This is a comparison of image file formats (graphics file formats). This comparison primarily features file formats for 2D images.
Ownership of the format and related information.
Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent- free |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AI | Adobe Illustrator Document | Adobe Systems | .ai | application/illustrator, application/postscript | Adobe Illustrator | No | |
ANI | ANI file format | Microsoft | RIFF | .ani | Microsoft Windows | ||
ANIM | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .anim | video/x-anim | |||
APNG | Animated Portable Network Graphics | Mozilla | PNG | .png | image/png | Gecko 1.9 and Opera | Yes |
Apple Icon Image | Apple Inc. | .icns | macOS | ||||
ART | AOL | .art | |||||
ASCII art | .txt, .ansi, .text | text/vnd.ascii-art | Supported by GIMP | ||||
AutoCAD DXF | Drawing Interchange Format | Autodesk | .dxf | image/vnd.dxf | |||
ARW | Sony Alpha RAW | Sony | TIFF | .arw | |||
AVIF | AV1 Image File Format | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) | AV1 | .avif | image/avif | General purpose | royalty-free |
BAY | Casio RAW | Casio | .bay | ||||
BMP | raw-data unencoded or encoded bitmap | simple colour image format, far older than Microsoft; some .bmp encoding formats developed/owned by Microsoft | .bmp, .dib, .rle, .2bp (2bpp) | image/x-bmp | Used by many 2D applications. | Yes | |
BPG | Better Portable Graphics | Fabrice Bellard | HEVC | .bpg | General purpose | No | |
BSAVE | BSAVE Image | .BSV | Used by IBM PC. | ||||
CAL | CALS raster file format | .cal, .cals, .ras, .dcl | |||||
CIFF | Camera Image File Format | Canon | .crw, .ciff | ||||
CR2 | Canon RAW 2 | Canon | TIFF | .cr2 | |||
CDR | CorelDRAW Document | Corel Corporation | .cdr, .ccx, .cdt, .cmx | application/coreldraw | CorelDRAW | No | |
CD5 | Chasys Draw IES Image | John Paul Chacha | .cd5 | Native format for Chasys Draw IES for storing layered images and animations | No | ||
CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile | .cgm | image/cgm | CGM files are editable using programs that support the format, such as IBM Lotus Freelance Graphics, Inkscape, etc. | |||
CIN | Cineon | .cin | image/cineon | ||||
CPC | Cartesian Perceptual Compression | Cartesian Products, Inc. | .cpc, .cpi | image/cpi | Highly compressed raster imaging format. | No | |
DCS | Kodak DCS Pro RAW | Kodak | .dcs | ||||
DCR | Digital Camera Raw | Kodak | TIFF | .dcr | |||
DDS | DirectDraw Surface | Microsoft | .dds | ||||
DNG | Digital Negative | Adobe Systems | compatible with ISO 12234-2, TIFF/EP [1] | .dng | A raw image format suitable as an archival format and as the native raw format of digital cameras [2] | Yes [3] | |
DICOM | Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine | National Electrical Manufacturers Association | .dcm, .dicom | application/dicom [4] | Numerous biomedical imaging applications [4] (e.g. OsiriX, XMedCon), some general bitmap graphics applications (e.g. GIMP, Photoshop) | ||
DjVu | DjVu | AT&T Research | .djvu, .djv | image/vnd.djvu | |||
DPX | Digital Picture eXchange file format | .dpx | image/dpx | ||||
DRF | Kodak Pro Back RAW | Kodak | .drf | ||||
Encapsulated PostScript | page description/scripting language (see PostScript) | Adobe | .epi, .eps, .eps2, .eps3, .epsf, .epsi, .ept | application/postscript | printing/publishing industry standard format | ||
ECW | Enhanced Compressed Wavelet | ERDAS | .ecw | Wavelet image format used primarily with geo-referenced aerial and satellite imagery | No | ||
