AVIF

AV1 Image File Format (AVIF extension/container) is an open, royalty-free file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1. An AVIF file is designed to be a conformant HEIF file for both image items and image sequences. Specifically, this specification follows the recommendations given in "Annex I: Guidelines On Defining New Image Formats and Brands" of HEIF. This specification reuses syntax and semantics used in the specification for the AV1 Codec ISO Media File Format Binding. In tests by Netflix in 2020, AVIF showed better compression efficiency than JPEG, as well as better detail preservation, fewer blocking artifacts and less color bleeding around hard edges in composites of natural images, text, and graphics. AVIF has been supported by all major web browsers since 2024, with over 93% of users worldwide on compatible browsers.

AV1 Image File Format (AVIF extension/container) is an open, royalty-free file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1. An AVIF file is designed to be a conformant HEIF file for both image items and image sequences. Specifically, this specification follows the recommendations given in "Annex I: Guidelines On Defining New Image Formats and Brands" of HEIF. This specification reuses syntax and semantics used in the specification for the AV1 Codec ISO Media File Format Binding. In tests by Netflix in 2020, AVIF showed better compression efficiency than JPEG, as well as better detail preservation, fewer blocking artifacts and less color bleeding around hard edges in composites of natural images, text, and graphics. AVIF has been supported by all major web browsers since 2024, with over 93% of users worldwide on compatible browsers.

Features

The AV1 Image File Format supports: Multiple color spaces, including: HDR (with PQ or HLG transfer functions and BT.2020 color primaries, as part of BT.2100) Supports HDR gain map approach, backwards compatible with SDR displays, but no encoder is currently available. SDR (with sRGB / BT.709 / BT.601 or with wide color gamut) Color space signaling via CICP (ITU-T H.273 and ISO/IEC 23091-2) or ICC profiles Both lossless and lossy compression 8-, 10-, and 12-bit color depths Monochrome (alpha/depth) or multi-components 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 chroma subsampling and RGB Film grain synthesis Image sequences and animation Alpha transparency

Profiles

AVIF specification defines two image profiles: AVIF Baseline Profile Uses AV1 Main Profile AV1 level is 5.1 or lower Level 5.1 is chosen for the Baseline profile to ensure that no single coded image exceeds 8K resolution, as some decoders may not be able to handle larger images. More precisely, coded image items compliant to the AVIF Baseline profile may not have a total number of pixels greater than 8,912,896, a width greater than 8,192, or a height greater than 4,352. It is still possible to use the Baseline profile to create larger images using grid derivation. AVIF Advanced Profile Uses AV1 High Profile AV1 level is 6.0 or lower Coded image items compliant to the AVIF Advanced profile may not have a total number of pixels greater than 35,651,584, a width greater than 16,384, or a height greater than 8,704. It is still possible to use the Advanced profile to create larger images using grid derivation.

Support

On 14 December 2018, Netflix published the first .avif sample images. In November 2020, HDR sample images with PQ transfer function and BT.2020 color primaries were published.

Operating systems

Windows – Microsoft announced support with the Windows 10, version 1903 preview release, including support in File Explorer, Paint, and multiple APIs, together with sample images. Since Windows 11, version 22H2, the AVIF Image Extension is built-in by default installation. Android – Android 12, released on 4 October 2021, added native support for AVIF. Linux – AVIF is widely supported in Linux distributions. With the release of libavif 0.8.0 in July 2020, which added a GdkPixbuf plugin, AVIF support is present in most GNOME/GTK applications. The KDE Frameworks added support for AVIF to the "KImageFormats" library in January 2021, enabling most KDE/Qt applications to support viewing and saving AVIF images. Nomacs 3.16 adds support for AVIF viewing and conversion. Nomacs appimage is also for older Linux. Apple platforms – iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura natively support AVIF. AVIF images can be directly viewed in the Finder, with QuickLook, in the iOS Files app, etc.

Websites

Cloudflare announced AVIF support in a blog post on 3 October 2020. Vimeo announced AVIF support in a blog post on 3 June 2021. Joomla 5 includes AVIF support. WordPress 6.5 added AVIF support. Wikimedia Commons does not support AVIF as of mid-2026, see the ticket. Wikipedia does not support AVIF GitHub: no support, see related page Gitea 1.23 added AVIF support.

Programming languages

Python supports AVIF via Pillow. PHP has had AVIF support in its GD extension since PHP version 8.1. Perl has support via the Imager library suite

Others

ExifTool has supported AVIF format for reading and writing Exif since version 11.79 (released 12 December 2019). scrot supports through Imlib2 Discord has officially supported AVIF since 12 March 2025 Gamescope, a Wayland compositor, uses AVIF for its screenshots. The IIPImage image server has AVIF output support since version 1.3

References

External links

AVIF specifications - Alliance for Open Media AVIF sample files - sample AVIF files with compression comparisons at AVIF Tools About AVIF - technical guide and reference at AVIF Tools

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377504407 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.