TIFFREADTILE(3tiff)

💖 TIFFREADTILE 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're reading tiles out of an open TIFF file and honestly? it's giving main character energy. this is a page from the LibTIFF manual set (section 3tiff), and no, you don't have to be a graphics gremlin to get it. i got you. 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

TIFFReadTile — read and decode a tile of data from an open TIFF file. that's it, that's the whole job, she does one thing and she slays at it. 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <tiffio.h>

tmsize_t TIFFReadTile(TIFF *tif, void *buf, uint32_t x, uint32_t y,
uint32_t z, uint16_t sample)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so you call her, and she hands you back the data for the tile containing the coordinates you asked for. literally just "here's the tile, mwah." 💅

the data she drops into buf comes back decompressed, and — typically — in the native byte- and bit-ordering of your machine. but! and this is the part people forget — it's otherwise packed (more on that below, keep reading, don't skip).

🚨 okay real talk, this is the one that gets people: your buffer must be big enough to hold an entire tile of data. no half tiles. no "close enough". an entire tile.

and how do you find out how big that is?? you call TIFFTileSize(), which tells you the size (in bytes) of a tile buffer. do that. always do that. don't guess, guessing is not the vibe. 🙈

now the parameters, let's go one by one:

• x and y — used always, every single time, no exceptions. they're the moment. ✨
• z — only used if the image is deeper than 1 slice, i.e. ImageDepth > 1. otherwise she's just vibing in the background, untouched.
• sample — only used if the data are organized in separate planes, i.e. PlanarConfiguration = 2. same deal, otherwise she sits this one out.

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🎀 NOTES 🎀

so here's the cute part. the library is trying to hide bit- and byte-ordering differences between the image and your native machine, and it does that by converting data into your machine's native order. lowkey a considerate queen. 💜

the deets:

• bit reversal happens if the FillOrder tag is opposite to the native machine bit order.
• 16- and 32-bit samples get automatically byte-swapped if the file was written with a byte order opposite to the native machine byte order.

so yeah, she's out here doing the translation work so you don't have to. multilingual icon. 🌈

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⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

• she returns -1 if she detects an error 😭 (not the slay we wanted)
• otherwise, you get back the number of bytes in the decoded tile 🔥

that's your green flag right there.

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💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

all error messages get directed to the TIFFErrorExtR() routine. so if something goes sideways, that's where the tea gets spilled.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• TIFFtile (3tiff)
• TIFFOpen (3tiff)
• TIFFReadEncodedTile (3tiff)
• TIFFReadRawTile (3tiff)
• libtiff (3tiff)

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

LibTIFF contributors — the collective, the group chat, the squad. 🫶

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

1988-2025, LibTIFF contributors

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was LibTIFF version 4.7, dated Jun 27, 2026. go read some tiles, call TIFFTileSize() first like a responsible icon, and remember: buffer big or go home. periodt. 💅✨🦋