A review is presented of the recent progress in research and development of soft magnetic films for magnetic recording heads of the future primarily on the basis of the work performed by the author's research group. Films of CoNiFe ternary alloy with high saturation magnetic flux density B-S and low coercivity, H-C were successfully produced by electrodeposition. A typical film, designed as 'HB-CoNiFe', had the composition of Co65Ni12Fe23 (at.%) with B-S = 2.0-2.1 T and H-C < 2 Oe. Properties other than B-S and H-C were also investigated; namely, magnetostriction, lambda(S), corrosion properties, and film resistivity rho. The key to the success in obtaining low H-C with high B-S was to form film with very fine crystals. The inclusion of small amount of sulfur was found to be essential for producing such a film with the desired magnetic properties. The firm has been applied to the construction of a new type of merged-GMR head, which is considered as a breakthrough for materializing ultra high-density magnetic recording.