.ANI File

File extension ani is traditionally and mostly used for animated mouse cursors in Windows operating system environment.

The ani file is a structured format (Microsoft RIFF) that contains information about the animation (author & title, steps, length & order of each step...) followed by several frames stored in the icon format.

Each frame/step in an animated cursor is displayed during a short time (delay or length): this is the frame timing. This time is measured in jiffies; 1 jiffy=1/60th of a second~16,66ms.

If your ani files are correctly associated, you can preview them using Windows Explorer: just hit an animated cursor file and select the File Properties shell menu command. Windows will then display the animated cursor on the Properties tab.

Files with ani extension are used for file format that contains Windows animated cursors which are used in many programs for icons.

How to open:

You can preview .ani files Windows Explorer. But you can also open it in some image editors, such as XnView. See suggested software on this page. Animated coursors can be created in specialized software for this purpose.

How to convert:

Use any compatible tools to export .ani files to other formats.