IFF
From Just Solve the File Format Problem
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*Microsoft's [[RIFF]] and [[RIFX]] formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses [[Endianness|little-endian]] byte order instead, and the root chunk is called <code>RIFF</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) | *Microsoft's [[RIFF]] and [[RIFX]] formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses [[Endianness|little-endian]] byte order instead, and the root chunk is called <code>RIFF</code> instead of <code>FORM</code>) | ||
*Apple's [[AIFF]] and [[AIFC]] formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well | *Apple's [[AIFF]] and [[AIFC]] formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well | ||
| + | *[[Maya IFF]] | ||
==Resources== | ==Resources== | ||
Revision as of 16:45, 25 April 2013
Overview
IFF (Interchange File Format) is a file format introduced by Electronic Arts on the Commodore Amiga computer. Its structure is similar to RIFF or PNG, using various self-contained chunks to contain different data.
Although IFF is most commonly used as an image format (using the file extension .iff), it can actually hold a lot of different data types. Some examples of IFF files are
- ILBM Interleaved bitmap image
- XMI XMidi music files
- 8SVX audio sample data
- SX2 Propellerhead Reason NN-XT patches
Some other formats are largely or heavily influenced by the IFF standard, but are not compatible. These include, for example:
- Erlang BEAM compiled modules ([1] and [2]): Uses 4 byte alignment instead of 2 byte, and the root chunk has a different ID (
FOR1instead ofFORM) - Microsoft's RIFF and RIFX formats are based on IFF (RIFF uses little-endian byte order instead, and the root chunk is called
RIFFinstead ofFORM) - Apple's AIFF and AIFC formats are similar to IFF/RIFF as well
- Maya IFF
Resources
- The original EA spec
- IFF chunk registry, defining all known chunks
- IFF Source Code
- REWiki: .IFF
- IFF File Format Summary
