List of file formats

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This is a list of file formats organized by type, as can be found on computers. Filename extensions are usually noted in parentheses if they differ from the format name or abbreviation. In theory, using the English alphabet (A-Z) and a three character extension, the number of combinations amounts to 17,576 (26³). If other acceptable characters are included, the maximum number of combinations is 195,112 (26+31)³. Unix-like systems have never had a three character limit on extensions, and Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me don't have a three character limit on extensions for 32-bit (and 64-bit) applications on file systems other than pre-Windows 95/Windows NT 3.5 versions of the FAT file system, so some file system types are given extensions longer than three characters.

Contents

[edit] Archive and compressed

Main article: List of archive formats
  • .?Q? — files compressed by the SQ program.
  • 7z 7-Zip compressed file
  • ace
  • ALZ — Alzip format
  • ARC
  • ARJ
  • big Special file compression format used by Electronic Arts for compressing the data for many of EA's games
  • BKF (.bkf) — Microsoft backup
  • bzip2 (.bz2)
  • cab — Microsoft Cabinet
  • DAA — Closed-format, Windows-only compressed disk image
  • deb — Debian Linux install package
  • DMG — an Apple compressed/encrypted format
  • EEA — An encrypted CAB, ostensibly for protecting e-mail attachments
  • GHO (.gho, .ghs) — Norton Ghost
  • gzip (.gz) — Compressed file
  • jar — ZIP file with manifest for use with Java applications.
  • LBR — Library file
  • LQR — LBR Library file compressed by the SQ program.
  • LHA (.lzh)
  • lzo
  • lzx
  • PAK — Enhanced type of .ARC archive
  • Parchive (.par, .par2)
  • Doom³ archive (.pk4) (Opens similarly to a zip archive.)
  • RAR Rar Archive (.rar), for multiple file archive (rar to .r01-.r99 to s01 and so on)
  • sit/sitx — StuffIt (Macintosh)
  • tar
  • .tar.gz, .tgz (gzipped tar file)
  • TIB (.tib) — Acronis TrueImage
  • uha (Ultra High Archive Compression)
  • UIF
  • VSA — Altiris Virtual Software Archive
  • Z — Unix compress file
  • zoo
  • zip

[edit] Computer-aided

Computer-aided is a prefix for several categories of tools (ie. design, manufacture, engineering) which assist professionals in their respective fields (ie. machining, architecture, schematics).

[edit] Computer-aided design (CAD)

Computer-aided design (CAD) software assists engineers, architects and other design professionals in project design.

[edit] Electronic design automation (EDA)

Electronic design automation (EDA), or electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is specific to the field of electrical engineering.

[edit] Test technology

Files output from Automatic Test Equipment or post-processed from such.

[edit] Database

[edit] Document

These files store formatted text.

[edit] Font file

  • ABF — Adobe Binary Screen Font
  • AFM — Adobe Font Metrics
  • BDF — Bitmap Distribution Format
  • BMF — ByteMap Font Format
  • FON — Bitmapped Font — Microsoft Windows
  • MGF — MicroGrafx Font
  • OTF — OpenType Font
  • PCF — Portable Compiled Font
  • PostScript Font — Type 1, Type 2
    • PFA — Printer Font ASCII
    • PFB — Printer Font Binary — Adobe
    • PFM — Printer Font Metrics — Adobe
    • FOND — Font Description resource — Mac OS
  • SNF — Server Normal Format
  • TFM — TeX font metric
  • TTF (.ttf, .ttc) — TrueType Font

[edit] Geographic information system

  • APR (ESRI ArcView 3.3 and earlier project file)
  • DEM (USGS DEM file format)
  • E00 (ARC/INFO interchange file format)
  • GeoTIFF (Geographically located raster data)
  • GPX (XML-based interchange format)
  • MXD (ESRI ArcGIS project file, 8.0 and higher)
  • SHP (ESRI shapefile)
  • World TIFF (Geographically located raster data: text file giving corner coordinate, raster cells per unit, and rotation)
  • DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data)

[edit] Graphical information organizers

  • 3DT — 3D Topicscape The database in which the meta-data of a 3D Topicscape is held. A 3D Topicscape is a form of 3D concept map (like a 3D mind-map) used to organize ideas, information and computer files.
  • ATY — 3D Topicscape file, produced when an association type is exported by 3D Topicscape. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).
  • FES — 3D Topicscape file, produced when a fileless occurrence in 3D Topicscape is exported to Windows. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).
  • MMP — Mind Manager mind map file.
  • TPC — 3D Topicscape file, produced when an inter-Topicscape topic link file is exported to Windows. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).

