AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

royalty-free Royalty-free (RF) material subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold or some time period of use or sales. Computer standards ...

image file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with

AV1 AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 tha ...

in the HEIF container format. It competes with

HEIC High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a digital container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and vide ...

, which uses the same container format built upon

ISOBMFF The ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) is a container file format that defines a general structure for files that contain time-based multimedia data such as video and audio. It is standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-12, a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 12, and wa ...

, but

HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In co ...

for compression. Version 1.0.0 of the AVIF specification was finalized in February 2019. Version 1.1.0 was finalized in April 2022. In a number of tests by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in 2020, AVIF showed better compression efficiency than

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

as well as better detail preservation, fewer blocking artifacts and less color bleeding around hard edges in composites of natural images, text, and graphics. AVIF support is available in all the major web browsers (i.e. over 93% of all web browsers).

Features

The AV1 Image File Format supports: * Multiple

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represe ...

s, including: ** HDR (with PQ or HLG transfer functions and BT.2020 color primaries, as part of BT.2100) *** Supports HDR gain map approach, backwards compatible with SDR displays, but no encoder is currently available. ** SDR (with

sRGB sRGB (standard RGB) is a colorspace, for use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was initially proposed by HP and Microsoft in 1996 and became an official standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as IEC 6 ...

/ BT.709 / BT.601 or with

wide color gamut In color reproduction and colorimetry, a gamut, or color gamut , is a convex set containing the colors that can be accurately represented, i.e. reproduced by an output device (e.g. printer or display) or measured by an input device (e.g. ca ...

) ** Color space signaling via CICP (ITU-T H.273 and ISO/IEC 23091-2) or

ICC profile In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes o ...

s *

Lossless compression Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statisti ...

and

lossy compression In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...

* 8-, 10-, and 12-bit

color depth Color depth, also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bit ...

s * Monochrome (alpha/depth) or multi-components * 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4

chroma subsampling Chroma subsampling is the practice of encoding images by implementing less resolution for Chrominance, chroma information than for luma (video), luma information, taking advantage of the human visual system's lower acuity for color differences t ...

and RGB *

Film grain Film grain or film granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film. Film grain develops due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough ...

synthesis * Image sequences/animation

Profiles

AVIF specification defines two image profiles: * AVIF Baseline Profile ** Uses AV1 Main Profile ** AV1 level is 5.1 or lower *** ''Level 5.1 is chosen for the Baseline profile to ensure that no single coded image exceeds 8K resolution, as some decoders may not be able to handle larger images. More precisely, coded image items compliant to the AVIF Baseline profile may not have a total number of pixels greater than 8,912,896, a width greater than 8,192, or a height greater than 4,352. It is still possible to use the Baseline profile to create larger images using grid derivation.'' * AVIF Advanced Profile ** Uses AV1 High Profile ** AV1 level is 6.0 or lower *** ''Coded image items compliant to the AVIF Advanced profile may not have a total number of pixels greater than 35,651,584, a width greater than 16,384, or a height greater than 8,704. It is still possible to use the Advanced profile to create larger images using grid derivation.''

Support

On 14 December 2018, Netflix published the first .avif sample images. In November 2020, HDR sample images with PQ transfer function and BT.2020 color primaries were published.

Web browsers

* In August 2020,

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

version 85 was released with full AVIF support. Google Chrome 89 for Android adds AVIF support. * In October 2021,

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

93 was released with default AVIF support. *

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon K ...

added AVIF support on 5 March 2021. Safari for iOS 16 and macOS Ventura added support for AVIF; iOS 16 was released on 12 September 2022 and macOS Ventura on 24 October 2022. Safari 16.4 retroactively added AVIF support for macOS Monterey and macOS Big Sur. *

Microsoft Edge Microsoft Edge is a Proprietary Software, proprietary cross-platform software, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft and based on the Chromium (web browser), Chromium open-source project, superseding Edge Legacy. In Windows 11, Edge ...

added AVIF support in version 121 released in January 2024.

Image viewers

* FastStone Image Viewer (Version 7.8 onwards) *

XnView XnView is an image organizer and general-purpose file manager used for viewing, converting, organizing and editing raster images, as well as general purpose file management. It comes with built-in hex inspection, batch renaming, image scan ...

gThumb gThumb is a free and open-source image viewer and image organizer with options to edit images. It is designed to have a clean and simple user interface and follows the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines and integrates well with the GNOME deskt ...

Eye of GNOME Eye of GNOME is the former default image viewer for the GNOME desktop environment, where it had also been known as Image Viewer. It has been superseded by Loupe in GNOME 45. There is also another official image viewer for GNOME called gThumb tha ...

* GNOME's Loupe *

ImageMagick ImageMagick, invoked from the command line as magick, is a free and open-source cross-platform software suite for displaying, creating, converting, modifying, and editing raster images. ImageMagick was created by John Cristy in 1987, and it ...

IrfanView IrfanView () is an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program for Microsoft Windows. It can also play video and audio files, and has some image creation and painting capabilities. IrfanView is free for non-commercial use; commercial ...

