notes/iwa

iWork 2013+

This covers the standalone ZIP-based format. iCloud uses a different format to support differential sync between devices.

The ZIP container holds a number of Mac binary "property list" files (.plist) which can be safely ignored or blanked. It also can hold preview images that can be safely ignored.

File Structure

The .numbers file is a ZIP file containing a number of .iwa entries. The primary entrypoint is /Index/Document.iwa.

TSPersistence.framework handles the byte-level operations for the files.

.iwa files are sequential blocks of compressed data. Each "block" starts with a 4-byte header consisting of a 0 byte followed by the compressed length (stored as a 3-byte little-endian integer)

Each block follows the Snappy compressed format as described in https://github.com/google/snappy/blob/main/format_description.txt . iWork apps do not expect a particular compression level, and it is possible to create the equivalent of a "STORED" block.

Protocol Buffers

Most of the data is stored in Protocol Buffer ("protobuf") wire messages.

The iWork apps (Keynote, Numbers, Pages) include embedded Protocol Buffers definitions as part of the file format processors.

The otorp package on npm ships with a command-line tool for extracting definitions from a Mach-O binary.

Note that some fields marked as required have been changed to optional in later versions. File parsers should assume all fields are optional.

App-Specific Definitions

The listed definitions only appear in one app:

Keynote

• KNArchives.proto
• KNArchives.sos.proto
• KNCommandArchives.proto
• KNCommandArchives.sos.proto

Numbers

• TNArchives.proto
• TNArchives.sos.proto
• TNCommandArchives.proto
• TNCommandArchives.sos.proto

Pages

• TPArchives.proto
• TPCommandArchives.proto
• TPCommandArchives.sos.proto

The other files are common across the apps.

Data Storage

The decompressed data is a series of chunks.

Each chunk starts with a length stored in a Base 128 varint, followed by a protobuf packet of type .TSP.ArchiveInfo.

The .TSP.ArchiveInfo message contains a number of .TSP.MessageInfo messages (tag 2). Each MessageInfo has a length field (tag 3, type uint32) for the actual message body. The data for the message bodies are stored immediately after the ArchiveInfo, in the same order as the MessageInfo parts.

The message type from the MessageInfo (tag 1, type uint32) corresponds to a dynamic registry spread across the embedded frameworks. The actual message data is a protobuf packet.

Dynamic Registry and Message Types

The .TSP.Reference type acts as a pointer, referencing another message. The references do not include message type info, so readers and writers must be aware of the message types and their interpretations.

Each framework is responsible for registering message types with the master registry by sending a message to the TSPRegistry. The actual types can be discovered from the frameworks. Some common message types are listed below:

type	message
1	.TN.DocumentArchive
2	.TN.SheetArchive
6000	.TST.TableInfoArchive
6001	.TST.TableModelArchive
6002	.TST.Tile

All referenced types must be registered, but ancillary types do not need to be registered. For example:

message .TST.TableInfoArchive {
  // ...
  required .TSP.Reference tableModel = 2;
  // ...
}

message .TST.TableModelArchive {
  // ...
  required .TST.DataStore base_data_store = 4;
  // ...
}

The reference in field 2 from .TST.TableInfoArchive is expected to be of type .TST.TableModelArchive so the latter must be registered.

.TST.DataStore is the type of field 4 from .TST.TableModelArchive. Since it is not referenced indirectly, the message type does not have to be registered.

Data Storage in Numbers files

The root message (type 1) has the following structure:

message .TN.DocumentArchive {
  repeated .TSP.Reference sheets = 1;

The message referenced in field 1 (type 2) has the following structure:

message .TN.SheetArchive {
  required string name = 1;
  repeated .TSP.Reference drawable_infos = 2;

name is the name of the worksheet. Each worksheet can contain multiple tables. The messages referenced in field 2 (type 6000) refer to .TST.TableInfoArchive

Table Storage in iWork

Table structure is shared across iWork apps. The protobuf definitions are identical. The root element for tables is the .TST.TableInfoArchive:

message .TST.TableInfoArchive {
  required .TSP.Reference tableModel = 2;

