HEIF

File Format
Name	HEIF
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics HEIF
Extension(s)	.heic, .heif
PRONOM	fmt/1101
Wikidata ID	Q24907733
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 ISO-BMFF, and supports arbitrary colorspaces, codecs, and compositing of images, with HEVC, AVC, and JPEG being defined in the initial spec.

Format details

The standard defines:

• A still image ("image collection") container format, with brand mif1.
• An animated image ("image sequence") container format, with brand msf1.
• An image compression scheme, with brand heic, based on HEVC. This is used by some versions of Apple's iOS, when "High Efficiency" is selected as the storage option. (The alternative, "Most Compatible", uses JPEG.)
• Various other compression schemes, including AVC and JPEG.
• Compositing and layering of multiple images, including transparency.

The file extension .heic typically denotes single still images using HEVC in 8- or 10-bit. .heif may include any of the wider features.

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.

See also

• AVIF
• HEVC
• MIAF
• BPG

Software

• Nokia Technologies HEIF Reader/Writer Engine
• libheif
• abydos

Sample files

• Some of the links in this forum post might still work
• iPhone XR sample images
• https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/abydos/abydos.heic

Links

• Wikipedia: High Efficiency Image File Format
• HEIF information from the MPEG website
• What is the HEIF (or HEIC) Image Format?
• HEIF information from Nokia Technologies
• ISO/IEC 23008-12 (not free to download)
• How Apple is squeezing more photos into your iPhone
• Apple HEIC vs. students

See also MPEG-H#Links.