High Efficiency Image File Format

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"HEIF" redirects here. For the Higher Education Innovation Fund, see Research England.
"heic" redirects here. For other uses, see HEIC (disambiguation).
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF)
Comparison between JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR and HEIF.png
Comparison of JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR and HEIF files at similar filesizes
Filename extension
.heif, .heifs; .heic, .heics; .avci, .avcs; .avif, .avifs
Internet media typeimage/heif, image/heif-sequence; image/heic, image/heic-sequence; image/avif, image/avif-sequence
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)public.heif, public.heic
Developed byMoving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
Type of formatImage Container Format
StandardISO/IEC 23008-12 (MPEG-H)
Websitempeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-h/image-file-format

High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for individual images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video. A HEIF image using High Efficiency Video Coding, HEVC, requires less storage space than the equivalent quality JPEG.[1][2] HEIF also supports animation, and is capable of storing more information[3] than an animated GIF or APNG in less size.[citation needed] HEIF stores double the bit color depth at 16-bits compared to JPEG at only 8-bits, and "can store twice as many pictures in the HEIC format as in JPEG".[4] AVIF, on the other hand, has "file size 10 times smaller than JPEG with the same image quality".[5]

HEIF files are a special case of the ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF, ISO/IEC 14496-12), first defined in 2001 as a shared part of MP4 and JPEG 2000. Introduced in 2015, it was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and is defined as Part 12 within the MPEG-H media suite (ISO/IEC 23008-12).

HEIF was adopted by Apple in 2017 with the introduction of iOS 11, and support on other platforms is growing.[citation needed]

History[]

The requirements and main use cases of HEIF were defined in 2013.[6][7] The technical development of the specification took about one and a half years and was finalized in the middle of 2015.[8]

Apple was the first major adopter of the format in 2017 with the introduction of iOS 11 using HEIC variant.

On some systems, pictures stored in the HEIC format are converted automatically to the older JPEG format when they are sent outside of the system.

Features[]

HEIF files can store the following types of data:[9]

Image items
Storage of individual images, image properties and thumbnails.
Image derivations
Derived images enable non-destructive image editing, and are created on the fly by the rendering software using editing instructions stored separately in the HEIF file. These instructions (rectangular cropping, rotation by one, two or three quarter-turns, timed graphic overlays, etc.) and images are stored separately in the HEIF file, and describe specific transformations to be applied to the input images. The storage overhead of derived images is small.
Image sequences
Storage of multiple time-related and/or temporally predicted images (like a burst-photo shot or cinemagraph animation), their properties and thumbnails. Different prediction options can be used in order to exploit the temporal and spatial similarities between the images. Hence, file sizes can be drastically reduced when many images are stored in the same HEIF file.
Auxiliary image items
Storage of image data, such as an alpha plane or a depth map, which complements another image item. These data are not displayed as such, but used in various forms to complement another image item.
Image metadata
Storage of EXIF, XMP and similar metadata which accompany the images stored in the HEIF file.

Variants[]

As HEIF is a container format, it can contain still images and image sequences that are coded in different formats. The main filename extensions are .heif for still images and .heifs for sequences, which can both be used with any codec.

Apple supports playback of .heif for still image files and .heifs for image sequence files[10] created on other devices that are encoded using any codec, provided that codec is supported by the operating system.[11]

Generic HEIF image files are typically stored with filename extensions .heif, but they may use a different extension to indicate the specific codec used.

MIAF[]

The Multi-Image Application Format (MIAF) is a restricted subset of HEIF specified as part of MPEG-A. It defines a set of additional constraints to simplify format options, specific alpha plane formats, profiles and levels as well as metadata formats and brands, and rules for how to extend the format.[12]

HEIC: HEVC in HEIF[]

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, ITU-T H.265)[13] is an encoding format for graphic data, first standardized in 2013. It is the primarily used and implied default codec for HEIF as specified in the normative Annex B to ISO/IEC 23008-12 HEVC Image File Format.

While not introduced formally in the standard, the acronym HEIC (High-Efficiency Image Container) is used as a brand and in the MIME subtypes image/heic and image/heic-sequence. If the content conforms to certain HEVC profiles, more specific brands can be used: HEIX for Main 10 of HEVC, HEIM for (Multiview) Main profile and HEIS for (Scalable) Main (10) profile of L-HEVC.

The variation of HEIF used in Apple products exclusively uses HEVC compression technology and is known as HEIC. A HEIC photo takes up about half the space of an equivalent quality JPEG file.[citation needed] The initial HEIF specification already defined the means of storing HEVC-encoded intra images (i-frames) and HEVC-encoded image sequences in which inter prediction is applied in a constrained manner.

