It is designed to be the single, standard file format for distributing spatial data. The USGS uses SDTS as a common format already. Image Data TIFF Wetlands. An image file format. The georeferencing often accompanies the TIF file as a second file called the TIFF world file and carries an extension like .tfw.
TIFF files can be very large, there is little compression.
A common format for image data. GIF does not support georegistration. Image resolution can be excellent and file sizes modest. JPG A common format for image data. JPEG can support georegistration.