BigTIFF is an extension of the standard TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) specification designed specifically to overcome the size limitations inherent in classic TIFF. Standard TIFF uses 32-bit offsets and pointers, which restricts the maximum file size to approximately 4 GB. As modern imaging technology, especially in fields like satellite imagery, aerial photography, medical imaging, and high-resolution scientific scanning, frequently produces files exceeding this limit, the BigTIFF specification was developed. BigTIFF utilizes 64-bit offsets, allowing files to theoretically reach sizes up to 18 Exabytes (EB), effectively removing practical size constraints for the foreseeable future. Crucially, BigTIFF maintains compatibility with most of the core TIFF structure, including the use of Image File Directories (IFDs) and various compression schemes (like LZW, JPEG, and Deflate). This format is essential for handling massive datasets without requiring tiling or splitting the original image data, making it a standard choice in geospatial applications (often implemented as GeoTIFF) and scientific research where data integrity and extremely large file sizes are paramount. While the specific extension '.btf' is sometimes used, many BigTIFF files retain the standard '.tif' or '.tiff' extension.