NI Converter

Extract text from NI files

Select File
Drop or upload your .NI file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your NI file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your NI file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert NI to another file type

To convert your NI file to another format, you need Inform 7 or other Developer software.

Convert a file to NI

To convert other file formats to the "Source Code" file type, you need software like Inform 7 or a similar tool.

About NI files

The .NI file extension is most commonly associated with Inform 7, a unique "natural language" design system used to create interactive fiction and text adventure games. These files, typically named story.ni, contain the human-readable source code of the game, written in English-like sentences rather than traditional code syntax (e.g., "The Kitchen is a room"). While they are technically plain text, they are meant to be compiled by the Inform 7 IDE into playable formats like Z5, Z8 (Z-machine), or ULX (Glulx).

Alternatively, a .NI file may be a Navigation Index file used by iGO Navigation software (developed by NNG). These are proprietary binary files located within the content folders of GPS devices to index map data for faster routing.

Practical Constraints:

Inform 7: Users often struggle to open these on mobile devices or without the IDE installed. While they can be opened in any text editor (like Notepad or TextEdit), they lack the syntax highlighting and compilation features of the official software.
iGO: These files are strictly internal. They cannot be converted to GPX, KML, or JPG. Attempting to edit them will corrupt the navigation database.

Best Conversion Targets:

For Playing: Convert .NI projects to Z8 or GBLORB using the Inform 7 compiler to play on interpreters like Frotz or Gargoyle.
For Reading/Editing: Rename to TXT or open directly in a code editor like VS Code (with the Inform 7 extension) for better readability.
For Archiving: Save as PDF via the Inform 7 IDE's "Publish" feature to preserve the source code layout as a book.

Convert.Guru analyzes your NI file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted VI, APPLE, HEIC and TGA files.

FAQ

If you want to convert NI file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Inform 7 or similar software from the "Interactive Fiction Source Code" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to NI, try Inform 7 or another comparable tool in the "Interactive Fiction Source Code" category.

The NI Converter Story

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 NI converter.