NIFF

NIFF is the first standard code for musical notation. NIFF is based on RIFF.

A minor revision,NIFF 6b, is available as of June, 2002. This revision is provided by Jeff Thompson, author of Niffty.

The History of NIFF

The NIFF (Notation Interchange File Format) was completed in the fall of 1995. This is a standard digital format for the representation of standard musical notation. The format is very flexible, allowing for simple implementations with minimal graphical information, or much more elaborate descriptions including all aspects of page layout, associated midi data, custom symbols, etc.

Sponsored by Passport Designs, Mark of the Unicorn, Musicware, Opcode Systems, and Cakewalk Music Software, the format was designed as a cooperative effort. The members of the team which developed NIFF are listed below. Please note that some of the affiliations listed have changed since NIFF was written.

• Dave Abrahams, Mark of the Unicorn
• Gary Barber, Musicware
• Raymond Bily, Midisoft Corporation
• Mike Brockman, Musicware
• Mark Burton, Blue Ribbon Software
• Don Byrd, Advanced Music Notation Systems, Musicware
• Cakewalk Music Software
• Nicholas Carter, University of Surrey
• John Cerullo, Hal Leonard Corporation
• Daniel Dorff, Theodore Presser
• John Forbes, Boosey & Hawkes
• Tom Hall, A-R Editions
• William Holab, G. Schirmer
• Wladek Homenda, Musitek
• Tom Johns, Hal Leonard Corporation
• Paul Keister, Passport Designs
• Steve Keller
• Dave Kusek
• Lowell Levinger, Passport Designs
• Bill McCann, Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology
• Severo Ornstein, Woodside, California
• Mike Ost, Passport Designs
• Norman Reid, San Francisco, California
• Robert Schuneman, E. C. Schirmer
• Dave Scoggin, Opcode Systems
• Leland Smith, San Andreas Press
• Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities
• Mark Walsen, Notation Software, Inc.
• Don Williams, Opcode Systems

Technical Coordinator: Cindy Grande, Grande Software

Administrative Coordinator: Chris Newell, Musitek

Special Advisor: Alan Belkin, University of Montreal

The NIFF SDK Archive

NIFF is not maintained any more. The NIFF SDK Archive is presented as a mature work for educational usage.

The NIFF SDK is complete. It is a free, public domain, platform independent Software Developer's Kit for software developers implementing NIFF. It is a collection of software libraries and tools to support reading, writing, and navigating NIFF files. Documentation, sample code, and a simple NIFF file is included. The NIFF SDK makes it possible for a software developer to add NIFF reading and writing capabilities to an existing program without writing the housekeeping functions that would otherwise be required. The software is supplied in source code format in the C programming language.

NIFF Downloads

The following documents are available for download here:

• EX1BACH.ZIP
• EX2POP.ZIP
• EX3AORCH.ZIP
• EX3BORCH.ZIP
• EX4THEOR.ZIP
• EX5APIAN.ZIP
• EX5BPIAN.ZIP
• EX6AORNS.ZIP
• EX6BOR.ZIP
• EX6COR.ZIP
• FILEWALK.ZIP
• NIFF6b.html
• NIFF6b-changes.txt
• NIFF6b-todo.txt
• niff.h
• MS_NIFF.zip
• niffsdk.txt
• niffsdk-1.02.tar
• niffsdk1.02.sit.hqx
• NIFFspec.egs.jpg
• NIFFDUM.README.TXT
• NIFFDUM2.C
• NIFFDUM.CALLBACK.C

N.B.: Information about these files:

• The files beginning with "EX" are TIFF (a standard graphics format) formatted music example files to be used by NIFF developers.
• "FILEWALK.ZIP" is a Microsoft utility for browsing RIFF files. It parses the STRUCTURE of a RIFF file. Because NIFF uses tags instead of nested lists, it is of limited utility.
• "NIFF 6x.x" is the current version of the specification itself, in html format. The document "NIFFspec.egs.jpg" contains the musical examples in the NIFF spec, since some versions of Word have difficulty displaying these images.
• "NIFF6x.xchanges.txt" details all the latest changes made to the spec since v.6a.
• "niff.h" is a C header file.
• "MS_NIFF.ZIP" contains some examples of NIFF files written by Midiscan.
• The files containing "niffsdk" refer to the NIFF software development kit.
• The files containing "NIFFDUM" provide an updated version of the NIFFDUMPER UTILITY. See "NIFFDUM.README.TXT".

