What is a AVIF file
With the development of the AV1 codec, February 2019 saw the emergence of a new image file format that uses the compression provided by this codec. The AVIF file format is used to store image data in the HEIF format but with the usage of AV1 for compressing the image sequences.
AVIF images support a wide range of features such as HDR (high dynamic range), lossless and lossy compression, different color-spaces, film grain, chroma subsampling, and more. The end of 2018 marked the start of support for AVIF files with Netflix being one of the first. VLC, Microsoft as well as the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browser followed.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open AVIF documents:
- Microsoft Paint
- Paint.net
- VLC
- Windows File Explorer
- some web browsers
