Free webp to jpg
FLIF

Free Lossless Image Format

image/flif Released 2015 · by Jon Sneyers and Pieter Wuille (Cloudinary)

The Free Lossless Image Format (FLIF) is a novel, open-source lossless image format created in 2015. Utilizing MANIAC (Meta-Adaptive Near-zero Integer Arithmetic Coding), FLIF consistently outperformed PNG, lossless WebP, and lossless BPG in compression ratios. It is especially famous for its responsive progressive decoding, allowing an image to be viewed in low quality after downloading only a tiny fraction of the file. Despite its technical brilliance, FLIF development was officially halted in 2020 as its core concepts and developers transitioned to creating the new JPEG XL standard.

Legacy & Archival Transparency Animation Progressive ✦ HDR Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type
image/flif
Extensions
.flif
Container
FLIF Bitstream
Compression
Lossless (MANIAC Entropy Coding)
Algorithms
MANIAC (Meta-Adaptive Near-zero Integer Arithmetic Coding)
Color Depth
1-bit to 16-bit (Per Channel), Grayscale, RGB, RGBA, CMYK
Metadata
EXIF XMP ICC
Capabilities
Transparency
Animation
Progressive Loading
Alpha Channel
HDR Support
Official Specification
Aliases: image/x-flif

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)
46 4C 49 46
ASCII: FLIF
HTTP Headers
Content-Type: image/flif
HTML Accept Attribute
accept="image/flif, .flif"

Browser Support Matrix

Browser Status Min Version
Chrome Chrome
Not Supported
Firefox Firefox
Not Supported
Safari Safari
Not Supported
Edge Edge
Not Supported
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer
Not Supported Legacy

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages
  • Achieves some of the highest lossless compression ratios ever developed for raster images
  • Incredible progressive decoding allows an image to be highly recognizable even after only 5% of the file has been downloaded
  • Supports animations and complex alpha channels losslessly
Limitations
  • Officially abandoned in favor of JPEG XL
  • Zero native support in web browsers or standard operating system previewers
  • Encoding speed can be significantly slower than standard PNG or WebP compression

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
# Libmagic will identify FLIF files via their magic byte header
print(magic.from_file('archive.flif', mime=True)) # Outputs 'image/flif'
const FileType = require('file-type');
const type = await FileType.fromFile('archive.flif');
console.log(type?.mime); // Outputs 'image/flif'
import (
    "bytes"
    "net/http"
)
// Standard http.DetectContentType will not recognize FLIF and returns application/octet-stream.
// Custom detection:
// isFLIF := bytes.HasPrefix(buf, []byte("FLIF"))
$mime = mime_content_type('archive.flif');
echo $mime; // Standard setups may output 'application/octet-stream' depending on the server's magic database

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/flif file by reading its raw bytes:

  1. 1 Check the first 4 bytes for the ASCII string 'FLIF' (Hex: 46 4C 49 46)
  2. 2 The 5th byte indicates the color format and depth (e.g., Grayscale vs RGBA)

Software Support

ImageMagick ImageMagick
E
ExifTool
X
XnView
F
FLIF Reference Codec (UGUI)

Conversion Tools

Share & Embed

Markdown Badge
FLIF Format Badge
[![FLIF Format](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/flif/badge.svg)](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/flif)
Interactive iframe Widget
<iframe src="https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/flif/embed" width="100%" height="280" style="border:1px solid #cbd5e1;border-radius:8px;" title="FLIF Specs"></iframe>

JSON API

All data on this page is available as a free, open JSON API. Use it in your project, documentation, or tooling.

GET https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/flif.json Open JSON
Free to use
No auth required
CORS enabled
Use from any domain
Cached 24h
Cache-Control headers set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between FLIF and PNG?

FLIF offers significantly better lossless compression than PNG (often 30-50% smaller) and features an advanced progressive decoding method that makes images look recognizable almost instantly over slow connections. However, PNG is universally supported, whereas FLIF has been deprecated and lacks web browser support.

Why was the FLIF format discontinued?

FLIF was discontinued because its lead developers joined the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) committee to help design a new, next-generation universal format: JPEG XL (.jxl). JPEG XL incorporates the best parts of FLIF (like the responsive progressive loading) while adding lossy compression and broader industry support.

Can I use FLIF files on a website?

No modern web browsers natively support FLIF. While JavaScript/WebAssembly polyfills exist (like poly-flif), they are computationally expensive. Developers should use WebP, AVIF, or JPEG XL instead.

Related Formats

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