For those who implement a NIFF importer: There is a flaw in some example files of the NIFF SDK. There are 7 undefined shapes in rests with the length 3/16 in AFTER.NIF, 3 in WAYITIS.NIF and 1 in MANDOL.NIF. Thanks to Cris Sion of Sionsoft for confirming this.

See also the NIFF SDK User's Guide

Programs exporting NIFF: SmartScore Professional Edition - Precision music scanning & world-class scoring. Windows, Mac OS X SmartScore Professional Edition - Precision music scanning & world-class scoring. imports ExtendedNotationFormat SmartScore Songbook Edition - Limit: 3 staves Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 SmartScore Songbook Edition - Limit: 3 staves imports ExtendedNotationFormat SmartScore Piano Edition - Limits: 2 staves / no text or lyrics / no TAB or percussion. Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 SmartScore Piano Edition - Limits: 2 staves / no text or lyrics / no TAB or percussion. imports ExtendedNotationFormat SmartScore Guitar Edition - Limits: 1 staff / No text or lyrics / no TAB or percussion. Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 SmartScore Guitar Edition - Limits: 1 staff / No text or lyrics / no TAB or percussion. imports ExtendedNotationFormat PhotoScore Ultimate Windows, MacOS X PhotoScore Ultimate imports PhotoScoreFormat AudioScore - music to score and music notation Windows AudioScore - music to score and music notation imports PhotoScoreFormat visiv SharpEye Music Reader Windows, RISC OS visiv SharpEye Music Reader imports Liszt Lime Music Notation Software Windows, Mac OS 7 through 9.x, Mac OS X Lime Music Notation Software imports MusicXML, Tilia, NIFF, MIDI Neume - Software For Music Education Python, Linux, Mac OS X Neume - Software For Music Education imports NIFF DixShtix - Java Music Library Java DixShtix - Java Music Library imports NIFF, SMDL, MIDI Vivaldi Scan - Music OCR Software Windows Programs importing NIFF: Sibelius - music notation software Windows, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X Sibelius - music notation software exports SibeliusFormat Lime Music Notation Software Windows, Mac OS 7 through 9.x, Mac OS X Lime Music Notation Software exports MusicXML, Tilia, NIFF, MIDI Neume - Software For Music Education Python, Linux, Mac OS X Neume - Software For Music Education exports NIFF DixShtix - Java Music Library Java DixShtix - Java Music Library exports NIFF, SMDL, MIDI Personal Composer - music notation, MIDI, sequencing Windows Personal Composer - music notation, MIDI, sequencing exports MIDI Mozart - music notation software Windows Mozart - music notation software exports MIDI QuickScore Elite - Music Composition and Notation Software Windows QuickScore Elite - Music Composition and Notation Software exports MusicXML, GUIDO, QuickScoreEliteFormat, CopyistFormat, MusicWriteFormat, WAV, MP3 TablEdit - Tablatures editor and standard notation editor Win16, Win32 TablEdit - Tablatures editor and standard notation editor exports MusicXML, TablEditFormat, RMTF Igor engraver for music notation Mac OS 8.5 or later (not Mac OS X), Windows, Wine, LISP TaBazar - a notation program for fretted instruments (like guitar, bass, banjo or mandolin) and percussion Windows TaBazar - a notation program for fretted instruments (like guitar, bass, banjo or mandolin) and percussion exports MusicXML, RMTF Toccata Braille Music Transcription Program Windows Niffty - NIFF viewer Applet Java Applet Windows

Feedback (questions, suggestions, broken links): NIFF