HEIF files

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I am a little confused.

Weird! I get very different results, like a right-click on the HIF version not showing AP V2 as an 'open with' option but available (not greyed out) from File > Open.

[Old Bruce]

8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Weird! I get very different results, like a right-click on the HIF version not showing AP V2 as an 'open with' option but available (not greyed out) from File > Open.

Must be down to our having different OSes for our Macs.

[Chills]

12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Same question I asked Malcolm: how specifically are you trying to open the file when it has the .HIF extension?

For example did you try dragging it into an empty workspace window? If so, what happens?

I can drag and drop it as an hif file into Photo and it opens,  To open it by "file->open"  or "file->place"  I have to rename it to .heic

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Must be down to our having different OSes for our Macs.

Maybe so, but it is weird that it is so different for them. FWIW, with the .HIF extension what does 'Get Info' on your Mac show for the file kind? For me it just says "Canon HDR document."

5 minutes ago, Chills said:

I can drag and drop it as an hif file into Photo and it opens,  To open it by "file->open"  or "file->place"  I have to rename it to .heic

Good to know. So it will open for you with at least one method but not via the expected File menu choices. It still is unclear why it will not open for @Malcolm Tinn even if renamed with the .HEIF extension.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

... FWIW, with the .HIF extension what does 'Get Info' on your Mac show for the file kind? For me it just says "Canon HDR document."...

.HIF Kind: HEIF Image, the same as the .HEIF duplicated and renamed file extension file. The get info windows are identical with the exception of the E which I added in the file extension.

[R C-R]

39 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

.HIF Kind: HEIF Image, the same as the .HEIF duplicated and renamed file extension file. The get info windows are identical with the exception of the E which I added in the file extension.

So I guess this is something to do with our different OS versions ... but it still does not explain all the differences like you not being able to open the HEIF version from the File > Open menu. That should work!

[DennisL]

Hello! Still having this issue even with 2.6, of hif not showing affinity photo in open with menu, and with the windows store/msix version I can't find the executable either.

Saw this stackexchange question https://superuser.com/questions/1071323/cannot-set-a-windows-10-store-app-as-default-program-to-open-a-file and added new string value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\Repository\Packages\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_206.3.3322.0_x64__844sdzfcmm7k0\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2\Capabilities\FileAssociations, name .hif, copied value from .heic, and now it show in the open with menu.

Request: is it possible to have affinity photo generate thumbnails for hif photos to show them in windows explorer?

[Komatös]

On 6/8/2025 at 10:58 AM, DennisL said:

is it possible to have affinity photo generate thumbnails

Windows is responsible for creating thumbnail previews and requires so-called preview handlers. For .heif/.heic, there is a free extension for this in the Windows Store.

[DennisL]

On 6/10/2025 at 12:27 AM, Komatös said:

Windows is responsible for creating thumbnail previews and requires so-called preview handlers. For .heif/.heic, there is a free extension for this in the Windows Store.

The official windows ones seem to not work with the HDR PQ hif from the R5 mk ii, heard those are 10-bit. The extension is 99 cents too. 

Is there another one you are referring to?

[mopperle]

You also need to install the HEVC Video extension from the Microsoft Store.

[NotMyFault]

The heif support on Windows 10/11 is totally broken. The 1€ extensions for images and video don’t help. Heif is a container format covering many complications like multiple bit depth, transfer function (gamma, log, PQ) sdr/hdr,  non color channels etc and only an unspecified subset is supported on Windows.  All information on web and AI engines is outdated and mostly wrong. 
 

If you have folders with many images, the thumbnail generation by windows takes ages (several seconds per file) as it using only 1 of 24 cores and no GPU. 
I stopped using my Windows PC for heif images (which are gorgeous from EOS R6II and allow strong editing while beeng only 1/2 size of crappy jpeg)