What is AVIF Format: The Story Behind the AVIF

When you think of images on the internet, chances are you’re thinking of JPEGs and PNGs. JPEGs have been around since the early 90s, giving us reasonably small photo files, while PNGs became the go-to for lossless images and transparency. These two formats have shaped the web for decades.

But technology doesn’t stand still. Screens got sharper, websites heavier, and users less patient with slow loading times. That’s when a new player arrived: AVIF.

Where AVIF Comes From

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format. It grew out of the work of the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a group founded in 2015 by companies like Google, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, and Mozilla. Their first big project was AV1, a next-generation video codec designed to be open and royalty-free.

Someone had a smart idea: if AV1 works so well for video, why not use the same technology for still images? That’s exactly how AVIF was created—a format that combines advanced compression with features the old formats couldn’t offer.

Why the World Needed AVIF

AVIF wasn’t made just to look modern. It was designed to fix real problems:

• Big file sizes: Websites with hundreds of images often load slowly. AVIF shrinks file sizes dramatically without a big hit to quality.
• Better color: HDR and wide color gamuts are common now, but JPEG and PNG don’t handle them well. AVIF does.
• Efficiency at scale: Platforms like Netflix needed a format that worked for both video thumbnails and still images, cutting storage and bandwidth costs.
• Free to use: Unlike Apple’s HEIC (based on HEVC), AVIF is royalty-free, so developers everywhere can adopt it without licensing headaches.

In short, AVIF is about making the web lighter, faster, and sharper.

AVIF vs. the Old Guard

Here’s how AVIF stacks up against what we’ve been using for years:

• JPEG: Decent at keeping files small, but artifacts show up fast when you compress too much.
• PNG: Great for logos and images with transparency, but file sizes balloon quickly.
• WebP: Google’s earlier attempt, smaller than JPEG/PNG but not as efficient as AVIF.
• AVIF: Smaller than JPEG, transparency like PNG, better compression than WebP, and HDR support out of the box.

The Catch: Compatibility

As good as AVIF is, it’s not everywhere yet. Newer browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari support it, but plenty of apps, design tools, and older systems don’t. If you’re sharing images widely, this can still be a problem.

That’s why converting AVIF to PNG is sometimes the practical choice.

AVIF to PNG Conversion

PNG is still the safest bet when you want guaranteed compatibility. Converting AVIF to PNG makes sense if:

• You’re working with older browsers that don’t recognize AVIF.
• Your image editing software doesn’t yet support it.
• Your content management system defaults to PNG.

The good news is that the conversion process is straightforward. Our AVIF to PNG converter keeps your images looking sharp while ensuring they’ll display everywhere.

Looking Ahead

Will AVIF replace JPEG and PNG completely? Maybe not tomorrow, but the trend is clear. As support grows, it’s likely to become the default image format for the web. For now, AVIF and PNG will live side by side: AVIF for cutting-edge performance, PNG as the universal fallback.

Wrapping Up

The story of AVIF is really the story of the internet’s constant push for faster, lighter, and better. Born from the same tech that powers AV1 video, it solves problems that older formats simply weren’t built for.

So if you’re a developer, designer, or just someone curious about the future of images, keep AVIF on your radar. And when you need your images to work everywhere? That’s when AVIF to PNG conversion comes to the rescue.