HEVC image players are required to support rectangular cropping and rotation by one, two and three quarter-turns. The primary use case for the mandatory support for rotation by 90 degrees is for images where the camera orientation is incorrectly detected or inferred. The rotation requirement makes it possible to manually adjust the orientation of a still image or an image sequence without needing to re-encode it. Cropping enables the image to be re-framed without re-encoding. The HEVC file format also includes the option to store pre-derived images.[14]

Samples in image sequence tracks must be either intra-coded images or inter-picture predicted images with reference to only intra-coded images. These constraints of inter-picture prediction reduce the decoding latency for accessing any particular image within a HEVC image sequence track.

The .heic and .heics file name extensions are conventionally used for HEVC-coded HEIF files.[15] Apple products, for instance,[10] will only produce files with these extensions, which indicate clearly that the data went through HEVC encoding.[1]

AVCI: AVC in HEIF[]

Advanced Video Coding (AVC, ITU-T H.264) is an older encoding format for video and images, first standardized in 2003. It is also specified as a codec to be supported in HEIF in normative Annex 5 to ISO/IEC 23008-12. The registered MIME types are image/avci for still images and image/avcs for sequences. The format is simply known as AVCI.

Apple products support playback of AVC-encoded .avci still image files and .avcs image sequence files,[10] but will only generate .heic files.

AVIF: AV1 in HEIF[]

AV1 is a video encoding format that is intended to be royalty free developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an image format based on this codec.[16]

The registered MIME types are image/avif for still images which usually carry an .avif file name extension and image/avif-sequence for sequences which use .avifs file name extension. This may be confusable with the classic AVI Windows multimedia format which typically uses .avi.

JPEG and HEIF[]

JPEG is the most commonly used and best supported lossy image format, first released in 1992 by ITU-T and ISO/IEC. Although Annex H to ISO/IEC 23008-12 specifies JPEG (and indirectly Motion JPEG) as a possible format for HEIF image data, it is used only for thumbnails and other secondary images. Therefore, neither a dedicated MIME subtype nor a special file extension is available.

JPEG 2000 also uses ISOBMFF, but in a way incompatible with HEIF, but Part 16 of its standard ISO/IEC 15444 describes how to encapsulate JPEG2K images into HEIF containers according to ISO/IEC 23008-12.

JPEG XR uses a TIFF-based container format. It is currently not formally specified as an image codec for use within HEIF.

In 2017, Apple announced that it would adopt HEIC as the default image format in its new operating systems, gradually replacing JPEG.[17]

Both AVIF and HEIC are currently being considered as possible replacements for the universal JPEG format because, among other technical contributions, both can reduce file size by about 50% while maintaining equivalent quality. As of March 2021, there is no native browser support for HEIC, while both Google's Chromium[18] and Mozilla's Firefox[19] have experimental AVIF support. Facebook supports the upload of HEIC but converts to JPEG or WEBP on display.[20]

Support[]

  • Nokia provides an open source Java HEIF decoder.[14]
  • The open source library "libheif" supports reading and writing HEIF files, as of version 1.8.0 both reading and writing HEIC and AVIF are supported.[21][22]
  • A free image codec called CopyTrans HEIC, available for Windows versions 7 through 10, supports opening HEIF files in Windows Photo Viewer without the Microsoft codec installed. (The Microsoft HEIC codec is only available for Windows 10, version 1803 and up in the Photos UWP app.)[23]

Operating systems[]

  • Windows 10 version 1803 and later (HEIC), version 1903 and later (AVIF): HEIF Image Extension is needed to read and write files that use the HEIF format. HEVC Video Extensions is needed to play and produce HEVC-encoded video content. A small amount of money is charged for the use of the HEVC codec, whereas support for the generic HEIF format and the AVC and AV1 extensions are free.[24]
  • macOS High Sierra and later (HEIC only)[25] Since macOS Mojave, Apple uses HEIF in creating the Dynamic Desktop feature.[26]
  • iOS 11 and later (HEIC only)[27][2]
  • Android 8 (Oreo) and later (HEIC), Android 12 and later (AVIF)[28][29][30]
  • Ubuntu 20.04 and later (HEIC)[31]

Web browsers[]

As of March 2021, no browser supports HEIC natively.[32] Both Chromium and Firefox have merged experimental support for AVIF in their source code.

