and  automatically perform skew correction to each file and then save the corrected image back to
disk.

A:
File | Batch process ...
Add files
Action tab
Add | Descewing

Q:
When You are using any tool (text, memo, pen ...) after using it, the program is still staying on it, so if you want to move it, you have first to click to the "arrow" tool...
And the reflex by almost all user is to click directly to the created object to move it, what  creates a second object  (because the program is still on that tool)...

A:
File | Users settings | Annotation tab | Insert mode = Single

Q:
Is there any way I can have the drawing toolbar to always show ?
Right now it only shows when I click the icon draw.

A:
File | Users settings | View tab | Startup mode = Draw

Q:
I need batch printing

A:
File | Batch process
Add files ...
Save as type = (PRN) Printer
Advanced (if requested)
Start

Q:
If you could suggest a way to auto-crop the black borders, this would be very useful.

A:
File | Users settings | Acquire | Auto Border Detection

Q:
... will not let me select a portion of the file and export to print.

A:
Press the "Select a part of the image" button on toolbar.
Select requested portion.
File | Print | Print the selected area | Ok

Q:
How to operate the "stamp" function?

A:
You can set up it before using
Annotation | Object | Stamp | Modify | Image tab | New | Select requested file |
(you can change the stamp name in the ImageName field) |
Ok

Using:
File | Open
Press annotation button on toolbar
Press Stamp button on toolbar and select your created stamp
Click on the page to insert or select region (rectangle)
You can resize and move stamp after inserting

Q:
What is the last step "At end of the work, you can use the "Combine annotation with background"?

A:
Annotations can be saved as a separate annotation layers, or they can be saved as a permanent part of an image (after 'Combine with Background').

To save annotations as a permanent part of an image
Under the 'Annotation' menu select the 'Combine with Background' menu item.
PLEASE NOTE, once the annotation objects are combined with background,
they become part of the background layer and can no longer be edited as individual objects.

Q:
Is there any way to get the program to show the page number it is currently printing?

A:
File | Print | Captions ...

Q:
How to view all pictures at a time?

A:
View | Files list

Q:
Is it possible to have the Polyline tool stay selected after pressing the escape key?
We would like to annotate in freehand without having to click on the tool icon each time we want to move to a new word or document section.

A:
File | Users settings | Annotation tab | Insert mode = Group

Q:
We're generating various financial reports and kermiting them to the PC (Win XPs) in either .txt or .csv formats. These need to be converted to TIFFs so they can be accessed properly by the archive/retrieval software.

A:
File | Import Text ...

Q:
I want to scan each page of the document, split the image's left and right side into individual pages, rotate and resize each page.

A:
Pages | Split page ...

Q:
If there is any button letting me to save the G4FAX settings as default?

A:
File | Users settings | Saving

Q:
I am using Advanced TIFF Editor on an XP machine. I have two monitors. I would like Able to open up on my left screen (second monitor). No matter how many times I drag it over from the first monitor (main screen) it just will not open up there. Is there anything I can do to get this to work?

A:
File | Users settings | View tab | Window state = Normal

Move program window to requested place or use

File | Users settings | View tab | Window Size

Q:
Is there a way to insert arrowheads?

A:
Mode | Annotations Press the "Line" button
Select requested BeginShape and EndShape.
Draw your line with arrows. You can use Alt key to draw horizontal or vertical lines.

Q:
Is there any option to convert tiff images as doc(MsWord) or txt(Text) files

A:
File | Open | your TIF file
Tools | Text Recognition
Start
Save to File

Q:
Can a scan a drawing and save as a tiff file using this program?

A:
Start the program.
File | Select scanner
File | Acquire

File | Save as | Output format = TIFF

Q:
It would be nice if a person could input a page number to see a specific page. 
I currently have a file of 259 pages.  When I want to view p. 209 I have to click through 208 pages to get to it.

A:
Navigate | Go to page

Q:
It did not view, open, or convert .eps or .ai files like it claimed it could

A:
Settings | Users settings | Plug-in | Step 1-2-3
File | Open | your EPS or AI file

Q:
I'm looking for a software package that will allow me to automate the task of opening individual TIFF images, adding tag 270 to the header and using the first 11 characters of the file name as
the descriptor, then saving the modified file

A:
Actions tab | Add
TIFF file | Edit tag
Tag code = 270
Press the "Insert" button
Select {FileName,N} item
Replace "0" with "11".
Ok

Q:
I just installed your program, and would like to know how to type on documents using your text, but when I click Text.... it won't help me fill out my document forms

A:

Video Tutorial ...

