Image MIME Reference
AVCI
AVC Image (HEIF Container)
image/avci
VS
FlashPix
image/vnd.fpx
FPX
A complete technical comparison of AVC Image (HEIF Container) and FlashPix — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Equal browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | AVCI | FPX |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | Yes |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Progressive Loading | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| HDR Support | Yes | ✕ No |
| EXIF Metadata | Yes | Yes |
| ICC Color Profile | Yes | Yes |
AVC Image (HEIF Container)
image/avci
Extension
.avci.hif
Container
HEIF / ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 14496-12)
Compression
Lossy / Lossless
Algorithm
AVC (Advanced Video Coding / H.264)
Color Depth
8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit
Developed by
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) / ISO/IEC JTC 1
Released
2015
Magic Bytes
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 61 76 63 69
FlashPix
image/vnd.fpx
Extension
.fpx
Container
Microsoft OLE Structured Storage (COM)
Compression
JPEG (Lossy) / Uncompressed / Single-color (Solid)
Algorithm
JPEGNone
Color Depth
8-bit (Grayscale/Indexed), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (CMYK/RGBA)
Developed by
Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Live Picture
Released
1996
Magic Bytes
D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | AVCI | FPX |
|---|---|---|
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✕ | ✕ |
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✕ | ✕ |
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✕ | ✕ |
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|
✕ | ✕ |
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✕ | ✕ |
AVCI
AVCI Strengths
- Shares the robust, flexible HEIF container architecture that allows for rich metadata, HDR, and depth maps.
- Backed by the highly ubiquitous AVC (H.264) codec, which is widely supported in hardware decoding.
- Supports rectangular cropping and rotation metadata without needing to re-encode the pixel data.
Limitations
- No native support within web browsers for HTML rendering.
- Inferior compression efficiency when compared to newer container formats like HEIC (HEVC) or AVIF (AV1).
- Easily confused with HEIC and AVIF, which use the same base ISOBMFF container.
FPX
FPX Strengths
- Allowed early, low-RAM computers to view and edit massive, high-resolution digital photos instantly by only loading the needed tiles and resolutions
- Pioneered the multi-resolution pyramid and tiling concepts heavily used today in modern deep-zoom and web mapping applications (like Google Maps)
Limitations
- Completely obsolete and unsupported by modern web browsers or operating systems
- Uses the complex, proprietary Microsoft OLE container format, making it incredibly difficult to parse or extract data from without dedicated legacy libraries
- Prone to being misidentified by MIME sniffers as an old Microsoft Office document
When to choose which format
AVCI
Use AVCI when…
- Digital Photography
- Camera Capture
- Archival Storage
FPX
Use FPX when…
- Legacy Digital Photography
- Kodak Picture CDs (Historical)
- Early High-Resolution Image Viewers