EMF | Enhanced Metafile Format | Microsoft | .emf, .emz | Microsoft Office | |||
EMF+ | Enhanced Metafile Format Plus Extensions | Microsoft | .emf, .emz | ||||
ERF | EPSON RAW | EPSON | TIFF | .erf | |||
Exif | Exchangeable Image File Format | .exif | |||||
EVA | Extended Vector Animation | Sharp Corporation | .eva | application/x-eva | |||
EXR | OpenEXR | ILM | .exr | image/exr | Used in film effects for 3d rendering and hdr images. | Yes [5] | |
FITS | Flexible Image Transport System | .fit, .fits | Scientific (esp. astronomical) data acquisition | ||||
FLIC | Autodesk | .fli, .flc, .flx, .flh, .flt | Supported by GIMP | ||||
FLIF | Free Lossless Image Format | .flif, .flf | General-purpose, superseded by Jpeg XL | Yes | |||
FPX | FlashPix (1.0.2) | .fpx | image/vnd.fpx | ||||
Gerber Format | The Gerber Format Specification | Ucamco | Printable ASCII | .gbr | application/vnd.gerber | Printed Circuit Board or PCB software | Yes |
GIF | Graphics Interchange Format | CompuServe, Unisys (compression algorithm) | .gif, .gfa, .giff | image/gif | General purpose, obsolete, now only used for animations | Yes | |
HEIF | High Efficiency Image Format | Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) | .heif, .heic | image/heif, image/heic, image/heic-sequence, image/heif-sequence | General purpose | No | |
HDRi | TIFF | .tif, .tiff | image/tiff | ||||
ICER | NASA Mars Rovers | ||||||
ICO | ICO file format | Microsoft | .ico, .cur | image/vnd.Microsoft.icon, image/x-icon | Microsoft Windows and web browsers as favicon | ||
ICS | Image Cytometry Standard | .ics, .ids | |||||
IGES | Initial Graphics Exchange Specification | .igs | image/iges | CAD/CAM interoperability | Yes | ||
ILBM | InterLeaved BitMap | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .ilbm, .lbm | image/x-ilbm | Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware. | Yes |
JBIG | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group | .jbig, .bie, .jbg | |||||
JBIG2 | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group | ||||||
JNG | JPEG Network Graphics | .jng | image/x-jng | Yes | |||
JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe (containers: .jif, .jfif, .jfi) | image/jpeg | General purpose | Yes | |
JPEG 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jp2, .j2c, .jpc, .j2k, .jpx | image/jp2 | General purpose | royalty-free | |
JPEG-LS | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jls | |||||
JPEG-HDR | Dolby Laboratories/BrightSide Technologies | JPEG | General purpose | ||||
JPEG XL | Joint Photographic Experts Group | PIK, FUIF (FLIF) | .jxl | image/jxl | General-purpose, lossless JPEG transcoding. | Yes | |
JPEG XT | Joint Photographic Experts Group | General purpose | |||||
JPEG XR / HD Photo | JPEG XR / HD Photo | Microsoft | .wdp, .hdp, .jxr | image/vnd.ms-photo | General purpose | royalty-free | |
KDC | Kodak DC40/DC50 RAW | Kodak | TIFF | .kdc | |||
K25 | Kodak DC25 RAW | Kodak | TIFF | .k25 | |||
Logluv TIFF | Greg Ward | TIFF | Supported by LibTIFF | ||||
MNG | Multiple-image Network Graphics | PNG | .mng | video/x-mng | Yes | ||
NEF | Nikon RAW | Nikon | TIFF | .nef | |||
MIFF | Magick image file format | ImageMagick Studio | .miff | ImageMagick | |||
MRW | Minolta RAW | Minolta | .mrw | ||||
ORF | Olympus RAW | Olympus | TIFF | .orf | |||
PAM | portable arbitrary map file format | .pam | image/x-portable-arbitrarymap | Yes | |||
PBM | Portable Bitmap File Format | ASCII | .pbm | image/x-portable-bitmap | Yes | ||
