Extract text from Weaving information files (WIF)
To convert WIF Weaving files to another format, you need iWeaveIt or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Weaving Draft Data" file type, you need software like iWeaveIt or a similar tool.
The .WIF file extension primarily represents a Weaving Information File. This is an open, industry-standard format created in the 1990s to exchange weaving drafts between different handweaving applications. It stores everything needed to reproduce a textile draft, including threading, tie-up, treadling, and color palettes. A secondary, much rarer use for the .WIF extension is the legacy WordPerfect Image File used by DOS-era versions of Corel WordPerfect.
Files containing weaving drafts are primarily managed by specialized loom and weaving software such as iWeaveIt, TempoWeave, and Fiberworks.
Users frequently need to convert .WIF files because the format presents severe accessibility challenges for non-weavers. A .WIF file is not an actual visual image; it is simply plain-text structured data, functioning very similarly to an INI configuration file. Without proprietary weaving software to interpret the numeric coordinates and generate a visual "drawdown" grid, the file is practically unreadable. Sharing a pattern with a client, publisher, or printer is impossible if they do not own a specialized loom simulator.
The best workaround is converting the .WIF draft into a standard PDF document or PNG image. This bakes the mathematical draft into a static, universally viewable format, though it removes the ability to edit the threading matrix dynamically. For legacy WordPerfect files, converting to JPG or PDF modernizes the inaccessible DOS graphics.
This file format is difficult to open or convert online because interpreting the weaving draft requires a dedicated mathematical engine to plot the loom's complex mechanics. Often only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your WIF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted AVIF, PNG, PWB, EBK, TC and HEX files.
If you want to convert WIF file to HEX, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, ENV or PROPERTIES, you can use iWeaveIt or similar software from the "Weaving Pattern Draft Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to WIF, try iWeaveIt or another comparable tool in the "Weaving Pattern Draft Storage" 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 WIF converter.