CIF

CIF stands for Crystallographic Information File and also Crystallographic Information Framework. The format is promoted and standardised by the International Union of Crystallography. See Documentation and Resources for Users and Developers of CIF Software.

The IUCr CheckCIF service can be used to check the integrity and cosistency of crystal structure encodings in CIF.

Identification
CIF files encoded with the current version should begin with the 11 bytes  immediately followed by whitespace.

Specification
Formal specification of the Crystallographic Information File format

Sample files

 * http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/chemime/example.cif
 * CIF files in Crystallography Open Database

Links

 * Crystallographic Information File