You can read more about these types of ANB files at the IBM Knowledge Center. Other ANB files you find have nothing at all to do with IBM’s software and are likely part of a video game, Shovel Knight being one example. This type of ANB file is typically found stored within an archive file with either the .PAK or .ZIP file extension.

How to Open an ANB File

ANB files are created using IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook but can be opened for free with the IBM i2 Chart Reader program. You should be able to open ANB files used in a video game with a file extractor program, like the free 7-Zip tool, given that the file is contained in an archive. However, I don’t think you can actually use these files with the game unless they’re placed in the correct folders where the game can reach them. In other words, there’s probably no way to manually open these types of files in the game. If you still can’t open your ANB file even after trying these suggestions, be sure you’re not confusing it with a file of a similarly named extension, like an MNB or XNB file. If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the SRF file but it’s the wrong application or if you would rather have another installed program open SRF files you can change the default program for a specific file extension.

How to Convert an ANB File

If any program can convert or export an ANB file to a different format, we suspect it’s IBM’s own i2 Analyst’s Notebook software, but we haven’t verified that. We’re unaware of any file converters that can save an ANB file used in video games to any other format. With this format, specifically, we assume there’s no reason for it to exist in any other format anyway.