IFF
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== Identification == | == Identification == | ||
| − | IFF files begin with the ASCII characters "<code>FORM</code>". | + | Most IFF files begin with the ASCII characters "<code>FORM</code>". There are also aggregate formats that begin with "<code>LIST</code>" or "<code>CAT </code>". |
== References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 01:40, 27 January 2015
- This article is about the generic IFF metaformat. For the IFF image format, see ILBM.
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. Multi-byte numeric values are big-endian.
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
- ANIM
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][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
Identification
Most IFF files begin with the ASCII characters "FORM". There are also aggregate formats that begin with "LIST" or "CAT ".
