All the example files in this page are under copyright © 2017-2021 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies)
HEIF files can store:
- Still Images, their thumbnails and related metadata such as EXIF or XMP information
- Image Collections, their thumbnails and related metadata such as EXIF or XMP information
- Image sequences such as cinemagraphs or image bursts and related metadata
- Unprocessed image and processed images in the same file with proper labelling and referencing
- Image derivation information such as rotation, overlay and grid view along with the images, so that different image derivations can make use of the same image data set
- Auxiliary image data such as depth map and alpha channel along with the images
- Audio tracks and cover images along with still images and image sequences
- Well-defined information about content context to signal e.g. stereo pairs, time-synchronized capture, image bursts and image album groups
HEIF files also inherit many properties of ISOBMFF such as edit lists, media alternatives, media data groupings. Moreover, an MP4 file can be “branded” so that it can also contain images and image sequences as well as video and audio (i.e. dual branding)
Still images
Each file contains a high quality still image and its thumbnail:
Image collections
Each file contains multiple still images, just like an album or collection. Album groupings
and descriptions can be indicated in the file:
Image bursts
Each file contains a short video, thumbnails of each frame in the video and high quality version
of the “selected best shots” from an image burst.
The files are represented in two different modes: 1. Burst images, 2. Video and HD quality images:
Image sequences
Sequence of images can be stored just like Cinemagraphs or Animated GIFs:
Image Derivations
Each file contains derived image information which is composed of other images present in the file.
Such a design drastically increases storage and representation efficiency.
The following HEIF files contain Grid and Overlay derived Image examples and they are marked as the “cover images” of the files:
Auxiliary Image Storage
It is also possible to store helper images such as an alpha mask or depth map along with the original image.
The following example contains a derived image composed of two overlays and one of the images contain a gradient alpha mask to provide gradual transparency:
Stereo image
Stereo image pair can be signalled in file:
Time-synchronized capture
It is possible to signal time-synchronous capture. This can be used, for example, to indicate bothie capture, where mobile device rear and front cameras trigger simultaneously:
User description
Description and tags can be associated to content: