still picture interchange file format (SPIFF)

The Still Picture Interchange File Format (SPIFF) is a simple exchange format for compressed image files between different applications. Data exchange between the various image formats and the SPIFF format is performed while retaining all functionalities and is extremely simple.

SPIFF is a generic format that has few of the features found in application-specific file formats. SPIFF files can contain data from black and white and color photographs and support various compression methods such as Modified Huffman Code (MHC), Modified Read Code( MRC), and JPEG. In addition to image data, SPIFF files contain image accompanying information for rendering with output devices. The image data can be compressed and uncompressed. The additional data can be one or more thumbnails from the image data.

The header of the SPIFF file may contain a profile identifier that specifies the application profile required to interpret the contents of the SPIFF file. The profile identifier is used to distinguish between simple and progressive encoding formats. This identifier allows a decoder to recognize the content without having to read the entire directory.