Fractal Image Format

FIF (Fractal Image Format) is a raster image format that uses lossy fractal compression. It is apparently a proprietary format developed by Iterated Systems.

Identification
Some FIF files begin with bytes.

This demo includes FIF files that begin with "".

Software

 * Genuine Fractals Photoshop plug-in
 * Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia licensed FIF for image compression.

Sample files

 * http://users.senet.com.au/~mjbone/Fractals.html → River.fif
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/fractalImageFormat/
 * https://web.archive.org/web/19970722065650/http://www.altamira-group.com/gallweb.html

Links

 * Wikipedia: Fractal compression
 * (AltaMira) Fractal Technology (archived)
 * Archived web page about discontinued Fractal Imager and Fractal Viewer products
 * Atlanta Journal Article about Iterated Systems (1999-04-12)
 * Fractal Image Compression, American Scientist (1996 Sept-Oct issue)
 * Mathematics Awareness Week - April 1998 - High-level explanation of technology behind the format.