(read only) * Gwenview *

digiKam digiKam is a free and open-source image organizer and tag editor written in C++ using the KDE Frameworks. Features digiKam runs on most known desktop environments and window managers, as long as the required libraries are installed. It suppor ...

7.7.0 * Preview and

Photos A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and prac ...

apps on iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS 13. * ImageGlass (read+write)

Media players

* VLC will read AVIF files starting with version 4, which is still in development.

Image editors

* Paint.NET added support for opening AVIF files in September 2019, and the ability to save AVIF format images in an August 2020 update. * The Colorist format conversion and

Darktable Darktable (stylized as darktable) is a free and open-source photography application and raw developer. Rather than being a raster graphics editor like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, it comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aime ...

RAW image data have each released support for and provide reference implementations of libavif. *

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

added Native AVIF import and export in October 2020. *

4.57, released on 13 January 2021, added read-only AVIF support via its plugins. *

Krita Krita ( ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital art and 2D animation. Originally created for Linux, the software also runs on Windows, macOS, Haiku (operating system), Hai ...

5.0, released on 23 December 2021, added AVIF support. The support also includes Rec.2100 HDR AVIF images. *

Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and Computer-aided design, design software developed and marketed by Adobe Inc., Adobe. Originally designed for the Apple Inc., Apple Mac (computer), Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began ...

(May 2022 release) added AVIF support. * Pixelmator Pro 3.1, released on 2 November 2022, added initial AVIF support. *

Adobe Lightroom Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, often shortened to Lightroom, is an Image organizer, image organization and image editing, editing application developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe and licensed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, Creative Cloud suite. It i ...

7.0 (October 2023 release) and Lightroom Classic 13 (October 2023 release) added HDR capabilities, including opening and saving photos in AVIF format. * PhotoLine 24, released 30 June 2023, added AVIF support. * ACDSee Photo Studio 2025, released September 2024 * Zoner Photo Studio - photo and video editing software

Image libraries

libavif
– portable library for encoding and decoding AVIF files.
libheif
– ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 HEIF and AVIF decoder and encoder.
SAIL
– format-agnostic library with support of AVIF implemented on top of libavif. *

FFmpeg FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing vide ...

AVIF and HEIC unit
- Delphi/Lazarus wrapper for libavif

Operating systems

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

– Microsoft announced support with the

Windows 10, version 1903 Windows 10 May 2019 Update (also known as version 1903 and codenamed "19H1") is the seventh major update to Windows 10 and the first to use a more descriptive codename (including the year and the order released) instead of the "Redstone" or "Thre ...

preview release, including support in File Explorer, Paint, and multiple APIs, together with sample images. * Android – Android 12, released on 4 October 2021, added native support for AVIF. *

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

– AVIF is widely supported in

Linux distributions A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel (operating system), kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply distribution (marketing), product distribution pe ...

. With the release of libavif 0.8.0 in July 2020, which added a GdkPixbuf plugin, AVIF support is present in most GNOME/GTK applications. The

KDE Frameworks KDE Frameworks is a collection of Library (computing), libraries and software frameworks readily available to any Qt (software), Qt-based software stacks or applications on multiple operating systems. Featuring frequently needed functionality sol ...

added support for AVIF to the "KImageFormats" library in January 2021, enabling most KDE/Qt applications to support viewing and saving AVIF images. Nomacs 3.16 adds support for AVIF viewing and conversion. Nomacs appimage is also for older Linux. * Apple platforms – iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura natively support AVIF. AVIF images can be directly viewed in the Finder, with QuickLook, in the iOS Files app, etc.

Websites

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

announced AVIF support in a blog post on 3 October 2020. *

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

announced AVIF support in a blog post on 3 June 2021. *

Joomla Joomla (), also styled Joomla! (with an exclamation mark) and sometimes abbreviated as J!, is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing web content on websites. Web content applications include discussion forums, p ...

5 includes AVIF support. *

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

6.5 added AVIF support. *

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based Digital library, media repository of Open content, free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used ...

does not support in 2024, see the

ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a to ...

. *

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

does not support AVIF *

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

: no support, se
related page

Programming languages

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

has had AVIF support in its GD extension since PHP version 8.1. *

Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...

has support via the Imager library suite

Others

ExifTool ExifTool is a free and open-source software program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, video, and PDF metadata. As such, ExifTool classes as a tag editor. It is platform independent, available as both a Perl library (Image::Ex ...

has supported AVIF format for reading and writing EXIF since version 11.79 (released 12 December 2019). *

scrot scrot is a minimalist command line screen capturing application. It allows a substantial degree of flexibility by specifying parameters on command line, including the ability to invoke a third-party utility to manipulate the resulting screensh ...

supports through Imlib2 *

Discord Discord is an instant messaging and Voice over IP, VoIP social platform which allows communication through Voice over IP, voice calls, Videotelephony, video calls, text messaging, and digital media, media. Communication can be private or take ...

has officially supported AVIF since 12 March 2025

References

{{Compression formats Computer-related introductions in 2019 Animated graphics file formats Raster graphics file formats High dynamic range file formats