OVERVIEW OF CIFs AND CBF AND THE

CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC COMMUNITY

CIF is the "CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FILE" which is the standard ASCII file format used by the IUCr for exchange and archiving of crystallographic data.

COMCIFS is the IUCr committee to maintain and develop the CIF standard and CIF implementations.

coreCIF was the first CIF ``dictionary'' and was concerned with small molecule crystallography.

mmCIF is a dictionary of data items for macromolecular crystallography.

pdCIF is a dictionary of data items specific to powder diffraction.

CBF is a proposed binary format to support efficient storage of large datasets.

imgCIF is a proposed CIF dictionary of data items specific to describing binary multi-dimensional array (image) data.

diffuseCIF: is a proposed dictionary for diffuse scattering.

The imgCIF / CBF group, and COMCIFS are working closely together.

[CIF is copyrighted by the IUCr to protect the usage of the format for the whole community whilst allowing free usage. See the IUCr official statement of policy on the use of CIF/STAR.]