O plikach XCF

XCF (GIMP Image · Format obrazu)

Rok wydania 1995 Twórca: Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis (GIMP)

GIMP Image (.xcf) to standardowy format plików obsługiwany przez KaijuConverter do wymiany danych, archiwizacji i szybkiej konwersji wieloplatformowej.

Kategoria

Raster & Vector Images

Rozszerzenie

.xcf

Typ MIME

image/x-xcf

Dostępny jako

Wejście

Historia powstania

JAK FORMAT XCF
POWSTAŁ.

1995

1996

XCF — eXperimental Computing Facility — was named after the UC Berkeley lab where Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis were graduate students in 1995 when they wrote the first version of GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). XCF is GIMP’s native save format: it preserves every layer, mask, channel, path, guide, and GIMP-specific feature (like paths with B-spline control points) that the app knows about.

Like PSD for Photoshop, XCF is the master format for serious GIMP work — export to PNG/JPEG for delivery, but save to XCF if you ever want to edit again. The format has evolved carefully with each GIMP release but retains backward compatibility to the first version. A 1996 XCF still opens in GIMP 3.0.

CIEKAWOSTKI I
FAKTY.

XCF is named after UC Berkeley's "eXperimental Computing Facility" where GIMP's original authors worked as grad students.

The format predates Photoshop's layered PSD file by only 1 year — both formats converged on similar ideas independently.

Photoshop cannot open XCF natively — file exchange between the two apps always goes through PSD or PNG.

An XCF file can be gzip-compressed (.xcf.gz) or bzip2-compressed (.xcf.bz2) and GIMP opens either transparently.

GIMP 3.0 (2025) finally added 32-bit float precision XCFs — catching up to Photoshop's 2005-era capability.

ZALETY I
OGRANICZENIA.

Zalety

Native GIMP format — full fidelity for every tool and feature.
Open, documented spec.
Supports layers, channels, paths, masks, guides, selections.
Gzip-compressed variant keeps files compact.
Backward-compatible since 1995.

Ograniczenia

Limited ecosystem — Photoshop, Illustrator, and browsers don't open XCF.
No native CMYK support (a longstanding GIMP limitation).
32-bit precision only since GIMP 3.0 (2025).
Export to PNG/JPEG/PSD is mandatory for client delivery.

Typowe rozmiary i waga plików

Simple 2-layer edit

500 KB - 3 MB

Website mockup with 20 layers

10-50 MB

High-res photo composite

100-400 MB

Specyfikacja techniczna

MIME type: image/x-xcf
Extensions: .xcf, .xcf.gz, .xcf.bz2
Native to: GIMP
Bit depths: 8, 16, 32-bit per channel (since GIMP 2.10 / 3.0)
Color modes: RGB, Grayscale, Indexed

KONWERTUJ Z
XCF

xcf jpg xcf png xcf webp xcf avif xcf gif xcf bmp xcf tiff xcf ico xcf pdf

Typowe zastosowania

Image editing with GIMP