ATF File

What are ATF files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an ATF file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your ATF files.

What is an ATF file?

ATF files have multiple uses, and Adobe Transfer Function is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Adobe Transfer Function File

The ATF file format was developed by Adobe Systems for use in their Photoshop image editing program. The files contain settings used to adjust the image colors so they appear correctly when the image is printed.

How to open ATF files

Important: Different programs may use files with the ATF file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your ATF file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different ATF openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 22, 2026

All known file formats using extension .ATF

While Adobe Transfer Function File is a popular type of ATF-file, we know of 4 different uses of the .ATF file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

ATF Texture File

This format stores texture images used by Adobe's Stage3D system (part of Flash Player and AIR) to deliver graphics efficiently on various devices. It is produced by Adobe's ATF Tools (such as png2atf, pvr2atf, dds2atf) and used when an application needs to load textures that are already compressed or have mip-maps or cube maps bundled. These textures are often created during development or asset packaging, not captured dynamically at run time.

The format works as a container that can include multiple versions of the same texture data, each compressed using different GPU-friendly compression methods (for example, DXT1, DXT5, PVRTC, ETC1, and newer ETC2), so the application can pick the version the platform supports. It may also hold mip-map levels (smaller, prefiltered versions of the image) or a cube map (six faces for environment mapping). The images inside can be opaque or include an alpha channel depending on the compression format and target device's capabilities. Texture dimensions must usually be powers of two and square when using block compression.

Tools provided by Adobe let developers convert standard image files (PNG, PVR, DDS) into this format, inspect them (via atfinfo), and preview them (via ATFViewer). When compiled into applications, the texture data is read by the graphics API (such as flash.display3D in ActionScript) and sent directly to the GPU in a compressed form, which improves rendering performance and reduces memory usage.

Files begin with a three-byte ASCII signature "ATF" at offset zero.

Axon Text File Format Data

This is a tab-delimited text file format that can be read by typical spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. It is used for Axon GenePix Array List (GAL) files and GenePix Results (GPR) files.

Each line in the text file is a record and may consist of several fields, separated by a field separator (either a comma or a tab).

Persuasion AutoTemplate Interchange File Format

Persuasion Auto-Template Interchange File is a template-file format used by Aldus Persuasion (later Adobe Persuasion) presentation software. It stores slide-master and background design elements, typographic styles, placeholder layouts, and graphical masters so that a consistent visual style (an "AutoTemplate") can be shared and applied across different presentations, or imported when transferring designs between Macintosh and Windows versions of the program.

The format is created by Persuasion when a user defines custom design templates or selects one of its built-in AutoTemplates. It is read by Persuasion when applying or importing templates into presentations, especially in cross-platform workflows between Mac and Windows. Interchange files maintain masters and layouts so that other presentation elements can adopt template designs after transfer.

Uses of this format ended with the discontinuation of Persuasion in September 1997; it belongs to the Persuasion format family and was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated (after acquiring Aldus) chiefly to enable template reuse and portability within that legacy software suite.

Files in this format begin with a byte signature that starts at offset zero with ASCII "ROOT", followed by four wildcard bytes, then the ASCII string "AutoTemplate Interchange File Format".

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of ATF files. Remember, different programs may use ATF files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about ATF file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.