Gimp exports TIFFs with strange limitations

[ESH]

Gimp 3.2 on Win 11

1. The following image of a castle (with a pole with no flag) was developed from a raw file in Darktable, description and keywords were edited, and it was exported as a TIF.

2. That TIF was imported into Gimp - and another TIF, only showing the associated flag, was imported too.

3. The flag was non-destructively put on the pole in Gimp.

4. A stamp-layer was added from visibles (the castle and the flag layers) - so 3 layers now.

   

5. Then an export as a TIFF was attempted - with all layers, and all exif data including the description. .... But that brings up the error shown - can't export the description, which apparently has a wrong format.

But worse...! when the exported TIFF is opened in Darktable (without any text at all) - also the flag is missing from the pole, i.e. nothing but the background layer (the castle) has been exported - at least not in a readable format.

   

How can I make TIFFs from Gimp work normally in my usual workflow with Darktable, i.e. show discription and the collective image?

[ESH]

Btw - this loss of texts and the apparent disappearance of layers doesn't happen when we export to the psd-file format. Unfortunately Darktable doesn't read PSDs.

It seems strange that the common TIF format suffers from such inconsistance in Gimp.

[programmer_ceds]

(12-09-2025, 12:45 AM)ESH Wrote: Btw - this loss of texts and the apparent disappearance of layers doesn't happen when we export to the psd-file format. Unfortunately Darktable doesn't read PSDs.

It seems strange that the common TIF format suffers from such inconsistance in Gimp.

You say GIMP 3.2 on W11 - is this the release candidate for V3.2.0 or 3.0.2? If the latter then there are later versions. The latest stable version is 3.0.6. Hopefully the 3.2.0 release won't be too much longer.

Certainly worth trying with the latest version.

[rich2005]

Looks to me that Darktable only sees the Bottom layer.  A multi-layer tiff is a bit like a PDF - opens in "pages" each layer a page.
Options:
Always save as a Gimp .xcf , a backup
Export as a Tiff with Save Layers OFF
Export with Save Layers ON but make a New-from-Visible and put that layer at the bottom of the stack.


   

[ESH]

programmer_ceds
Yes, it's the RC version - I presume it has everything that the stable version has.

Rich2005
Thank you, yes it seems that a composite export is the only way.