I use the AlternaTiff viewer and ACD See to then clean up the scan lines and print the patent images. I have been doing it that way for about three years now.
Another way, that I found last month, is to get the images as a pdf file.
The Patent office does not do this. There are two sites, named almost the same, that take the patent number, get the patent images and convert them into a PDF flie.
The way to go about getting the patent images is as follows:
Get the Patent Number and write it down.
Go to
www.Pat2Pdf.org
and put in the number or a list of numbers separated by semi-colons.
Download the PDF file(s) of the patent that are generated.
Caution: there is a .com site of the same name that charges for the pdf generation. The .org ending is critical if you do not want to spend money.
I use both methods now. Pdf files are easy to send and cannot be changed. Tiff images can be cleaned up to get rid of scanning black lines.
OgreOwner