Extract text from CIF files
To convert your CIF file to another format, you need Mercury or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Structured Information Interchange" file type, you need software like Mercury or a similar tool.
The .CIF extension primarily serves two distinct but critical technical roles: the Crystallographic Information File and the Catalog Interchange Format. In scientific research, a CIF file acts as the standard container for describing crystal structures and diffraction data, maintained by the International Union of Crystallography. While these files are technically ASCII text, their rigid syntax and complex data blocks make them difficult to interpret without specialized visualization tools like Mercury or Olex2. Researchers often face friction when attempting to share these 3D structures with non-specialists or when preparing data for publication, as generic text editors cannot render the spatial geometry. For these workflows, converting to PDB (Protein Data Bank) or XYZ ensures compatibility with broader chemistry suites, while converting to PDF or PNG is essential for static reporting.
Alternatively, in the e-commerce and procurement sector, the Catalog Interchange Format is utilized by SAP Ariba to structure product catalogs. These files are essentially CSV-like flat files but contain proprietary headers and strict formatting rules that frequently trigger upload errors if modified manually. Users managing supplier data often struggle with the lack of native Excel support for maintaining the file's structural integrity. Converting these catalogs to XLSX or standard CSV allows for easier bulk editing of pricing and descriptions before converting back for system upload. Less commonly, a .CIF file may be a Caltech Intermediate Form file used in legacy VLSI circuit design, which often requires conversion to DXF or .GDSII for modern CAD interoperability, or an obsolete CD disk image from Roxio software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CIF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CIFF, GZ, TXT, PDF, BCIF, TIF, VESTA, ZIP, PDB, GIF, PNG, JPG and CIF_ files.
If you want to convert CIF file to PDB, MTZ, PDF, TXT, ISO, IMG, DMG, VHD, VMDK, VDI, HDD or QCOW, you can use Mercury or similar software from the "Scientific Data & Catalogs" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to CIF, try Mercury or another comparable tool in the "Scientific Data & Catalogs" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CIF converter.