The message referenced in field 2 (type 6001) has the following structure:

message .TST.TableModelArchive {
  required .TST.DataStore base_data_store = 4;
  required uint32 number_of_rows = 6;
  required uint32 number_of_columns = 7;
  // ...
}

message .TST.DataStore {
  required .TST.TileStorage tiles = 3;
  required .TSP.Reference stringTable = 4;
  optional .TSP.Reference formulaErrorTable = 12;
  optional .TSP.Reference rich_text_table = 17;
  // ...
}

message .TST.TileStorage {
  message .TST.TileStorage.Tile {
    required uint32 tileid = 1;
    required .TSP.Reference tile = 2;
  }
  repeated .TST.TileStorage.Tile tiles = 1;
  // ...
}

Numbers uses a "shared string table" like Excel. Excel stores both plaintext and rich strings in the same table, while Numbers has two separate tables.

The message referenced in the tiles (type 6002) has the following structure:

message .TST.Tile {
  repeated .TST.TileRowInfo rowInfos = 5;
  // ...
}

message .TST.TileRowInfo {
  required uint32 tile_row_index = 1;
  required uint32 cell_count = 2;
  required bytes cell_storage_buffer_pre_bnc = 3;
  required bytes cell_offsets_pre_bnc = 4;
  // ...
}

Each .TST.TileRowInfo message holds the data and property references for a single row in the table.

The cell offset fields are an array of 16-bit integers that describe offsets within the respective storage buffers. 0xFFFF indicates that the column index for the given row is not included.

A 32-bit flag is stored at offset 4, describing which fields are in the cell:

field description	bit mask	size	notes
Error index	0x0100	4	index into formula error table
Rich text index	0x0200	4	index into rich shared string table
Plaintext index	0x0010	4	index into shared string table
Double value	0x0020	8	raw value (IEEE754 double)
Datetime value	0x0040	8	number of seconds since 1/1/2001

The starting offset depends on the cell storage version (0-1 or 2-3), which is stored in the first byte of each cell:

description	v1 offset	v3 offset
Error index	8 + POPCNT(f & 0x008E) * 4	12 + POPCNT(f & 0x0C8E) * 4
Rich text index	8 + POPCNT(f & 0x018E) * 4	12 + POPCNT(f & 0x0D8E) * 4
Plaintext index	8 + POPCNT(f & 0x138E) * 4	12 + POPCNT(f & 0x3F8E) * 4
Double value	8 + POPCNT(f & 0x139E) * 4	12 + POPCNT(f & 0x3F9E) * 4
Datetime value	8 + POPCNT(f & 0x13BE) * 4	12 + POPCNT(f & 0x3FBE) * 4

The cell type is stored at byte offset 2:

type	value
0	"blank cell" (no value)
2	"Double value" (IEEE754 double)
3	get value from shared string table at "Plaintext index"
5	interpret "Datetime value" as number of seconds since 1/1/2001
6	true if "Double value" is greater than zero, false otherwise
7	interpret "Double value" as number of seconds (Duration)
8	get error from formula error table at "Error index"
9	get value from rich shared string table at "Rich text index"

Misc

Determining File Type

All three file types use the same message tag (1) for the root DocumentArchive message. However, the required fields vary between formats.

In the 11.2 apps, the required fields are:

// Keynote optional fields 4
message .KN.DocumentArchive {
  required .TSA.DocumentArchive super = 3;
  required .TSP.Reference show = 2;
}

// Numbers optional fields 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12
message .TN.DocumentArchive {
  required .TSA.DocumentArchive super = 8;
  required .TSP.Reference stylesheet = 4;
  required .TSP.Reference sidebar_order = 5;
  required .TSP.Reference theme = 6;
}

// Pages optional fields 2 - 7, 11 - 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 30 - 49
message .TP.DocumentArchive {
  required .TSA.DocumentArchive super = 15;
}

Pages is the only format to use and require field 15. Keynote requires field 2, a field that does not appear in Numbers.

MD5 Checksums

• 11.2

• 12.0