[edit] Graphics

Main article: graphics file formats.

[edit] Raster graphics

Raster (or Bitmap) files store images as a group of pixels.

  • ACT — Adobe Color Table. Contains a raw color palette and usually consists of 256 24-bit RGB colour values.
  • ART — America Online proprietary format
  • BMP — Microsoft Windows Bitmap formatted image
  • BLP — Blizzard Entertainment proprietary texture format
  • CIT — Intergraph is a monochrome bitmap format
  • CPT — Corel PHOTO-PAINT image
  • CUT — Dr. Halo image file
  • DIB — Device-Independent Bitmap graphic
  • DjVu — DjVu for scanned documents
  • Exif — Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras
  • GIF — CompuServe's Graphics Interchange Format
  • ICNS — file format use for icons in Mac OS X. Contains bitmap images at multiple resolutions and bitdepths with alpha channel.
  • ICO — a file format used for icons in Microsoft Windows. Contains small bitmap images at multiple resolutions and sizes.
  • IFF (.iff, .ilbm, .lbm) — ILBM
  • JNG — a single-frame MNG using JPEG compression and possibly an alpha channel.
  • JPEG, JFIF (.jpg or .jpeg) — a lossy image format widely used to display photographic images.
  • JP2 — JPEG2000
  • LBM — Deluxe Paint image file
  • MAX — ScanSoft PaperPort document
  • MIFF — ImageMagick's native file format
  • MNG — Multiple Network Graphics, the animated version of PNG
  • MSP — a file format used by old versions of Microsoft Paint. Replaced with BMP in Microsoft Windows 3.0
  • NITF — A U.S. Government standard commonly used in Intelligence systems
  • PBM — Portable bitmap
  • PC1 — Low resolution, compressed Degas picture file
  • PC2 — Medium resolution, compressed Degas picture file
  • PC3 — High resolution, compressed Degas picture file
  • PCF — Pixel Coordination Format
  • PCX — a lossless format used by ZSoft's PC Paint, popular at one time on DOS systems.

[edit] Vector graphics

Vector graphics use geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons to represent images.

  • AWG — Ability Draw
  • AI — Adobe Illustrator Document
  • EPS — Encapsulated Postscript
  • CGM — Computer Graphics Metafile an ISO Standard
  • CDR — CorelDRAW vector image
  • CMX — CorelDRAW vector image
  • DXF — ASCII Drawing Interchange file format, used in AutoCAD
  • SVG — Scalable Vector Graphics, employs XML
  • Scene description languages (3D vector image formats)
  • WMF — Windows MetaFile
  • EMF — Enhanced (Windows) MetaFile, an extension to WMF

[edit] 3D graphics

3D graphics are 3D models that allow you to build models in real-time or non real-time 3D rendering.

[edit] Object code, executable files, shared and dynamically-linked libraries

Object Extensions

  • .VBX — Visual Basic Extensions
  • .OCX — Object Control Extensions
  • .tlb — Windows Type Library

[edit] Page description language

[edit] Presentation

[edit] Scientific data formats (data exchange)

[edit] Chemical/biological file formats

[edit] Script

[edit] Signal data formats (non-audio)

  • ACQ — AcqKnowledge File Format for Windows/PC from Biopac
  • BKR — The EEG data format developed at the University of Technology Graz
  • BDF — BioSemo data format — similar to EDF but 24bit
  • CFWB — Chart Data File Format from ADInstruments
  • EDF — European data format
  • FEF — File Exchange Format for Vital signs
  • GDF — General data formats for biomedical signals
  • GMS — Gesture And Motion Signal format
  • MFER — Medical waveform Format Encoding Rules
  • SCP-ECG — Standard Communication Protocol for Computer assisted electrocardiography
  • SEG Y — Reflection seismology data format
  • SIGIF — SIGnal Interchange Format
  • and many others [7]

