HEIF

The requirements and main uses for HEIF were identified in 2013 ^{[1] [2]} . The technical development of the specification took about a year and a half and was completed in the summer of 2015 ^[3] .

In June 2017, Apple announced support for the HEIF format (naming it High Efficiency Image Coding “high-performance, abbreviated HEIC ) in macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 ^[4] .

March 16, 2018 in Windows 10 , namely in the preliminary assembly 17123, support for the HEIF format was added ^[5] .

In March 2018, support for the HEIF format was also added to the preliminary version of the Android P ( Android Pie ) mobile operating system ^[6] .

The following are examples of HEIF applications.

Digital cameras and smartphones

To save space, HEVC- encoded graphics in HEIF containers can be used to compress full-size images, while a lower-resolution JPEG copy is saved for display on the screen (for example, 4K and below).

In digital cameras and smartphones, HEIF can be used to pack a series of images, focus and exposure photo stacks into a single file . In addition, both video and still images can be stored in the same HEIF file. The HEIF format allows you to store any collection of images in a single file, which simplifies the exchange of them.

Graphics Editing

Among the main features of HEIF is changing the orientation and cropping images without re-encoding the data. In addition, HEIF provides a structure for non-destructive editing operations that can be specified according to external specifications. This function can be used in graphic editors to keep editing instructions in the same file as the original image.

HEIF editing is supported by graphic editors such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom ^[7] (only from macOS High Sierra, iOS 11+ and Android 9+), GIMP ^[8] , ImageMagick , ^{[9] [10] [ 10]} .

The following types of data can be stored in HEIF files: ^[11]

• Graphic elements - individual images, image properties and thumbnails.
• Derived images - generated at runtime based on descriptions such as rotation, mesh, and overlay. These images depend on other images stored in the HEIF file. The overhead of storing derivative images is small.
• Image sequences - storage of several temporal and / or time-predicted images (for example, during serial shooting or cinematic animation), their properties and thumbnails. To use the temporal and spatial similarities between images, various prediction options can be applied. Thus, file sizes can be significantly reduced, even if dozens of images are stored in a single HEIF file.
• Auxiliary image elements - storage of graphic data supplementing another graphic element, for example, an alpha channel or a depth map. Such data is not displayed on its own, but is used to form other graphic elements.
• Image metadata — stores EXIF , XMP, and other metadata related to images in a HEIF file.

In Windows 10, HEIF viewing is available from build 17123 (RS4) ^[5] . Two programs are required: Extension for HEIF images and Extension for HEVC videos .

There are separate programs for viewing HEIF images in earlier versions of Windows, for example, Apowersoft Photo Viewer (for Windows 7/8/10) and others.

CopyTrans HEIC adds the ability to view in the integrated Windows Photo Viewer . CopyTrans HEIC also allows you to embed HEIF files in Microsoft Office documents, print HEIF images and convert them to JPEG ^[12] .

• MPEG-H
• HEVC (H.265)
• ISO Base Media File Format

• MPEG Image File Format standard web-site
• High Efficiency Image File Format ( Nokia ) , Nokia Technologies Website
• High Efficiency Image File Format Source Code at GitHub
• HEIF / ISO Base Media File Format (Browser Support Chart )
• iMazing HEIC Converter (software for conversion) (English)
• Apowersoft Photo Viewer
• CopyTrans HEIC for Windows Free