We Need AVIF in Blender! Please!!

My problem

I am looking at our options for final output image options in Blender, and I am upset. We have PNG, JPEG, and WebP. I would call these "okay" but they are really dated.

The many advantages of AVIF

I recently discovered the AVIF image format, based on the AV1 video codec. It is outstanding! It is basically the best of WebP, PNG, and JPEG, but better! The image container supports 3 different chroma sampling modes: RGB, YUV444, and YUV420. YUV420 (chroma quartered) is the standard output, and offers excellent compression efficiency with very minor artifacting at high compression ratios. YUV444 (full chroma) offers crystal clear compressed images with basically no artifacting. RGB doesn't convert the RGB to chroma, and is great for scientific or high-end professional photography/rendering purposes. What's more? Open Image IO already supports it!

AVIF also has outstanding compression efficiency. It offers both lossless and lossy options, something which gives it a massive edge compared to something like JPEG or PNG on their own. Its lossless algorithm is actually better than PNG, which allows even lossless images to take up less disk space and network bandwidth with identical quality. Its lossy algorithm uses significantly less disk space than JPEG, while producing a much better image, with barely noticeable artifacting. Its compression algorithm is informed by decades of compression technology research, and is based on optimizing the data for human perception. Very fascinating! Guess what? Open Image IO already supports it!!

Here's another crucial detail: AVIF supports 8-bit, 10-bit, and 12-bit color encoding, making it a great candidate for SDR and HDR content. It natively supports HDR encoding, which would be huge for us!

Also, this image format is natively supported in all modern web browsers and operating systems. It's been supported by Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, for years. This universal compatibility and extremely efficient compression makes it a prime candidate for digital publishing, it's basically the perfect format to use for publishing your art online as the smaller file sizes save bandwidth while delivering richer and more beautiful art.

And the cherries on top? This image format natively supports alpha channel transparency just like PNG, and the container also supports animation. You can use AVIF to effectively make very efficient GIFs which can loop, and look so much better!

Oh, and this is a royalty-free open source image format. As a bonus, I could see native support for this format coming in handy for artists. If it were used for textures, for example, it could significantly cut GPU memory usage without a perceptible loss of quality! It is just a super efficient format! Also, you can have as many layers as you want with the file format, so it could be used to add additional layers from the compositor just like a super efficient EXR!

I personally would love love love to have AVIF support in Blender, even if it was just as a final output option. I would be just as pumped to hear about AVIF support as I would be to discover that Blender somehow made Cycles 200% more efficient, or fixed nested refraction math!!

Today, you can use Gimp 3 or Krita (both are free and open source software) to export as AVIF and play around with the format. If you're like me, you will be blown away by the efficiency and quality of this format! I guess there's also a Photoshop plugin because somehow Gimp of all softwares beat them to the punch?

Here's an example (3840x2160)

As you can see, for the same space which gives us a very grainy 8-bit (50% quality) JPEG image with no transparency support and visible artifacting, we can get a 12-bit AVIF with 76% quality! There is simply no comparison!

Also worth noting, The 8-bit lossless AVIF is only 58% of the size of the PNG! They have the exact same quality, but AVIF is significantly more efficient.

Lossy 12-bit AVIF 90% Quality (1 MB)	Lossless 12-bit AVIF (15.5 MB)

Yes, your browser is displaying two AVIF images side-by-side. I was able to upload it here by changing the file extension to ".jpeg" because Blender Community doesn't support uploading a .avif extension, but also doesn't validate the file header.

As you can see, you can get stunning results, with this 4K 12-bit image only taking a mere 1 MB of disk space!! It stands up well in my opinion to its lossless counterpart!

TL;DR

AVIF is an outstanding modern image standard and has the potential to revolutionize the way we store and transmit data. Being royalty-free, it is the perfect choice for inclusion in Blender as a new and preferred way to export and maybe even share our final renders!