Quick Time and Viewing Tif Images

Viewing images on this site:
If you are not able to view the images on this website when you click on the hyperlink, the problem is most likely that you do not have a viewer associated with the image file or you have installed a software program like QuickTimeŽ which associates itself with files it cannot view. QuickTimeŽ is an Apple movie format, the viewer for which, when installed on a PC, takes over the viewing of all tif files, but then cannot read the most commonly used tif format, group IV fax. If this occurs, when you click on a group IV tif image you will see only an icon for QuickTime that has been "broken," indicating that QuickTime cannot handle the image. To correct this problem, go to Start>Settings>ControlPanel and double-click the QuickTime icon. Then select "Browser Plugin" in the menu and click the "MIME settings" button. Scroll down the list and double-click the .tif and.tiff entries (this will remove the "+" from that entry so that your default file association will be reinstated.

If this does not work, more drastic action may have to be taken. Search your 'C' drive for hpqt*.dll and remove them whereever they are found. This should disable Quicktime altogether and permit you to install a group IV tif viewer.

If you still cannot view tif images on this site, follow the advice from the Utah Division of Water Rights Administration:

Most documents available from the Utah Division of Water Rights Imaging System are scanned as black and white single bit compressed TIF style image (CCITT Group IV) files. An external or plugin viewer is required to view them with most WWW Browsers. Windows 9x and Windows NT users can install or download an external viewer provided by Microsoft as part of the operating system. You can check to see if you have the viewer installed by going to the start menu, select Programs, then Accessories, and look for a program called Imaging with an icon which looks like a color photo with a tree in it.

Unfortunately some software packages (typically digital camera software) and media systems like Quicktime will change the operating system association away from Microsoft's viewer for TIF images even though the packages are not capable of viewing them. You may have Microsoft's viewer installed but a software package installed later has stolen the association for TIF files. You can detect this problem by selecting a document from the document folder. If the system opens an application and then gives a message indicating it can't read the image or the system acts like it is opening the image but nothing happens but you have checked using the procedure in the previous paragraph and the Microsoft viewer is installed you likely have a file association problem.

You can fix the problem by either uninstalling the offending software or re-establishing the association to Microsoft's viewer. If the offending software is a plugin viewer like Quicktime changing the association won't work. It only works with applications which associate through the file extension. The fix procedure involves saving a document from the imaging system rather than viewing it directly and then selecting it from the operating system where an application can be associated with it again. A document from the imaging system is saved on your local system by right clicking on a document link, selecting save link as and assigning the file to a known location on your local file system. Using My Computer or Windows Explorer find the saved document, select the document (single click it) and then do a SHIFT RIGHT CLICK. A pull down menu with the option Open With ... will appear. Select it and look for the program WangImg or Kodakimg on the program list. Select the program and check the box which says Always use this program to open this type of file and hit OK. Once you have done this documents should open directly from the imaging system by clicking on them in the WWW browser.

The best viewer comes free with all versions of Windows through Windows2000. It normally installs with Windows, but you can find it in the Windows subdirectory or in the Programs subdirectory under Accessories. It will either be called Kodakimg.exe or Wangimg.exe. When asked for a program to view a file that does not have a viewer associated with it, browse for Kodakimg.exe or Wangimg.exe and launch the program, if the format (extension) is .tif.

Some images on this site are in max format which requires a viewer of its own which can be downloaded from the Maryland State Archives web site.