Image editing software[]

  • Adobe Lightroom[33] (macOS High Sierra, iOS 11+, Windows 10, and Android 9+)
  • Adobe Photoshop (Note that Photoshop for Windows requires the installation of both the HEIF and HEVC CODECs available from Microsoft.)[34]
  • Affinity Photo
  • GIMP recognizes and treats HEIF files since version 2.10.2, released in May 2018.[35][36]
  • Paint.NET[37]
  • ImageMagick
  • Krita[38]
  • Zoner Photo Studio X[39][40]
  • Pixelmator[41] (version 3.7 and above)
  • GraphicConverter

Hardware[]

  • The Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, Canon EOS R5, and Canon EOS R6 cameras are using the HEIF format to capture images in an HDR display format that use the PQ tone curve, BT.2100 color primaries and 10-bit.[42][43] "We've moved on to HEIF files," Canon said in 2019.[44]
  • The Sony α1 offers capturing images in 10-bit HEIF format with an HDR format that uses HLG.[45]
  • Multiple Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs support capturing images in HEIC format (e.g. Snapdragon 865,[46] Snapdragon 662[47]). Some of their latest SoCs also support capturing in HEIC with HDR (e.g. Snapdragon 888,[48] Snapdragon 780[49]).
  • The iPhone 7 and later devices from Apple can capture media in HEIF or HEVC format.[50]
  • Android smartphones like Xiaomi 10, Oppo Find X3, Samsung Galaxy S10 can capture images in HEIF format.[51][52][53]

Websites[]

  • During May 2020, online Advanced Placement exams allowed students to submit photos of handwritten responses. Because the website was unable to process HEIF images, students whose phones defaulted to this image format were considered to have not submitted any response and often failed to complete the exam. College Board, which administers the exams, later provided a system for users to submit photos of answers via e-mail. Because the iOS Mail app automatically converts HEIF images to JPEG, this mitigated the problem.[54]

Patent licensing[]

Further information: High Efficiency Video Coding § Patent holders

HEIF itself is a container that may not be subject to additional royalty fees for commercial ISOBMFF licensees. Note however that Nokia also grants its patents on a royalty-free basis for non-commercial purposes.[55] When containing images and image sequences encoded in a particular format (e.g. HEVC or AVC) its use becomes subject to the licensing of patents on the coding format.[56][57][58]

See also[]

  • AVIF
  • Better Portable Graphics (BPG) – another image file format using HEVC encoding, published by Fabrice Bellard in 2014
  • Free Lossless Image Format (FLIF) – FOSS image format released in 2015, claiming to outperform PNG, WebP, BPG and JPEG 2000 for lossless encoding at least
  • JPEG XL – another image format in development as potential successor to JPEG and JPEG 2000
  • WebP – an image format based on the VP8 and VP9 video formats

