The TI/A initiative

A project to define an archive-safe subset of TIFF has been going on for a long time. Originally it was called the TIFF/A initiative, but Adobe wouldn’t allow the use of the TIFF trademark, so it’s now called the TI/A initiative.

So far it’s been very closed in what it presents to the public. It’s easy enough to sign up and view the discussions; I’ve done that, and I have professional credentials but no inside connections. However, it bothers me that it’s gone so long presenting nothing more to the public than just a white paper and no progress reports.

I’m not going to make anything public which they don’t want to, but I’ll just say that I have some serious disagreements with the approach they’re taking. When they finally do go public, I’m afraid they won’t get much traction with the archival community. Some transparency would have helped to determine whether I’m wrong or they’re wrong.