# vtkTIFFReader class can't read LZW-compressed tif but ParaView can?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/vtktiffreader-class-cant-read-lzw-compressed-tif-but-paraview-can/9830
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [June 16, 2022, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/vtktiffreader-class-cant-read-lzw-compressed-tif-but-paraview-can/9830 "2022-06-16T21:42:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![MKRangers](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mkrangers/32/9401_2.png) [@MKRangers](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/MKRangers)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2022, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/vtktiffreader-class-cant-read-lzw-compressed-tif-but-paraview-can/9830/1 "2022-06-16T21:42:35Z")

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Hi everyone,

I have some LZW-compressed tif files that cannot be read by `vtkTIFFReader` class in my code, but ParaView has no problem with them. Someone told me that ParaView may actually be using external `libtiff` since it doesn’t link to any LZW library. My questions:

1. Does ParaView use external `libtiff`? If so, could anyone tell me where to get the `libtiff` that ParaView uses? Is it the one from [www.libtiff.org](https://www.libtiff.org)?

2. If ParaView doesn’t use external `libtiff` and implements LZW encode/decode internally, which code of ParaView should I look at and how can I use it and populate the output to `vtkTIFFReader`?

Thanks!

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### Author: ![danlipsa](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/danlipsa/32/1563_2.png) [@danlipsa](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/danlipsa)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/vtktiffreader-class-cant-read-lzw-compressed-tif-but-paraview-can/9830/2 "2022-06-17T14:39:55Z")

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We use paraview superbuild to build the ParaView binaries. Grepping through that project will tell you what libtiff is used to build the binary.