libheif

libheif is an ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 HEIF file format decoder and encoder.

HEIF is a new image file format employing HEVC (h.265) image coding for the best compression ratios currently possible.

libheif makes use of libde265 for the actual image decoding and x265 for encoding. Alternative codecs for, e.g., AVC and JPEG can be provided as plugins.

Supported features

libheif has support for decoding

tiled images
alpha channels
thumbnails
reading EXIF data
reading the depth channel
multiple images in a HEIF file
image transformations (crop, mirror, rotate)
overlay images
plugin interface to add decoders for additional formats (AVC, JPEG)

The encoder supports:

lossy compression with adjustable quality
lossless compression
alpha channels

API

The library has a C API for easy integration and wide language support. Note that the API is still work in progress and may still change.

Loading the primary image in a HEIF file is as easy as this:

heif_context* ctx = heif_context_alloc();
heif_context_read_from_file(ctx, input_filename, nullptr);

// get a handle to the primary image
heif_image_handle* handle;
heif_context_get_primary_image_handle(ctx, &handle);

// decode the image and convert colorspace to RGB, saved as 24bit interleaved
heif_image* img;
heif_decode_image(handle, &img, heif_colorspace_RGB, heif_chroma_interleaved_24bit, nullptr);

int stride;
const uint8_t* data = heif_pixel_image_get_plane_readonly(img, heif_channel_interleaved, &stride);

Writing an HEIF file can be done like this:

heif_context* ctx = heif_context_alloc();
heif_context_new_heic(ctx);

// get the default encoder
heif_encoder* encoder;
heif_context_get_encoder_for_format(ctx, heif_compression_HEVC, &encoder);

// set the encoder parameters
heif_encoder_set_lossy_quality(encoder, 50);

// encode the image
heif_image* image; // code to fill in the image omitted in this example
heif_context_encode_image(ctx, nullptr, image, encoder);

heif_encoder_release(encoder);

heif_context_write_to_file(context, "output.heic");

See the header file heif.h for the complete C API.

Compiling

This library uses a standard autoconf/automake build system. After downloading, run ./autogen.sh to build the configuration scripts, then call ./configure and make. Make sure that you compile and install libde265 first, so that the configuration script will find this. Preferably, download the frame-parallel branch of libde265, as this uses a more recent API than version in the master branch. Also install x265 and its development files if you want to use HEIF encoding.

Compiling to JavaScript

libheif can also be compiled to JavaScript using emscripten. See the build-emscripten.sh for further information.

Online demo

Check out this online demo. This is libheif running in JavaScript in your browser.

Example programs

Some example programs are provided in the examples directory. The program heif-convert converts all images stored in an HEIF file to JPEG or PNG. heif-enc lets you convert JPEG files to HEIF. The program heif-info is a simple, minimal decoder that dumps the file structure to the console.

There is also a GIMP plugin using libheif here.

HEIF thumbnails for the Gnome desktop

The program heif-thumbnailer can be used as a HEIF thumbnailer for the Gnome desktop. The matching Gnome configuration files are in the gnome directory. Place the file heif.xml into /usr/share/mime/packages and heif.thumbnailer into /usr/share/thumbnailers. You may have to run update-mime-database /usr/share/mime to update the list of known MIME types.

License

The libheif is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. The sample applications are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

See COPYING for more details.

Jehan / libheif