Term of the Moment
Googable
Definition: HEIF
(High Efficiency Image file Format) A container format that stores a single image or multiple images. Introduced in 2015 by MPEG, HEIF files are more compact than JPEG. The HEIF container can hold a single image, thumbnails, metadata, high and low-res versions of the same image or auxiliary images derived from the originals. See metafile.
HEIFS and HEIC
An HEIFS file contains an image sequence. In 2017, Apple added support in iOS 11 for HEIC, a variant of HEIF. Applications increasingly support HEIF and HEIC and typically have an export function to JPEG for apps that do not. See HEVC.
HEIC vs. JPEG
HEIFS and HEIC
An HEIFS file contains an image sequence. In 2017, Apple added support in iOS 11 for HEIC, a variant of HEIF. Applications increasingly support HEIF and HEIC and typically have an export function to JPEG for apps that do not. See HEVC.
Taken with an iPhone, which natively generated an HEIC image, this photo was converted to JPEG. Even at a very moderate JPEG resolution, the file was 45% larger than the HEIC.