15.10.2026 WEBSITE

HEIF Demo Website Rebuilt on C-Facade Binding The demo website has been rebuilt from the ground up. The legacy embind-based heif-api.js is retired; the site now runs entirely on the pure-C-façade binding (heif-raw.js + heif.js), compiled to WebAssembly with native exception support.

Gallery. A new universal Gallery page replaces the old per-file examples. Any HEIF file can be dropped in: thumbnails are decoded on the fly, grid and overlay compositions resolve automatically, tone-mapped HDR gain maps display inline, entity groups are classified, and track sequences (msf1) play back with edit-list timing. Alternate items are togglable. Memory leaks on async failure paths are closed, and idle decode loops are eliminated.

Comparison. The side-by-side comparison page is rewired to the modern reader with full metabox count fields and zoom support.

Visual refresh. Dark/light theme support via a theme manager, mobile-responsive navigation, dropdown menus, a context menu for image interaction, and a clean Public Sans typeface replace the legacy Bootstrap/jQuery/Handlebars stack.

Under the hood. A singleton WASM module prevents redundant instantiation. close() severs back-references to avoid GC retention. Stream callbacks survive WASM memory growth. The file-info snapshot is rebuilt entirely in JS, eliminating the old heif-object stub.

15.10.2026 SOURCE CODE

Nokia HEIF Library v4.0.0 Released Nokia HEIF v4.0.0 is the first major version bump in the library's history, upgrading the codebase to C++17 and delivering a hardened ABI surface ready for cross-language consumption.

Codec coverage expands. HEIF VVC (H.266) read/write support ships with an in-tree NAL parser. L-HEVC multilayer images are now first-class. The compact mini-box (mif3) format is supported end-to-end, and six new HDR item properties (clli, mdcv, cclv, amve, reve, ndwt) round out the metadata surface.

Pure-C reader façade. A new ~292-entry-point C API (heifreader_c.h) with opaque handles and a thread-local error slot makes the library embeddable from any FFI-capable language without exposing C++ types.

Ready-made bindings. A complete JavaScript/WebAssembly binding (TypeScript declarations, BigInt segment offsets, 14 test suites) and a Python cffi binding (pip-installable, 8 test suites) ship alongside the library.

Breaking changes. ErrorInfo is now an opaque class, public enum storage widths are pinned to uint8_t/uint16_t, HEIFPP::Item subclasses require factory construction, and the exported symbol count drops from ~4,188 to 918 via an ELF version script.

Reliability. Stream short-reads, writer double-free, Win32 large-write truncation, OOM placement-new, and custom-allocator lifecycle bugs are all resolved. A comprehensive test expansion and exhaustive internal QA back the changes.

05.03.2018 SOURCE CODE

Source code updated! Code updated and tagged v3.0. Writer executable replaced with writer library / API. Implementation is based on HEIF standard specification ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 that is available from iso.org web pages.

09.03.2017 SOURCE CODE

Support for multi-layered images added! ISO/IEC 23008-12 second edition includes support for the interchange of multi-layered images. The source code now includes structures that are specified in this second edition. Simple support for AVC is also added. Minor bug fixes are included in this update. Example configuration files for generating multi-layered streams can be found in the Wiki.

24.02.2016 SOURCE CODE

High Efficiency Image File Format source code and website updated! HEIF source code and website HEIF content is updated to reflect the latest changes in the specification and various format fixes.
Please make sure that you retrieve the latest source code and website HEIF content from GitHub Repository.

21.10.2015 SPECIFICATION

High Efficiency Image File format Specification Draft Text is available The draft text of ISO/IEC FDIS 23008-12: Carriage of Still Image and Image Sequences is now available at MPEG's site.

21.10.2015 SOURCE CODE

HEIF Writer/Reader Source Code is now available at GitHub The High Efficiency File Format (HEIF) writer and reader source code is now publicly available at GitHub Repository.
It includes the source code of an example HEIF Writer implementation and a HEIF Reader API library which can be used to parse and read HEVC Image Files.

21.10.2015 JAVASCRIPT

HEIFReader.JS Javascript implementation is now available at GitHub The Javascript implementation of the High Efficiency File Format (HEIF) Reader API is now publicly available at GitHub Repository.
It can be used in conjunction with a HEVC decoder JavaScript library (e.g. libde265.js) and a Javascript Media Player to playback HEVC Image Files.
Examples of such a usage can be found here.