JSI Tip 10522. Microsoft Paint issues a error when you attempt to open a 48 bit TIFF image on Windows XP?

When you try to open a 48-bit TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) file in Paint on Windows XP, you receive an error similar to:

Paint cannot read this file.
This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported.

NOTE: You can open this file on Windows 2000, if Office XP is installed.

NOTE: The 48-bit TIFF image uses the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color model at 16 bits per channel.

In Windows XP, the Paint program use the the GDI+ (Microsoft Graphics Device Interface) handler, which does not support all the image formats supported in earlier versions of Windows.

To workaround this problem, use a program that supports 48-bit TIFF images, or use a TIFF image that uses a 24-bit rate.