HEIF

File Format
Name	HEIF
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics HEIF
Extension(s)	.heif, .heic
PRONOM	fmt/1101
Released	2017

HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) is the lossy image (and animation?) format defined by MPEG-H Part 12 (ISO/IEC 23008-12). It is based on boxes/atoms format, with some elements from ISO Base Media File Format.

It is closely related to the HEVC video format, so in that way it is similar to BPG. It uses boxes/atoms format as a container format, so in that way it is similar to JPEG 2000.

Identifiers

Based on source code and sample files, it usually uses the brands mif1 and heic. Some files may use other brands, such as msf1 and heix.

Links

• Wikipedia: High Efficiency Image File Format
• HEIF information from the MPEG website
• HEIF information from Nokia Technologies
  • Software at GitHub
• ISO/IEC 23008-12 (not free to download)
• How Apple is squeezing more photos into your iPhone

See also MPEG-H#Links.