The term IFF stands for Interchange File Format, and is a generic container file format that was developed by Electronics Arts in 1985. .iff files may contain text, image, or audio.
.iff files come under the category of Audio Files.
Purpose of the .iff file format
The .iff file format was developed to facilitate easy transfer of data between software produced by various companies.
Structure of .iff files
.iff files contain sections of data. A section of data is referred to as ?chunks?, and each chunk is defined by four-letter IDs.
Three main chunk types are:
- FORM – This section of data specifies the format of the .iff file.
- LIST – This section of data specifies the properties of the .iff file.
- CAT – This section of data contains the rest of data.
Generally, the top-level structure of an .iff file contains the FORM chunk type. Each of the three chunk types may contain numerical, text, or raw data.
Names of the programs that can open .iff files
If you use Windows, you may open an .iff file using any of the following programs:
- IFF Pencil
- Apple QuickTime Player
- ACD Systems Canvas 11
- ACDSee Photo Manager 12
- XnView
- IrfanView
- Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3
- Cloanto Amiga Forever
If you use a Mac OS, you may open an .iff file using any of the following programs:
- IFFSnooper
- Apple QuickTime Player
- Cloanto Amiga Forever
If you use Linux, you may open an .iff file using any of the following programs:
- XnView
- Cloanto Amiga Forever
Names of other file types that use the .iff file extension
Besides the Interchange File Format, 16 other file types are recorded using the .iff file extension. Their names are:
- Amiga bitmap image file
- Amiga Sound file
- The Sims data file
- TextCraft document file
- Alias Wavefront TDI Explore image
- Alias Wavefront image
- Bitmap image
- Sun TAAC image file format
- Deluxe Paint bitmap image
- Electronics Arts bitmap image
- ProWrite document file
- Simple Musical Score file
- Phillips CDi file
- DESR VFF grayscale bitmap image
- Autodesk Maya image format
- Image Deluxe Paint
In case you encounter a file type error while opening an .iff file, we recommend that you use a reliable file extension repair tool to access the file. A good file extension repair tool will allow you to open, edit, and save various file types, as well as fix file extension errors.