Q:
When I open it up the first time I had different colors available to draw or do text with (I am doing redlines).  When I restarted I only have the choice now of black and White.

A:
Try to convert your Black&White image to 24 bit to use different colors.

Mode | View
Tools | Convert | To 24 bit
Mode | Draw
or
Mode | Text

Q:
Can’t edit text

A:
You can use
Mode | Eraser
Mode | Text

Q:
I couldn’t save 8 tif files as one file..

A:
File | Merge Files
Add Files ...
Result = requested file path and file name with extension

Q:
So, I need to be able to select part of an image and then move the selection around on the image.

A:
Mode | Selection
Select requested area
Edit | Cut (or Copy)
Edit | Paste
move inserted selection to requested position

Q:
I am looking for a tif editor that will allow me to rotate a bunch of multipage tifs in a batch mode. I need each page of the tif rotated for instance 90degrees clockwise.

A:
File | Batch Process ...
Add files
Actions tab
Add | Rotate (Flip)

Q:
Are there drawing tools? If so, where are they?

A:
Mode | Draw

Q:
How do I add text?

A:
Mode | Text

Q:
Can I rotate or flip parts of the drawing? How?

A:
Mode | Select
select area
Rotate | Selected

> -  Ability to save a file with a lower resolution (PPI)

Tools | Change Resolution
File | Save (or Save as)

> -  Ability to choose the compression ratio when saving JPGs

File | Save as | File type = JPEG
Advanced button | Quality

> -  Ability to easily convert files from colour to gray scale or black/white
> line art

Tools | Convert

> -  Cloning

Edit | Copy
Edit | Paste (Paste as page)

> -  Stitching

Pages | Combine pages

> -  Customisable tool bars

Settings | Users settings | Toolbar

> -  Flipping, rotating and mirroring images including small angle
> corrections.

"Rotate" menu items

> -  Simple colour balance, brightness and contrast corrections in photos.

Tools | Color Adjust

Q:
Since I upgraded from previous versions, it won't read or open .PDF files. 
I have re-installed ghostscript and still won't open the .pdf files.

A:
Settings | Users settings | Plug-ins
Step 1
Step 2 | Reset | Select Manually

Q:
In MODI, you can scroll continuously through the entire document, from one page to the next with the bottom of one page visible while the top of the next page is displaying.  ATE seems to have a non-continuous, one-page-at-a-time layout.

A:
Settings | Users settings | View tab | Multipage scrolling | OK

Q:
I mean that if there a file containing multiple pages and I want to number the pages automatically (every page with his number i.e 1,2,3..etc) on the top of the page .

A:
Select requested pages (or use Ctrl + A to select all pages)
Tools | Add Text (Watermark)
Inset Info | Pages | Number
or type something like it:
Page: {$PN} of {$PC}

Position = ...

Q:
Now I need to split a 12 page tiff file into three separate files, say pp 1-5, 6-9 and 10-12 and separately print those files and store them as PDFs. So, the end result should be 3 PDF files.

A:
File | Open | your multipage (12) file

Select pages 1-2-3-4-5 in the pages list
File | Save Pages as| File name = "file #1", File type = PDF
Save
Dialog window | Save to a multipage document | OK

Select pages 6-7-8-9 in the pages list
File | Save Pages as | File name = "file #2", File type = PDF
Save
Dialog window | Save to a multipage document | OK

Select pages 10-11-12 in the pages list
File | Save Pages as | File name = "file #3", File type = PDF
Save
Dialog window | Save to a multipage document | OK

You can use Alt and Shift to select several pages.

To print:
Select requested pages
File | Print
What would you like to print = Selected pages

Q:
How do we delete the cached images, so that users cannot browse back through their image history?

A:
Settings | Users settings | View 2 tab
MRU list | Enabled = false | Clear list

Q:
Wonder if the product could remove white space of a tif and pdf format?
Meaning the image or test is located at the center, I would like to remove the white space of 4 sides.

A:
Tools | Add Margins
Units = Inch
Margins = -1, -1, -1, -1 (use your values)
OK

Q:
I wanted to reduce the size of my tiff files by converting to black & white and your program did a great job in converting but the size was even larger than the color.

A:
File | Users settings | Saving tab
Tiff compression | Use default = ON
Black = G3fax (or G4fax)

Q:
I would like to open several tiff files at the same time (multiple windows).

A:
Settings | Users settings | View tab
Allow only 1 copy = OFF

Q:
One thing that I found extremely difficult to do was cropping pages. Sometimes the scanned document contains extra space at the end or edges.

