Crystallographic Information File (CIF) is a standard text file format for representing
crystallographic information, promulgated by the
International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). CIF was developed by the IUCr Working Party on Crystallographic Information in an effort sponsored by the IUCr Commission on Crystallographic Data and the IUCr Commission on Journals. The file format was initially published by Hall, Allen, and Brown[1] and has since been revised, most recently versions 1.1 and 2.0.[2] Full specifications for the format are available at the IUCr website. Many computer programs for molecular viewing are compatible with this format, including
Jmol.
Also closely related is Crystallographic Information Framework, a broader system of exchange protocols based on data dictionaries and relational rules expressible in different machine-readable manifestations, including, but not restricted to, Crystallographic Information File and
XML.