# strukturag/libheif

libheif is an HEIF and AVIF file format decoder and encoder.

Repository: https://github.com/strukturag/libheif
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libheif
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-26T20:18:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3177, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 6.5, "n_releases_24m": 21}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2302, forks 389 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:35.333824+00:00)

## What it is
libheif is a C++ library that decodes and encodes HEIF/HEIC and AVIF image files, plus HEIF containers using VVC, AVC, JPEG, and JPEG-2000 codecs. It supports advanced features like alpha channels, HDR, tiled images, image sequences, and metadata, with a plugin interface for alternative codecs.

## Use cases
- convert heic images to jpeg or png
- decode avif files in my application
- add heif image support to my image viewer
- encode images to avif format
- read exif metadata from heic photos
- handle hdr and alpha channel images in heif format
- extract thumbnails from heic files

## When to choose
- your application needs to read or write HEIC/HEIF or AVIF images
- you need broad HEIF feature support including sequences, tiled images, HDR, and metadata
- you want a codec-plugin architecture to keep dependencies minimal
- you are building a cross-platform image pipeline in C/C++

## When to avoid
- you only need a command-line converter and don't want to integrate a library
- you need a high-level API in a language other than C/C++ without bindings
- you require commercial support guarantees, as the project is maintained by a single independent developer with limited funding

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: image-processing, parser, sdk
- domain: image-processing, files, graphics
- platform: cpp, c, cross-platform, windows
- tags: heif, heic, avif, codec, image-decoder, image-encoder, iso-bmff, hdr, metadata, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- strukturag/libheif (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:35.333824+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:40:10.883547+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/strukturag/libheif (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:35.333824+00:00, sha ba890efa121e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.