HEIF and AVIF explained
HEIF is the underlying container standard that HEIC is a specific profile of. The distinction matters mainly to developers: HEIF describes the box structure, while HEIC specifies HEVC-compressed contents inside it.
AVIF stores still images using the AV1 video codec's intra-frame compression. It generally achieves the smallest files of any widely supported format, and it handles wide colour gamut and HDR, which JPEG cannot.
- Where HEIF files come from
- Newer cameras and some Android devices, alongside Apple's HEIC.
- Where AVIF is used
- Performance-focused websites and modern image pipelines.