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What is AVIF and why is the best image format?
- Authors
- Name
- Nico Bistolfi
- @nicobistolfi
AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format and it’s the next-generation image format, because of its quality and size. An AVIF image normally it’s 50% smaller than JPG.
AVIF format also supports up to 10 bits of color depth and HDR compatibility.
Google, Cisco, and Xiph.org created this new image format, letting it free for everyone to use.
Which are the AVIF advantages?
If we compare AVIF with other image formats, the main competitors are JPG and WebP.
The main AVIF advantages are:
- You can render an AVIF image in a lossy or lossless format.
- You can create transparent backgrounds (using the alpha channel).
- You can create high-quality animated GIFs (storing animated frames)
In terms of size, AVIF is the queen of all the image formats. If we compare at the same quality level, WebP files are half of JPG, and AVIF format is about half of the image size of WebP Files.
In terms of image quality, there aren’t visible or big changes but it becomes a truly subjective evaluation.