RIFF

File Format
Name	RIFF
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Metaformats RIFF
LoCFDD	fdd000025
Released	1991

The Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), is a wrapper or container format, originally developed by Microsoft and IBM. Formats based on the RIFF container include the widely used WAV (audio) and AVI (video) formats.

It is similar to IFF. One difference is that RIFF uses little-endian byte order.

See also RIFX.

Identification

RIFF files begin with the ASCII characters "RIFF".

RIFF type cross-reference

Selected "RIFF types", and related articles, are listed below. The RIFF type (also called "form type" or "RIFF form") is a four-byte identifier that usually appears at file offset 8. See also Category:RIFF based file formats.

RIFF type	Refer to	Remarks
ACON	Windows Animated Cursor
AVI	AVI
BND	RIFF Bundle File	Defined in the RIFF specifications.
CDR?	CorelDRAW
PAL	RIFF Palette File	Defined in the RIFF specifications.
RDIB	RDIB	Defined in the RIFF specifications.
RMID	RIFF MIDI	Defined in the RIFF specifications.
WAVE	WAV	Defined in the RIFF specifications.
WEBP	WebP
shw4	SHW (Corel)

Specifications

• Multimedia Programming Interface and Data Specifications 1.0 - RIFF document issued jointly by IBM and Microsoft, 1991-08
• Microsoft Multimedia Standards Update, Revision 1.0.97, 1992-07-29

Software

• RIFFPad

Links

• Microsoft RIFF File Format Summary, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
• Wikipedia: Resource Interchange File Format
• Dr. Dobbs: Inside the RIFF Specification