Editing XCF (file format) (section)

{{Short description|File format}}
{{multiple issues|
{{original research |date=September 2013}}
{{more citations needed |date=September 2013}}
}}

{{infobox file format
| name = XCF
| icon = File:Wilber GIMP.exe file Windows.png
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| extension = .xcf
| mime = image/x-xcf
| type code =
| uniform type =
| magic = {{param value|gimp xcf }}
| owner = [[GIMP]]
| type =
| container for = Graphics
| contained by =
| extended from =
| extended to =
| standard =
| open = yes, but standard is ''ad hoc''
}}

'''XCF''', short for ''[[eXperimental Computing Facility]]'',<ref>
{{cite web
|quote=The name XCF honors GIMP's origin at the [[eXperimental Computing Facility]] of the University of California at Berkeley.
|url=http://henning.makholm.net/xcftools/xcfspec-saved
|title=Partial Specification of the XCF File Format
|date=2006-07-11
|access-date=2014-05-21
}}
</ref> is the native image format of the [[GIMP]] image-editing program. It saves all of the data the program handles related to the image, including, among others, each [[layers (digital image editing)|layer]], the current selection, channels, transparency, paths and guides.

Prior to version 4 (GIMP 2.10.0, released on 2018-04-27), the saved image data are compressed only by a simple [[run-length encoding|RLE]] algorithm, but GIMP supports compressed files, using [[gzip]], [[bzip2]], or [[XZ Utils|xz]]. The compressed files can be opened as normal image files. Since version 4, the image data can be compressed by [[zlib]] instead.

The XCF file format is [[backward compatible]] (all versions of GIMP can open earlier versions' files) and in some cases, [[forward compatible]]. For example, GIMP 2.0 can save text in text layers while GIMP 1.2 cannot. Text layers saved in GIMP 2.0 will open as ordinary image layers in GIMP 1.2. However, XCF files containing layer groups, a feature introduced in GIMP 2.7, cannot be opened with GIMP 2.6.

Despite some use in other programs<ref name="seashore">
{{cite web
|url=http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html
|title=About
|access-date=2015-01-03
|website=Seashore
}}
</ref><ref name="inkscape">
{{cite web
|quote=The new XCF output extension exports all top-level elements (i.e. layers and objects directly under root) as PNGs and assembles them into an XCF for processing in GIMP.
|url=https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-0.44
|title=Inkscape 0.44 Release Notes
}}
</ref><ref name="irfanview">
{{cite web
|url=http://www.irfanview.com/main_formats.htm
|title=IrfanView formats
|access-date=1 March 2014
|website=Irfanview.com
}}
</ref><ref name="mediawiki">
{{cite web
|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:File_types#XCF
|title=Commons:File types - Wikimedia Commons
|website=commons.wikimedia.org
|publisher=Wikimedia Commons
|access-date=23 June 2020
}}
</ref><ref name="sdl">
{{cite web
|url=http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL_image/file/887b1e03cad1/IMG_xcf.c
|title=Source code for SDL's XCF Loader
|website=hg.libsdl.org
|language=en-US
|access-date=2018-06-09
}}
</ref> (see [[#Software support|§software support]]), the use of XCF as a [[data exchange|data interchange]] format is not recommended by the developers of GIMP,
<ref>
{{cite mailing list
|url=https://marc.info/?l=gimp-developer&m=100852164010776&w=2
|title=Re: XCF support added to ImageMagick
|mailing-list=gimp-developer
|first=Sven
|last=Neumann
|date=2001-12-16
}}
</ref>
since the format reflects GIMP's internal data structures and there may be minor format changes in future versions. Instead, a collaborative effort between the developers of GIMP and [[Krita]] is underway to design a standardised raster file format called [[OpenRaster]] (modelled on the [[OpenDocument]] format) for future use in both applications, and likely in others also.

GIMP's ''Save'' dialog saves in the XCF format: starting with version 2.8, other formats with import/export support were moved to an ''Export'' dialog.