Open Source HEIF Implementation

libheif is an open source implementation of the HEIF and AVIF file format. It provides a simple C API for easy integration into other software, but it also comes with a header-only C++ and Go interface. The library can also be compiled to JavaScript for use in client-side web code (see online demo: here).

libheif decodes and generates all conformant still-image HEIF/AVIF files, including HDR, and uses the color transformation matrices specified in the color profile. The HEIF decoder makes use of libde265. For encoding, x265 is used. AVIF uses either libaom or dav1d for decoding and libaom or rav1e for encoding.

The library is available as the libheif package in Debian and Ubuntu and has been integrated into:

The library also includes a thumbnailer for integration into the Gnome desktop.

More information on its github page.

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