This library aims to be a friendly, portable C implementation of the AV1 Image File Format, as described here:

https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-avif/

It can encode and decode all AV1 supported YUV formats and bit depths (with alpha).

It is recommended that you check out/use tagged releases instead of just using the main branch. We will regularly create new versions as bug fixes and features are added.

Please see the examples in the "examples" directory. If you're already building libavif, enable the CMake option AVIF_BUILD_EXAMPLES in order to build and run the examples too.

libavif is a package in most major OSs.

vcpkg install libavif

You can also download the official windows binaries on the release page.

Homebrew:

brew install libavif

MacPorts:

sudo port install libavif

Debian-based distributions:

sudo apt install libavif-dev

Red Hat-based distributions:

sudo yum -y install libavif

For the "default" MSYS2 UCRT64 environment:

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libavif

Building libavif requires CMake.

No AV1 codecs are enabled by default. Enable them by setting any of the following CMake options to LOCAL or SYSTEM whether you want to use a locally built or a system installed version (e.g. -DAVIF_CODEC_AOM=LOCAL):

• AVIF_CODEC_AOM for libaom (encoder and decoder)
• AVIF_CODEC_DAV1D for dav1d (decoder)
• AVIF_CODEC_LIBGAV1 for libgav1 (decoder)
• AVIF_CODEC_RAV1E for rav1e (encoder)
• AVIF_CODEC_SVT for SVT-AV1 (encoder)

When set to SYSTEM, these libraries (in their C API form) must be externally available (discoverable via CMake's FIND_LIBRARY) to use them, or if libavif is a child CMake project, the appropriate CMake target must already exist by the time libavif's CMake scripts are executed.

The ext/ subdirectory contains a handful of basic scripts which each pull down a known-good copy of an AV1 codec and make a local static library build. Most scripts require CMake, Ninja and NASM. dav1d uses Meson instead of CMake, and rav1e uses cargo (Rust). Check each library's documentation for an exact list of requirements.

If you want to statically link any codec into your local (static) build of libavif, building using one of these scripts and then setting the associated AVIF_CODEC_* to LOCAL is a convenient method, but you must make sure to disable BUILD_SHARED_LIBS in CMake to instruct it to make a static libavif library.

If you want to build/install shared libraries for AV1 codecs, you can still peek inside of each script to see where the current known-good SHA is for each codec.

A few tests written in C can be built by enabling the AVIF_BUILD_TESTS CMake option.

The remaining tests can be built by enabling the AVIF_BUILD_TESTS and AVIF_ENABLE_GTEST CMake options. They require GoogleTest to be built locally with ext/googletest.cmd or installed on the system.

The following instructions can be used to build the libavif library and the avifenc and avifdec tools.

To link against the already installed aom, libjpeg and libpng dependency libraries (recommended):

git clone -b v1.0.3 https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/libavif.git
cd libavif
cmake -S . -B build -DAVIF_CODEC_AOM=SYSTEM -DAVIF_BUILD_APPS=ON
cmake --build build --parallel

For development and debugging purposes, or to generate fully static binaries:

git clone -b v1.0.3 https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/libavif.git
cd libavif/ext
./aom.cmd
./libyuv.cmd
./libsharpyuv.cmd
./libjpeg.cmd
./zlibpng.cmd
cd ..
cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DAVIF_CODEC_AOM=LOCAL -DAVIF_LIBYUV=LOCAL -DAVIF_LIBSHARPYUV=LOCAL -DAVIF_JPEG=LOCAL -DAVIF_ZLIBPNG=LOCAL -DAVIF_BUILD_APPS=ON
cmake --build build --parallel

If you're building on Windows with Visual Studio 2022 and want to try out libavif without going through the build process, static library builds for both Debug and Release are available on AppVeyor.

Please check the wiki for extra resources on libavif, such as the Release Checklist.

The libavif library is written in C99. Most of the tests are written in C++14.

Use clang-format to format the C sources from the top-level folder (clang-format-16 preferred):

clang-format -style=file -i \
  apps/*.c apps/*/*.c apps/*/*.cc apps/*/*.h examples/*.c \
  include/avif/*.h src/*.c src/*.cc \
  tests/*.c tests/*/*.cc tests/*/*.h

Use cmake-format to format the CMakeLists.txt files from the top-level folder:

cmake-format -i \
  CMakeLists.txt \
  tests/CMakeLists.txt \
  cmake/Modules/Find*.cmake \
  contrib/CMakeLists.txt \
  contrib/gdk-pixbuf/CMakeLists.txt \
  android_jni/avifandroidjni/src/main/jni/CMakeLists.txt

Released under the BSD License.

Copyright 2019 Joe Drago. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.