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AVIF

An AV1-based still-image format from the Alliance for Open Media offering strong lossy and lossless compression, HDR and wide color gamut, now broadly supported across major browsers.

Extension

.avif

Full name

AV1 Image File Format

Introduced

February 19, 2019 (initial specification release)

Vendor

Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)

What is inside the container

AVIF wraps AV1 video-codec compression in an ISOBMFF/HEIF-style container, supporting both lossy and lossless modes at 8, 10, or 12-bit depth, with YUV444/422/420/grayscale sampling, an alpha channel, and HDR (PQ/HLG) via CICP/NCLX signaling or an embedded ICC profile. ExifTool reports full read/write/create support for EXIF, XMP, and ICC profiles, plus C2PA provenance data; there is no standard IPTC-in-AVIF convention comparable to JPEG or TIFF.

How to open it

macOS Preview and Quick Look native since macOS Ventura (13), October 2022
Windows Built into File Explorer/Paint from Windows 10 1903 preview onward; the AVIF Image Extension is built-in by default since Windows 11 version 22H2
Web browsers Chrome 85+ (2020), Firefox 93+ (static)/113+ (animated), Safari 16.4+, Edge 121+ — roughly 95% global support
Cross-platform GIMP (via libheif-based plugin), Photoshop 23.2+ (2022, with AV1 plug-in)

For archives

Do not use as a DAM master or preservation format. AVIF is a strong web-delivery format — good for auto-generated previews and thumbnails at a fraction of JPEG's file size — but lossy AV1 compression and a comparatively young decoder ecosystem make it unsuitable as the sole archival copy. Keep the camera or design original (TIFF/PSD/RAW) as master and generate AVIF as a lightweight rendition.

AVIF was released by the Alliance for Open Media — a consortium including Google, Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Amazon — with its initial specification published February 19, 2019, riding on the compression gains of the royalty-free AV1 video codec. The goal was a high-efficiency, patent-unencumbered successor to JPEG and WebP for the web, and browser adoption has moved comparatively fast: Chrome added support in 2020, and by 2022–2023 Safari, Firefox, and Edge had followed, giving AVIF close to universal browser coverage today.

In a DAM, AVIF is best treated as an auto-generated web-preview and thumbnail derivative rather than an ingest master. It compresses meaningfully better than JPEG at equivalent visual quality and supports HDR and wide color gamut, which makes it attractive for image-heavy delivery pipelines trying to cut bandwidth. It does carry EXIF, XMP, and ICC profiles reliably (per ExifTool’s support matrix), so metadata does survive conversion to AVIF if the encoder preserves it — but the format has no progressive rendering, meaning the full file must download before anything displays, unlike progressive JPEG.

The practical DAM guidance is to generate AVIF renditions from a proper master rather than accepting AVIF as an ingested original: asset search should index metadata from the true source file (TIFF, RAW, or camera JPEG), while AVIF handles the “serve this quickly to a browser” job. Given AVIF’s relative youth compared to JPEG or TIFF, its tooling and forensic-analysis ecosystem is still less mature, reinforcing that it belongs in the delivery tier, not the archive tier.

Frequently asked

Should a DAM use AVIF as an archival master?

No. AVIF is a strong web-delivery format — good for auto-generated previews and thumbnails at a fraction of JPEG's file size — but lossy AV1 compression and a comparatively young decoder ecosystem make it unsuitable as the sole archival copy. Keep the camera or design original as master and generate AVIF as a lightweight rendition.

How wide is browser support for AVIF?

Roughly 95% of global traffic, across Chrome 85+ (2020), Firefox 93+ for static images (113+ for animated), Safari 16.4+, and Edge 121+.

What metadata does AVIF support?

ExifTool reports full read/write/create support for EXIF, XMP, and ICC profiles in AVIF, plus C2PA provenance data — but there is no standard IPTC-in-AVIF convention comparable to JPEG or TIFF.

Does AVIF support progressive rendering like progressive JPEG?

No — AVIF has no progressive rendering mode, meaning the full file must download before anything displays, unlike progressive JPEG.

What color and HDR capabilities does AVIF have?

8, 10, or 12-bit depth with YUV444/422/420/grayscale sampling, an alpha channel, and HDR (PQ/HLG) via CICP/NCLX signaling or an embedded ICC profile.

Who created AVIF and why?

The Alliance for Open Media — a consortium including Google, Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Amazon — released AVIF's initial specification on February 19, 2019, built on the royalty-free AV1 video codec as a high-efficiency, patent-unencumbered successor to JPEG and WebP.

What's the recommended DAM workflow for AVIF?

Generate AVIF renditions from a proper master rather than accepting AVIF as an ingested original — asset search should index metadata from the true source file (TIFF, RAW, or camera JPEG), while AVIF handles fast browser delivery.

Do macOS and Windows support AVIF natively?

Yes — macOS Ventura (13, October 2022) added native Preview and Quick Look support, and Windows 11 version 22H2 made the AVIF Image Extension built-in by default.

Sources