Windows® TIFF IFilter enables you to search for TIFF documents based on text content. When loaded, Windows TIFF IFilter performs optical character recognition (OCR) processing of TIFF images, and then it provides the recognized text to the caller to build the search index.

Windows TIFF IFilter focuses on text-based documents, which means that searching will be more successful for documents that contain clearly identifiable text (for example, black text on a white background), and less successful for documents that contain mixed content (for example, artistic text or text inside of pictures). Additionally, low-quality images and mixed languages can negatively impact OCR processing, and consequently, lower the quality of the search results.

Windows TIFF IFilter supports all TIFF documents that are complaint with Adobe TIFF Revision 6.0 specifications, and it includes the most frequent compressions (such as LZW, JPG, CCITT v4, CCITT v6, and uncompressed).

Because OCR is a time consuming operation, Windows TIFF IFilter is not installed by default on Windows 7 or Windows Server® 2008 R2 and TIFF files are indexed based on basic file properties (such as file name, size, and date modified). Customers who need to search TIFF files based on text content can install Windows TIFF IFilter by following the instructions in this document.

This document describes how to install and use Windows TIFF IFilter with Windows Desktop Search and other Microsoft® products that use IFilter components for indexing and full text search. It also describes how to install Windows TIFF IFilter on multiple computers in a domain by using a custom installation image and Local Group Policy Editor. This document includes the following topics:

Installing Windows TIFF IFilter with Windows 7

Installing Windows TIFF IFilter with Windows Server 2008 R2

Installing Windows TIFF IFilter with Multiple Client Computers in a Domain

Installing Windows TIFF IFilter with Multiple Computers by Using Windows System Image Manager

Windows TIFF IFilter Server Scenarios

Windows TIFF IFilter Settings

For a complete view of Windows 7 resources, articles, demos, and guidance, please visit the Springboard Series for Windows 7 on the Windows Client TechCenter.

For a downloadable version of this document, see the Windows TIFF IFilter Installation and Operations Guide in the Microsoft Download Center (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151754).