Sif Format

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A .sif file is the XML representation of a canvas. It holds the canvas's metadata, such as width and height, as well as information about its layers. Typically, a Synfig production comprises many .sif files joined in a sequence or nested within each other.

The .sif format is formidably complex and evolving. It is implementation-defined rather than spec-defined. Therefore, you should take everything on this page with a grain of salt. Indeed, the implementation can change at any point.

There are no plans to freeze the format.

Source code

The .sif format is implemented by the following file:

https://github.com/synfig/synfig/blob/master/synfig-core/src/synfig/loadcanvas.cpp

The format as of January 2016

The top-level element of a .sif file is always a "<canvas>".

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<canvas version="0.1" width="300" height="350" xres="2952.7559"
        yres="2952.7559" view-box="-1.5 2.5 1.5 -1" antialias="2"
        fps="12" begin-time="0f" end-time="0f" bgcolor="0.5 0.5 0.5 1">
    ...
</canvas>

Attribute	Value
version	0.1, always
width	the width of the canvas in pixels
height	the height of the canvas in pixels
xres	the width of the canvas in Synfig's own units (?)
yres	the height of the canvas in Synfig's own units (?)
view-box	the bounding coordinates of the canvas (Xmin Ymin Xmax Ymax)
antialias	how hard Synfig should try to antialias the image
fps	frames per second
begin-time	what frame rendering should start at
end-time	what frame rendering should end at
bgcolor	the color of the background

Language:

English