FF file format: what it is and how to use it

farbfeld is the deliberately simplest image format ever specified: a magic string, dimensions and raw 16-bit RGBA pixels, designed for Unix pipes. Learn when to use it and what to choose instead.

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What is a FF file?

A .ff file is an image in farbfeld, the minimalism-as-statement format from suckless.org: the magic farbfeld, 32-bit big-endian width and height, then uncompressed 16-bit RGBA pixels. That is the entire specification, no compression, no options, no palette. It exists so that any language can read or write an image in a dozen lines.

When should you use farbfeld?

  • Shell pipelines: pipe PNG → ff → awk/sed transforms → JPG with zero parsing work.
  • Teaching and experiments: an image format a student can implement in minutes.
  • Lossless intermediates: exact 16-bit-per-channel pixel data between processing steps.

When is another format a better fit?

For anything stored or shared, PNG compresses the same data a fraction of the size; QOI keeps the simplicity with real compression. PAM/PNM offer similar rawness with wider tool support. farbfeld is a Unix philosophy object, not a distribution format.

The short version: FF is the image format stripped to its essence: perfect for pipes and learning, but wrong for storage.

How to open a FF file

In your browser

Open FF files right in a browser tab or with the dexrr viewer. No install, no upload.

Also opens in

  • suckless tools (2ff)
  • FFmpeg
  • ImageMagick

View or convert FF files

A quick preview or a new format. No install, no upload.

View FF files Preview and inspect FF files Convert to FF Turn files into FF FF to PAM Portable Arbitrary Map FF to QOI Quite OK Image FF to PNG Portable Network Graphics

FF technical details

Full name
Farbfeld image
Extensions
.ff
MIME type
image/x-farbfeld
Magic bytes
66 61 72 62 66 65 6C 64 (farbfeld)
Compression
None (uncompressed)
Developer
suckless.org
Specification
tools.suckless.org

FF questions, answered

How do I open a .ff file?

The lel viewer, ImageMagick, FFmpeg and Netpbm-adjacent tools read it; OS viewers do not. dexrr displays and converts ff files directly in your browser.

Can I convert FF files online?

Yes, dexrr converts ff locally in your browser: FF to PNG or FF to JPG in seconds.

Is FF better than PNG?

For parsing simplicity, absolutely, that is its entire point. For storage or delivery, PNG wins by an order of magnitude in size.

Why is my .ff file so large?

It stores every pixel as 16-bit RGBA uncompressed, roughly 8 bytes per pixel. It is designed for pipes, not persistence.

Is the FF format outdated?

It was born timeless on purpose, a design statement rather than a competitor, living in suckless tooling and scripts.