MRF (Monochrome Recursive Format)

File Format
Name	MRF (Monochrome Recursive Format)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics MRF (Monochrome Recursive Format)
Extension(s)	.mrf
Released	1997

MRF (Monochrome Recursive Format) is a bi-level raster image file format developed by Russell Marks.

MRF images are always compressed. The compression scheme is somewhat unusual, and involves recursively subdividing tiles until each is a single color.

Disambiguation

Some sources say that the MR in MRF stands for Marks Russel (i.e., the developer's name backwards and misspelled), but the pbmtomrf-1.0 distribution makes it clear that it stands for Mono Recursive or Monochrome Recursive.

Format

Files have a 13-byte header, followed by the compressed image data.

Identification

Files begin with a 4-byte ASCII signature: "MRF1".

Specifications

• MRF format

Software

• Konvertor
• Netpbm: pbmtomrf, mrftopbm
• pbmtomrf-1.0.tar.gz
• XnView

Sample files

• dexvert samples — image/monochromeRecursiveFormat

See also

• PRF (Polychrome Recursive Format)