Editing FLAC (section)

{{Short description|Lossless digital audio coding format}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Flac|flak anti-aircraft fire|Anti-aircraft warfare}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}

{{Infobox software
| name = Free Lossless Audio Codec
| logo = FLAC logo vector.svg
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| developer = [[Xiph.Org Foundation]], Josh Coalson, Erik de Castro Lopo
| released = {{Start date and age|2001|07|20|df=yes}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
| operating_system = [[Cross-platform]]
| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]]
| genre = [[Codec]]<!--File format has a separate infobox-->
| license = Command-line tools: [[GNU GPL]]<br />Libraries: [[BSD licenses|BSD]]
| website = {{url|https://xiph.org/flac}}
}}
{{Infobox file format
| name          = Free Lossless Audio Codec
| icon          = 
| logo          = 
| extension     = .flac
| mime          = audio/flac
| type code     = 
| uniform type  = org.xiph.flac
| magic         = fLaC<ref>{{cite web |url=https://xiph.org/flac/format.html#stream |access-date=4 April 2013 |title=FLAC – format |first=Josh |last=Coalson |quote="fLaC", the FLAC stream marker in ASCII, meaning byte 0 of the stream is 0x66, followed by 0x4C 0x61 0x43 |publisher=[[Xiph.Org Foundation]]}}</ref>
| owner         = 
| type          = [[Lossless]] [[Audio file format|audio]]
| container for = 
| contained by  = 
| extended from = 
| extended to   = 
| standard      = {{IETF RFC|9639}}
| open          = Yes<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/en/ |title=PlayOgg! |website=Free Software Foundation |access-date=1 October 2013 |date=17 March 2010}}</ref>
| free          = Yes
}}

'''FLAC''' ({{IPAc-en|f|l|æ|k}}; '''Free Lossless Audio Codec''') is an [[audio coding format]] for [[lossless compression]] of [[digital audio]], developed by the [[Xiph.Org Foundation]], and is also the name of the [[free software]] project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software package that includes a [[codec]] implementation. Digital audio compressed by FLAC's [[algorithm]] can typically be reduced to between 50 and 70 percent of its original size<ref name="looking">{{cite web |url=https://hbfs.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/looking-at-flac-compression-ratios/ |title=Looking at Flac Compression Ratios |date=7 February 2012 |access-date=10 May 2018 |publisher=Steven Pigeon}}</ref> and decompresses to an identical copy of the original audio data.

FLAC is an [[open format]] with [[royalty-free]] licensing and a [[reference implementation]] which is [[free software]]. FLAC supports [[metadata]] tagging, [[album cover]] art, and fast seeking.