I'm using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, a.k.a. "low end" or "poor man's" Photoshop. Maybe that's why there's no TIFF in the pasteboard. Seeing that there's some variation in how graphics apps handle the graphic types in the pasteboard, I tested some other apps I happen to have: Opening the same JPEG as before and copying: Graphic Converter 6.2.1: type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type type dyn.agk8zevndnu type CorePasteboardFlavorType 0x52454354 Seashore 0.1.9 (an OS-X native GNU program): type public.tiff type NeXT TIFF v4.0 pasteboard type type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type NeoOffice 2.2.5 patch2: type public.tiff type NeXT TIFF v4.0 pasteboard type type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type Quicktime Player 7.5.5: type dyn.agk80455ts2 type CorePasteboardFlavorType 0x6D6F6F76 type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type QuickLook (selecting in Finder, typing space bar, copying): type public.file-url type CorePasteboardFlavorType 0x6675726C type NSFilenamesPboardType type Apple URL pasteboard type type com.apple.icns type CorePasteboardFlavorType 0x69636E73 type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type type fccc type public.utf16-external-plain-text type CorePasteboardFlavorType 0x75743136 type NSStringPboardType type public.utf8-plain-text OpenOffice 3.0.0 (OS-X native): type dyn .agu80c6durvy0g2pyrf106p52fz11a3psr7xgq4pdqy0082xnqzv1k3dfsrv1e4pusv11epp2rz0d075mr3wg875xp7xg86xrqf4g62prqzsd4kwxsvu1ekctqmzgn25yebcgn65dsmy1a7dtskucu0crmuywe type application/x-openoffice-objectdescriptor- xml;windows_formatname="Star Object Descriptor (XML)" type com.apple.pict type Apple PICT pasteboard type type dyn .agu80c6durvy0g2pyrf106p52fz11a3psr7xgq4pdqy00s3dmrzw1k2pgrf0gns51rf1gk551srt0q55wrzu1k5xbrzwz2tmck7cewxpfsvuyq4pqqyva type application/x-openoffice- gdimetafile;windows_formatname="GDIMetaFile" type dyn .agu80c6durvy0g2pyrf106p52fz11a3psr7xgq4pdqy00n5pghr50w5xer751g15gr73g42pyr3u043n6hyvew5pbq7wwavnrk2va type application/x-openoffice-emf;windows_formatname="Image EMF" type dyn .agu80c6durvy0g2pyrf106p52fz11a3psr7xgq4pdqy01s5pghr50w5xer751g15gr73g42pyr3u043n6hyvew5pbq7wwaz4rk2va type application/x-openoffice-wmf;windows_formatname="Image WMF" -Dave