Free online EXR to TIFF converter

What the EXR format is

OpenEXR is an HDR raster format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for film and visual-effects production. It commonly stores scene-linear RGB data as 16-bit half-float or 32-bit float values, including brightness above the normal display range.

EXR files are created by renderers and compositing applications such as Blender, Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and After Effects with suitable plugins. They can contain multiple image layers, arbitrary channels such as depth or motion vectors, tiled or scanline data, and lossless or lossy compression. You usually encounter them in rendered image sequences, 3D production folders, and visual-effects deliveries.

What the TIFF format is

TIFF is a flexible raster format used by scanners, desktop-publishing software, print workflows, GIS applications, and image editors. It supports grayscale, RGB, CMYK, alpha channels, metadata, multiple pages, and several compression methods, including uncompressed, LZW, Deflate, and JPEG.

TIFF is often easier to open than EXR and can preserve 8-bit, 16-bit, or floating-point image data. It is suitable for editing, printing, and archival interchange, but application support for float TIFFs, alpha channels, tiled images, and multiple pages varies.

How to actually convert EXR to TIFF

Using 101convert.com

1. Open the EXR-to-TIFF converter on 101convert.com; the conversion is free and requires no software installation.
2. Upload the .exr file and select TIFF as the output format.
3. Start the conversion, then download the resulting .tif or .tiff file.
4. Open the output in the target application and check its color, alpha channel, dimensions, and bit depth before using it in production.

Using ImageMagick

Install ImageMagick with OpenEXR support, then run:

magick input.exr -compress Zip output.tif

For a conventional 16-bit TIFF intended for ordinary editing or print software, use:

magick input.exr -colorspace sRGB -depth 16 -compress Zip output.tif

This converts the color space and quantizes the result to 16 bits per channel. Inspect bright areas afterward because scene-linear EXR values above the display range can clip when written to an integer TIFF.

Using OpenImageIO

OpenImageIO is preferable when preserving floating-point pixel data or handling production image channels. With oiiotool installed, run:

oiiotool input.exr -o output.tif

For a display-referred result, convert from linear RGB to sRGB before writing:

oiiotool input.exr --colorconvert linear srgb -o output.tif

Check the result in the destination application; a color conversion alone does not guarantee highlight tone mapping, so very bright values may still clip.

Using a desktop editor

In an EXR-capable application such as Photoshop, Krita, or Affinity Photo, open the file with File → Open, confirm the desired exposure and color-management settings, then choose File → Save As or File → Export and select TIFF. Set 16 bits per channel for general editing, choose LZW or ZIP compression for lossless storage, and retain alpha only if the receiving application supports it.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

• Bit depth: A 16-bit integer TIFF preserves substantially more tonal detail than an 8-bit TIFF, but it does not preserve the full numeric range of a 16-bit-half or 32-bit-float EXR. Use a 32-bit floating-point TIFF when downstream software supports it.
• Color and exposure: EXR data is commonly scene-linear, while TIFF workflows often expect sRGB, Adobe RGB, or CMYK. Apply the intended view transform or tone mapping before conversion if the TIFF is for display or print.
• Layers and channels: Many TIFF readers display only the main RGB or RGBA image. Multilayer EXR data, cryptomatte layers, depth passes, and custom channels may be discarded or flattened.
• Compression: ZIP and LZW are lossless. JPEG-compressed TIFF is smaller but introduces artifacts and is unsuitable when preserving render or scan detail.
• Metadata: Camera, color-profile, and production metadata may not transfer. Verify the embedded ICC profile, resolution, alpha interpretation, and file dimensions after conversion.