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    1. Home
    2. Image File Formats
    3. JFIF

    What's on this Page

      • What is a JFIF file?
      • Brief History
      • JFIF Design
      • JFIF File Format
        • File Structure
        • JFIF APP0 marker segment
        • JFIF extension APP0 marker segment
      • How to open JFIF files
      • References

    What is a JFIF file?

    JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF)) is an image format file that uses the .jfif extension. JFIF builds over JIF (JPEG Interchange Format) by reducing complexity and solving its limitations.

    Brief History

    JFIF document development was led by Eric Hamilton and an agreement on the first version was established in late 1991. Version 1.02 was published on September 7, 1992. RFC 2046 specified that the JFIF format is used to transmit JPEG images over the internet. JFIF was published by ECMA in 2009 and was standardized by ITU-T in 2011 as its Recommendation T.871 and by ISO/IEC in 2013 as ISO/IEC 10918-5

    JFIF Design

    JFIF allows multiple components like Y, Cb, Cr, to have different resolutions but their alignment is not defined. Unlike JPEG, JFIF can provide resolution and aspect ratio information. JFIF also defines the color model to be used.

    JFIF File Format

    A JFIF file consists of a sequence of markers as defined in part 1 of the JPEG Standard. Each marker consists of two bytes (FF followed by a byte that specifies the type of marker). Markers can either be stand-alone or indicate the start of a marker segment.

    File Structure

    SegmentCodeDescription
    SOIFF D8Start of Image
    JFIF-APP0FF E0 s1 s2 4A 46 49 46 00 …
    JFXX-APP0FF E0 s1 s2 4A 46 58 58 00 …
    additional marker segments
    SOSFF DAStart of Scan
    compressed image data
    EOIFF D9End of Image

    The JFIF Standard defines the following segments:

    JFIF APP0 marker segment

    It is a mandatory segment containing image parameters. It can also contain an embedded uncompressed thumbnail.

    FieldSize (bytes)Description
    APP0 marker2FF E0
    Length2Length of segment excluding APP0 marker
    Identifier5JFIF (4A 46 49 46 00) in ASCII terminated by a null byte
    JFIF version2Version of the JFIF
    Density units1Unit for the following pixel density fields 00 : No units; width:height pixel aspect ratio is equal to Ydensity:Xdensity 01 : Pixels per inch 02 : Pixels per centimeter
    Xdensity2Horizontal pixel density greater than zero
    Ydensity2Vertical pixel density greater than zero
    Xthumbnail1Horizontal pixel count of the embedded RGB thumbnail. May be zero
    Ythumbnail1Vertical pixel count of the embedded RGB thumbnail. May be zero
    Thumbnail data3 × nUncompressed 24 bit RGB raster thumbnail data

    JFIF extension APP0 marker segment

    This is an optional section that if defined, must immediately follow the JFIF APP0 marker segment. This section is supported by JFIF version 1.02 and above and allows the embedding of thumbnails in three different formats.

    FieldSize (bytes)Description
    APP0 marker2FF E0
    Length2Length of the segment excluding APP0 marker
    Identifier5JFXX (4A 46 58 58 00) in ASCII terminated by a null byte
    Thumbnail format1Specifies what data format is used for the following embedded thumbnail:10 : JPEG format11 : 1 byte per pixel palettized format13 : 3 byte per pixel RGB format
    Thumbnail datavariable

    How to open JFIF files

    JFIF files can be opened by the majority of the image software including the following:

    • Microsoft Photos
    • Photoshop
    • XnViewMP

    References

    • JFIF - Wikipedia

    See Also

    • KT File Format
    • PY File Format
    • Xvid File Format
    • AVIF File Format
    • F4V File Format