advanced authoring format (file format) (AAF)

Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) describes the content of a multimedia file format. It supports cross- program and cross- platform exchange of multimedia content between different AAF-compatible authoring systems.

The AAF format itself recognizes a wide variety of audio and video file formats, as well as text and graphics file formats, and classifies their contents by type. It supports various programs by encapsulating the data units and designating their file formats. It also contains metadata that specifies the linkage of the documents. These are used, for example, in the playback of video and audio documents in order to insert the sound sequence at the correct image sequence.

The AAF format is designed to be flexible enough to incorporate future file formats.