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IFF - EA Interchange File Format

What is a IFF file

IFF files refer to files developed by Electronic arts as an universal file format. Even though these files can contain different media like text and images, they are mostly known as an audio format. Due to the huge amount of media stored inside the file, they are most commonly used for data transfer across different devices and platforms. Many programs and applications support the IFF format already. The popular AIFF audio format uses the IFF format as a basis.

Different data chunks make up a single IFF file. These chunks are defined using a sequence of three or four letters (the ID) and can contain text as well as numerical or raw data. All data chunks are ordered hierarchical. The main three chunks of the IFF files (FORM, LIST and CAT) contain important information about the file format, properties and remaining data respectively.

Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open IFF documents:

  • ACD Systems ACDSee (Windows)
  • ACD Systems Canvas (Windows)
  • Adobe Audition (Windows & Mac)
  • Apple QuickTime Player (Windows & Mac)
  • Cloanto Amiga Forever (Windows, Mac & Linux)
  • Corel PaintShop Pro X8 (Windows)
  • IFFPencil (Windows)
  • IFFSnooper (Mac)
  • IrfanView (Windows)
  • ShedWorx Smart Converter (Mac)
  • XnViewMP (Windows & Linux)
About
Extension IFF
MIME type application/x-iff
Useful links
Example Files
example.aiff
(6.30 MiB)