One of the Amiga's strengths is the wide acceptance of several IFF
specifications.  Most notable is the ease with which graphic files (of
form ILBM) can be transferred among dozens of paint, animation and
special effects packages.  This ability to to easily share data between a
variety of programs lets the user select the best program for a specific
job rather than fighting the restritions of a single, all-in-one software
package.  Developers can market specialized applications that are good at
a certain limited set of operations, and with the help of the multitasking
Amiga operating system, create the effect of a large integrated system.

Any developer with a package that creates or reads data should use an
existing IFF standard.  If no current IFF form is suitable then the
developer should contact other developers and users with similar needs and
work out a new IFF form using the design principles specified in this
appendix.  To prevent conflicts, new IFF forms must be registered with
Amiga, Inc. before they are used.  No additional restrictions are placed on
the design of IFF forms aside from the general IFF syntax rules listed
here.

                 Contents of the IFF Specification
                 ---------------------------------
 EA IFF 85 - General IFF Format Specifications 
 FORM Specifications from the Original EA Document 
 Third Party Public FORM and Chunk Specifications and Additional Documents 
 IFF Source Code