[edit] Sound and music

[edit] Lossless audio

[edit] Lossy audio

[edit] Other music formats

[edit] Playlist formats

[edit] Audio Editing & Music Production formats

  • AUP — Audacity project file
  • CEL — Adobe Audition loop file (Cool Edit Loop)
  • CPR — Steinberg Cubase project file
  • CWP — Cakewalk Sonar project file
  • DRM — Steinberg Cubase drum file
  • OMF — cross-application format Open Media Framework application-exchange bundled format
  • SES — Adobe Audition multitrack session file
  • STF — StudioFactory project file. It contains all necessary patches, samples, tracks and settings to play the file.
  • SYN — SynFactory project file. It contains all necessary patches, samples, tracks and settings to play the file.

[edit] Source code for computer programs

(see also: Script)

[edit] Spreadsheet

[edit] Tabulated data

[edit] Video

Main article: video file formats.
  • AAF (mostly intended to hold edit decisions and rendering information, but can also contain compressed media essence)
  • 3GP — the most common video format for cell phones
  • GIF — Animated GIF(simple animation; until recently often avoided because of patent problems)
  • ASF (ASF is a shell, which enables any form of compression to be used; MPEG-4 is common. Video in ASF-containers is also called Windows Media Video (WMV))
  • AVI — (AVI is a shell, which enables any form of compression to be used; MPEG-1 and a variant of MPEG-4 are common)
  • DSH
  • FLV (*.flv) A video file encoded to run in a flash animation.
  • M1V MPEG-1 Video file
  • M2V MPEG-2 Video file
  • SWF — Macromedia Flash (.swf for viewing,
  • FLA — Macromedia Flash for producing) (
  • MKV — Matroska (*.mkv) (Matroska is a container format, which enables any video format such as MPEG-4 or Xvid to be used along with other content such as subtitles and detailed meta information)
  • WRAP — MediaForge (*.wrap)
  • MNG (mainly simple animation containing PNG and JPEG objects, often somewhat more complex than animated GIF)
  • MOV (QuickTime, a container format, which enables any form of compression to be used; Sorenson codec is the most common. QTCH is the filetype for cached video and audio streams.)
  • MPEG (.mpeg, .mpg, .mpe)
  • MXF Material Exchange Format is a standardized wrapper format for audio/visual material developed by SMPTE
  • NSV Nullsoft Streaming Video is a media container designed for streaming video content over the internet.
  • OGM (OGM is a container format created so that Ogg Vorbis could be used for the audio of a video as this could not be done with AVI)
  • Tarkin (Ogg project, all Tarkin files are Ogg files)
  • Theora (Ogg project, all Theora files are Ogg files)
  • RM — RealMedia
  • SVI Samsung video format for portable players
  • SMI SAMI Caption file. (HTML like subtitle for movie files)
  • Xvid

[edit] Video Editing & Production formats

[edit] Video game data

List of common file formats of data for video games on systems that support filesystems, most commonly PC games.

  • MAP — format used by Duke Nukem 3D, Doom³ and various other games. (Note — the file type structure may differ between games.)
  • MAP — format used by Halo: Combat Evolved for archive compression.
  • Simcity 4, DBPF (.dat, .SC4Lot, .SC4Model) (All game plugins use this format, commonly with different file extensions)
  • DBPF — The Sims 2, DBPF, Package
  • BOL — used for levels on Poing!PC
  • UT2K4 — for Unreal Tournament 2004
  • WAD — used by DOOM
  • PAK — used by Quake and Quake2 engine games to store game data
  • PK3 — used by the Quake III game engine and MOHAA to store game data, textures e.t.c. Is actually a Zip file.
  • REP — used by Blizzard Entertainment for scenario replays in StarCraft

[edit] Video game storage media

List of the most common filename extensions used when a game's ROM image or storage medium is copied from an original ROM device to an external memory such as hard disk for back up purposes or for making the game playable with an emulator. In the case of cartridge-based software, if the platform specific extension is not used then filename extensions ".rom" or ".bin" are usually used to clarify that the file contains a copy of a content of a ROM. ROM, disk or tape images usually do not consist of a single file or ROM, rather an entire file or ROM structure contained within a single file on the backup medium.