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Shankland, Stephen (June 16, 2017). "How Apple is squeezing more photos into your iPhone – FAQ: Apple's newest iPhone software attempts to move the world out of the JPEG era". CNET. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Shu, Les (September 19, 2017). "Here's what HEIF and HEVC are, and why they'll improve your iPhone with iOS 11". Digital Trends. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  3. ^ https://www.aiseesoft.com/resource/heif-vs-jpeg.html
  4. ^ https://evano.com/formats/heic
  5. ^ https://evano.com/formats/avif
  6. ^ "Requirements for still image coding using HEVC". chiariglione.org. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  7. ^ "Requirements for HEVC image sequences". mpeg.chiariglione.org. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  8. ^ "Evidence motivates MPEG to launch new standardization effort for HDR". chiariglione.org. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  9. ^ M. M. Hannuksela; E. B. Aksu; V. K. Malamal Vadakital; J. Lainema (October 2015). "Overview of the High Efficiency Image File Format". JCT-VC. document JCTVC-V0072.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c "High Efficiency Image File Format". Apple. June 2017. Event occurs at 0:09:26. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  11. ^ "Introducing HEIF and HEVC". Apple. 2017-06-06. Event occurs at 0:13:47. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  12. ^ ISO/IEC 23000-22. Multimedia application format (MPEG-A) — Part 22: Multi-image application format (MIAF), ISO/IEC MPEG
  13. ^ Fleishman, Glenn (26 June 2020). "What the HEIC? Apple's Highly Compressed Image Format Still Confuses". TidBITS.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b High Efficiency Image File Format. "HEIF Technical Information". nokiatech.github.io. Nokia. Images in HEIF Files. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  15. ^ "Working with HEIF and HEVC - WWDC 2017 - Videos". Apple Developer. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  16. ^ "Apple wants to shrink your photos, but a new format from Google and Mozilla could go even farther". CNET. 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  17. ^ Rus, Cristian (2017-06-26). "Así es HEIF, el nuevo formato de imagen con el que Apple quiere acabar con JPEG". Applesfera (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-22.
  18. ^ "960620 - chromium - An open-source project to help move the web forward. - Monorail". bugs.chromium.org.
  19. ^ "1625363 - AVIF (AV1 Image File Format): experimental support". bugzilla.mozilla.org.
  20. ^ Gallagher, William (2018-11-16). "How to work with, edit, and share HEIC images without data loss". Apple Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-14.
  21. ^ "strukturag/libheif". May 17, 2021 – via GitHub.
  22. ^ "strukturag/libheif". GitHub. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  23. ^ "Open HEIC files on Windows". www.copytrans.net.
  24. ^ "Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17123 for Fast Ring Subscribers". Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  25. ^ Hollister, Sean (2017-06-05). "Apple answers iPhone storage woes with smaller photos, videos". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  26. ^ Czachurski, Marcin (2018-06-29). "macOS Mojave dynamic wallpaper". ITNEXT. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  27. ^ Snell, Jason (2017-09-20). "iOS 11: HEVC, HEIF, and what you need to know about these new video and photo formats". Macworld. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  28. ^ https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats
  29. ^ "Previewing Android P". Android Developers Blog. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  30. ^ "Introducing Android Q Beta".
  31. ^ "software recommendation - Any app on Ubuntu to open and/or convert HEIF pictures (.HEIC, High Efficiency Image File Format)?". Ask Ubuntu. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  32. ^ "Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc". caniuse.com.
  33. ^ "HEIC and HEVC media files support in Lightroom and Camera Raw". helpx.adobe.com. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  34. ^ "File formats in Adobe Photoshop". helpx.adobe.com. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  35. ^ Pagès, Jehan (2018-05-20). "GIMP 2.10.2 Released". gimp.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  36. ^ "GIMP 2.10.2 Released". GIMP News. 2018-05-20. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
  37. ^ "paint.net 4.2 is now available!". 2019-07-13. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
  38. ^ "Krita 4.1 Release Notes". Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  39. ^ "Zoner Photo Studio X brings support for the HEIF image format to Windows". DPReview. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  40. ^ "HEIF support comes to Windows with Zoner Photo Studio". DIY Photography. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  41. ^ Friday, William Gallagher (2018-11-16). "How to work with, edit, and share HEIC images without data loss". Apple Insider. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  42. ^ https://media.the-digital-picture.com/Information/Canon-EOS-1D-X-Mark-III-Still-Image-White-Paper.pdf page 45
  43. ^ "Inside Canon HEIF". github.com. 2020-03-16.
  44. ^ Artaius, James (October 29, 2019). "Canon graduates from JPG: 'We've moved on to HEIF files…'". Digital Camera World. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  45. ^ "Sony Alpha 1 Full-frame Interchangeable Lens Mirrorless Camera | ILCE1/B | Sony US". electronics.sony.com.
  46. ^ https://www.qualcomm.com/media/documents/files/qualcomm-snapdragon-865-5g-mobile-platform-product-brief.pdf
  47. ^ "Snapdragon 662 Mobile Platform". Qualcomm. January 14, 2020.
  48. ^ "Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G Mobile Platform | Latest 5G Snapdragon Processor". Qualcomm. 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  49. ^ "Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform". Qualcomm. 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  50. ^ "Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices". Apple Support. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  51. ^ "Here's how to make Galaxy S10 camera photos take less storage space". r2.community.samsung.com. 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  52. ^ "Answer | OPPO Global". OPPO. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  53. ^ "Xiaomi Mi 10 HEIF format reduces file size by 50% but image quality remains unchanged". Gizchina.com. 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  54. ^ Chin, Monica (20 May 2020). "Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can't handle iPhone photos". The Verge. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  55. ^ "Nokia High-Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) License". Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  56. ^ "macOS High Sierra tech preview: A quick look at the stuff you can't see". 2017-06-19. Retrieved 2017-07-04. If there's one major downside to both HEVC and HEIF, it's that they're covered by patents that may need to be licensed for use in various apps and services.
  57. ^ "Converting a JPEG to the new HEIF format". Retrieved 2017-07-04. HEIF and HEVC are extensively covered by patents, which means there could be legal implications to implementing HEIF support, particularly in paid software or a hardware product.
  58. ^ Ozer, Jan; Gill, Dror (2017-06-12). "Apple Endorses New Image Format, HEIF". Retrieved 2017-10-31.

External links[]

  • HEIF – MPEG Image File Format standard site
  • HEIF – format site at Nokia with source code at GitHub
  • libheif – source code at GitHub
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