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Image MIME Reference
AVIF

AV1 Image File Format

image/avif
VS

AirZip Accelerator Image

image/vnd.airzip.accelerator.azv
AZV

A complete technical comparison of AV1 Image File Format and AirZip Accelerator Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

AVIF wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature AVIF AZV
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No Yes
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
AV1 Image File Format
image/avif
Extension
.avif
Container HEIF / ISOBMFF
Compression AV1 Lossy / AV1 Lossless
Algorithm
AV1
Color Depth 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit
Developed by Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)
Released 2019
Magic Bytes
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 61 76 69 66
Full AVIF reference →
AirZip Accelerator Image
image/vnd.airzip.accelerator.azv
Extension
.azv
Container Proprietary AirZip Container
Compression Lossy (Proprietary) / Lossless (Proprietary)
Algorithm
AirZip Proprietary Compression
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by AirZip, Inc.
Released 1999
Magic Bytes
Unknown (Proprietary)
Full AZV reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser AVIF AZV
Chrome Chrome
✓ 85+
 ✕
Firefox Firefox
✓ 93+
 ✕
Safari Safari
✓ 16+
 ✕
Edge Edge
✓ 121+
 ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
AVIF

AVIF Strengths

  • Best-in-class compression — typically 20–50% smaller than WebP at equivalent quality
  • Native HDR and wide color gamut (BT.2020) support
  • Supports 8, 10, and 12-bit color depth
Limitations
  • Encoding is highly CPU-intensive — significantly slower than JPEG or WebP
  • Requires Edge 121+ (not supported in earlier Edge versions)
  • Limited support in native desktop image viewers
AZV

AZV Strengths

  • Historically allowed internet users to browse the web up to 5x faster over 56k dial-up modems by drastically reducing image payload sizes
  • Officially registered in the IANA vendor tree, preventing MIME type conflicts on early web proxy servers
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete in the modern broadband era
  • Closed-source and proprietary, meaning no modern image manipulation libraries (like ImageMagick or libvips) can decode it
  • Zero support in standard web browsers

When to choose which format

AVIF
Use AVIF when…
  • Next-Gen Websites
  • HDR Photography
  • High-Quality Web Images
AZV
Use AZV when…
  • Dial-up Web Acceleration
  • Bandwidth Optimization (Historical)
  • Legacy Proxy Servers

More comparisons

AVIF vs ACES → AZV vs ACES → AVIF vs APNG → AZV vs APNG → AVIF vs AVCI → AZV vs AVCI → AVIF vs AVCS → AZV vs AVCS → All comparisons →
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