A:
1)
AutoCrop and AutoCrop2 functions.

or

2)
Mode | Select
Edit | Crop

Q:
What is the difference between the Personal version and the business version?

A:
With the Personal License (US$49 per user), you can use the program for non-commercial purposes in non-business, non commercial environment.

To use the program in a corporate, government or business environment, you should purchase a Business License - (US$79 per user).

Please note that the Batch Processing mode is available only in the Business version of the program.

Q:
I inserted an annotation, txt and saved the file but when I open it again (by using other program) the annotations that I had entered are not there. Why is this happening, I'm missing something here?

A:
Not all programs allows to view image annotations.

Try to use before saving:
Annotations | Combine with background

or

Settings | Users settings | Annotations
Automatic combining ...
At saving = ON

Q:
Would like to display multiple "files" columns when using files list thumbnails.
I need to review about 50,000 thumbnails and only getting 8 or so in one column is very slow.

A:
View | Thumbnails only
Select requested page to open

Q:
it wasn't obvious how to add text to a TIFF file

A:
1)
Mode | Text

or

2)
Mode | Annotation | Text (or Memo)

Q:
Does the program have the ability to print pages - 1,3,4,5,10

A:
Select requested pages in the Pages list (left panel)
Press "Print" button (or File | Print)
What would you like to print = Selected pages

Q:
I have been looking for a replacement for the old Kodak Tiff editor to use with Faxing and think I may have found it in your program, except for one thing.  I frequently use Faxes for signing and authorizing documents which requires importing a signature image with a clear background.

A:
Create requested sign with white background (without transparency)

You can use annotation stamp.

To create signature (stamp).

Mode | Annotation
Annotation | Object | Stamp | Modify Image tab | Press NEW button
Select requested file for a signature.
Select name for this signature.
Mark "White transparent" | OK

To use:
Press Stamp button
Select requested stamp (signature) from a list
or Annotation | Object | Stamp

Press "Combine annotation with background" before saving.

Q:
Advanced TIFF Editor doesn't manage the CMYK color space well as photoshop does: the colors are falsed and too dark.

A:
Settings | Users settings | View tab
Color Management System = ON

Q:
I am looking for a TIFF tag editor that will let me edit ANY tag in order to debug issues with images that work and images that don't work.

A:
File | Open | your TIFF file
File | Tiff tags
Add or Edit
OK
File | Close

What tag's number you want to edit?

For example:

Tif tags:
258 - BitsPerSample
259 - Compression
282 - XResolution
283 - YResolution

You can change these tags in the current version of the program.

For tags 282 and 283:
Actions | Add | ChangeResolution

For tag 258:
Actions | Add | Color Depth Change
Result tab | Output format = TIFF | Advanced | Color

For tag 259:
Result tab | Output format = TIFF | Advanced | Compression

Q:
I needed to rotate an image 1 or 2 degrees

A:
Rotate | Rotate custom

Q:
I have used *** to reduce noise and speckles from scanned images which I insert into AutoCAD drawings.

A:
Tools | Remove Noise
and/or
Tools | Remove Isolated Pixels

Q:
When I use the text tool, I can only enter 1 line of text at a time. Can I insert a paragraph of text at a time?

A:
Try to use the Annotation mode for that.
Mode | Annotations
Annotation | Objects | Memo
Select requested area on your page
Type your text or insert from MS windows buffer

Q:

Would you be able to add a function to modify the compression outside of the saving function. I.e. group 4 fax, group 3 fax

A:
Settings | Users settings | Saving | Tiff compression

Q:
I couldn’t open a file.

A:
For PDF, EPS, PS and AI files:

Settings | Users settings | Plug-ins | Step 1-2-3
File | Open

Q: 
My customer recently purchased your program and asked me to create a silent install package for a rollout on multiple computers. Please provide some information about silent setup switches. Is there a way to silently or automate the installation of your product?

A:
You can use:

advtiffeditor_setup.exe /COMPONENTS="main" /VERYSILENT

Q: Can this software be installed on a terminal server?

I am trying to install the evaluation version on a 2003 Terminal Server that is a VMware virtual.

The installation completed without error but if I try to open the program I get the following

An attempt to use a virtual PC has been detected.

Is the software compatible with virtualization or is this a restriction due to the hardware not being unique or you activation?

A:
Only Site and World-wide license allow to start the program on virtual machines.

You can test this version:
http://www.tiffedit.com/advtiffeditor_setup_3.2.exe