  • FIG — Super Famicom (Japanese releases are rarely .fig, above extensions are more common)
  • SRM — Super NES Saved Data Files (.srm)
  • ZST — ZSNES Save States (.zst, .zs1-.zs9)
  • FRZ — Snes9X Save States (.frz)
  • TAP (for tape images without copy protection)
  • Z80,SNA — (for snapshots of the emulator RAM)
  • DSK — (for disk images)
  • TAP — Commodore 64 (.tap) (for tape images including copy protection)
  • T64 — (for tape images without copy protection, considerably smaller than .tap files)
  • D64 — (for disk images)
  • CRT — (for cartridge images)
  • ADF — Amiga (.adf) (for 880K diskette images)

[edit] Virtual Machines

[edit] Microsoft Virtual PC/Virtual Server

See [8]

  • VFD — Virtual Floppy Disk (.vfd)
  • VHD — Virtual Hard Disk (.vhd)
  • VUD — Virtual Undo Disk (.vud)
  • VMC — Virtual Machine Configuration (.vmc)
  • VSV — Virtual Machine Saved State (.vsv)

[edit] EMC VMware ESX/GSX/Workstation/Player

See [9]

  • LOG — Virtual Machine Logfile (.log)
  • VMDK,DSK — Virtual Machine Disk (.vmdk, .dsk)
  • NVRAM — Virtual Machine BIOS (.nvram)
  • VMEM — Virtual Machine paging file (.vmem)
  • VMSD — Virtual Machine snapshot metadata (.vmsd)
  • VMSN — Virtual Machine snapshot (.vmsn)
  • VMSS,STD — Virtual Machine suspended state (.vmss, .std)
  • VMTM — Virtual Machine team data (.vmtm)
  • VMX,CFG — Virtual Machine configuration (.vmx, .cfg)
  • VMXF — Virtual Machine team configuration (.vmxf)

[edit] Parallels Workstation

  • HDD — Virtual Machine hard disk (.hdd)
  • PVS — Virtual Machine preferences/configuration (.pvs)
  • SAV — Virtual Machine saved state (.sav)

[edit] Webpage

  • Static
    • HTML — (.html, .htm) — HyperText Markup Language
    • XHTML — (.xhtml, .xht) — eXtensible HyperText Markup Language
    • XML — (.xml)
    • MHTML — (.mht, .mhtml) — Archived HTML, store all data on one web page (text, images, etc) in one big file
  • Dynamically generated
    • ASP — (.asp) — Microsoft Active Server Page
    • ASPX — (.aspx) — Microsoft Active Server Page. NET
    • ADP — AOLserver Dynamic Page
    • BML — (.bml) — Better Markup Language (templating)
    • CFM — (.cfm) — ColdFusion
    • CGI — (.cgi)
    • JSP — (.jsp) JavaServer Pages
    • Lasso — (.las, .lasso, .lassoapp)
    • PL — Perl (.pl)
    • PHP — (.php, .php?, .phtml) — ? is version number (previously abbreviated Personal Home Page, later changed to PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
    • SSI — (.shtml) — HTML with Server Side Includes

[edit] XML, markup language and other web standards-based file formats

  • EML — (.eml) — File format used by several desktop email clients
  • RSS — (.rss, .xml) — Syndication file format
  • Atom — (.atom, .xml) — Another syndication file format

[edit] Other

  • GA3 — Graphical Analysis 3
  • AXD — cookie extensions found in temporary internet folder
  • KMC — tests made with KatzReview's MegaCrammer
  • IGC — flight tracks downloaded from GPS devices in the FAI's prescribed format
  • TOPC — TopicCrunch SEO Project file holding keywords, domain and search engine settings (ASCII);
  • TMP — Temporary file
  • CREDX — CredX Dat File
  • GED — file format for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogical systems

[edit] Financial Records

  • TAX — Turbo Tax File

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

File formats at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)

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