What AVIF is and why it keeps turning up
AVIF is a still-image format built on the AV1 video codec and published by the Alliance for Open Media in 2019. Its selling point is efficiency: at similar visual quality, an AVIF is usually smaller than the same picture saved as WebP or JPEG. That’s why image CDNs and large websites increasingly serve AVIF to browsers that can display it — Chrome 85 and later, Firefox 93 and later, and Safari 16 and later.
So you now meet AVIF where you didn’t ask for it: save an image from a web page and it may arrive as .avif, and some apps and websites export images in AVIF too. It looks fine in a modern browser; the trouble starts when you use the file somewhere else.
Where AVIF still hits a wall
Support outside browsers is growing but uneven. Older versions of Windows and macOS apps, image editors, print services and many upload forms don’t recognize AVIF or reject it outright. Practically everything accepts JPG.
| Feature | AVIF | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Opens in older apps and upload forms | Often not | Almost always |
| File size at similar quality | Usually smaller | Larger |
| Transparency | Supported | Not supported (filled with white here) |
| Bits per color channel | 8, 10 or 12 | 8 in practically all software |
| Dynamic range | SDR or HDR | Standard (SDR) as produced here |
Convert AVIF to JPG in four quick steps
- Add the AVIF files. Drag them onto the converter above, drop a folder (subfolders included), or paste from the clipboard. A batch holds up to 500 files.
- Set the JPG quality. The slider goes from 50 to 100; 92 is the default.
- Decide on size. Keep the original dimensions, or cap the long edge at 4096, 2560, 1920 or 1280 px.
- Download. Save files individually or choose “Download all (ZIP).”
hero-image.avifbecomeshero-image.jpg, and clashing names get “ (2)”.
Picking a quality setting for AVIF sources
Nearly every AVIF online is lossy, so this is a lossy-to-lossy conversion: the JPG encoder compresses an already-compressed image again, and the slider sets how aggressive that second pass is.
The default of 92 keeps the JPG visually very close to the AVIF and suits printing, sharing and most uploads. Move toward 75–85 when a form caps the file size, and check sharp edges and small text, where artifacts show first. Settings near 100 only make the file bigger — detail the AVIF encoder threw away is gone for good.
Expect the JPG to be noticeably larger than the AVIF: JPG simply needs more bytes to hold the same picture. If size is a problem, resizing to 1920 or 1280 px on the long edge usually helps more than cutting quality hard.
10-bit and HDR AVIF become standard 8-bit JPGs
AVIF can store 10 or 12 bits per color channel and high dynamic range (HDR) brightness. The JPG produced here is standard 8-bit and standard dynamic range. When you convert an HDR or high-bit-depth AVIF:
- the extra brightness range is not carried over — the image is mapped down to standard dynamic range;
- precision drops to 8 bits per channel, so very smooth gradients can show faint banding;
- exactly how the brightest highlights are mapped depends on your browser’s decoder, so an HDR image may look flatter than it did on an HDR display.
Ordinary SDR images are unaffected. If you need the HDR version, keep the original AVIF alongside the JPG.
Transparency, animation and metadata: the fine print
- Transparent areas turn white. AVIF supports transparency; JPG doesn’t. Transparent backgrounds are filled with white and soft edges are blended onto it. Use AVIF to PNG to keep the transparency.
- Animated AVIF gives a single still. You get one frame as a JPG, not the animation.
- EXIF is kept if present. Photo info such as date taken, camera, exposure or GPS location is copied into the JPG by default, with the orientation tag reset to normal. You can remove just the GPS location, or untick “Keep photo info” to drop it all.
- Colors are converted to sRGB by the browser’s decoder, which is the color space JPG viewers assume.
When to leave the AVIF alone
If the destination accepts AVIF, upload the original: it’s smaller and skips a round of compression. Skip JPG if you need transparency (choose PNG), the HDR look or the animation. Batches above 500 files need several runs, and the converter needs a recent Chrome, Edge or Firefox, or Safari 16.4+ on Mac, iPhone or iPad. To put several AVIF images in one document, JPG to PDF accepts AVIF directly.
Local conversion with your browser’s own AVIF decoder
pd00 reads AVIF with the decoder already built into your browser, so there’s nothing extra to download for these files. Current versions of Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and Safari 16.4 or later, all ship one. If you are on an older browser that can’t read AVIF, the file is marked as failed with a note asking you to update, rather than producing a broken image.
Your files are never uploaded. The page’s Content-Security-Policy only lets it talk to pd00.com and to Cloudflare’s cookieless page-view counter, which never receives image data; the browser refuses every other destination. You can verify this yourself in DevTools → Network using the steps on the privacy page, and once everything has loaded you can disconnect from the internet and keep converting.