PCX | ZSoft PC Paintbrush File | ZSoft Corporation | .pcx, .pcc, .dcx | image/x-pcx | Dated rle packed indexed image format, used in some early 3d shooting games like Unreal Tournament as it takes up very little space and is easy to decode. | ? | |
Portable Document Format | Adobe Systems | .pdf, .epdf | application/pdf | ||||
PEF | PENTAX RAW | PENTAX | TIFF | .pef | |||
PGF | Progressive Graphics File | xeraina GmbH | .pgf | Photographic images, eventual replacement for JPEG. | Yes | ||
PGM | Portable Graymap File Format | ASCII | .pgm | image/x-portable-graymap | Yes | ||
PGML | Precision Graphics Markup Language | Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape, Sun Microsystems | Yes | ||||
PICT | Macintosh PICT Format | Apple Inc. | .pict, .pic, .pct, .pct1, .pct2 | image/pict | Metafile for Classic Mac OS, not meant for print publishing. | Likely expired | |
PICtor | John Bridges, Doug Wolfgram | .pic | Supported by PCPaint | ||||
PNG | Portable Network Graphics | World Wide Web Consortium | .png | image/png | General purpose | Yes | |
PNM | Portable Anymap File Format | ASCII | .pnm | image/x-portable-anymap | Yes | ||
PostScript | page description/scripting language, levels 1–3 | Adobe | .ps, .ps2, .ps3 | printing/publishing industry standard format | |||
PPM | Portable Pixmap File Format | ASCII | .ppm | image/x-portable-pixmap | Very easy to understand. Programs to analyze and write to this format are easily written. | Yes | |
PSD | Photoshop Document | Adobe Systems | .psd, .psb, .pdb, .pdd | image/vnd.adobe.photoshop [6] | Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data. | No | |
PSP | Paint Shop Pro Document | Corel Corporation | .psp, .tub, .pspimage | image/x-psp | Paint Shop Pro | ? | |
QOI | Quite OK Image Format | Dominic Szablewski | .qoi | Yes | |||
RAD | Gregory Ward Larson | .rad | Radiance | ||||
RAF | Fujifilm RAW | Fujifilm | .raf | ||||
RGBE | Gregory Ward Larson | .hdr | image/vnd.radiance | Radiance, most HDR imaging software | |||
SGI | Silicon Graphics Image | .sgi, .rgb, .rgba, .bw, .int, .inta, .icon | |||||
SRF | Sony RAW File | Sony | TIFF | .srf, .sr2 | |||
SVG | Scalable Vector Graphics | World Wide Web Consortium | XML | .svg, .svgz (compressed) | image/svg+xml | Vector graphics | Yes |
SWF | Shockwave Flash | Adobe Systems | .swf | application/x-shockwave-flash | Adobe Flash Player | ||
TGA | Truevision Targa | Truevision Inc. | .tga, .tpic | image/tga | Texture format used by many 3d application. | Yes | |
TIFF | Tag Image File Format | Adobe Systems | .tiff, .tif | image/tiff | Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container. | Yes | |
TIFF/EP | Tag Image File Format / Electronic Photography | International Organization for Standardization | TIFF | .tiff, .tif | |||
UFO | Ulead File for Objects | .ufo | |||||
VML | Vector Markup Language | Microsoft | XML | .htm, .html | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.vmlDrawing | Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office | Yes |
WBMP | Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format | Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum) | .wbmp, .wbm, .wbp | image/vnd.wap.wbmp | Used in WAP-pages | Yes | |
WebP | WebP image format | .webp | image/webp | General purpose | royalty-free | ||
WMF | Windows Metafile Format | Microsoft | .wmf, .wmz | ||||
XAR | Xar | Xara | Xar (graphics) | .xar | application/vnd.xara | Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | Yes |
XBM | X BitMap, colour variant of original black-and-white bitmap (bmp) format | .xbm, .bm, .icon, .bitmap | image/x-xbitmap | Used by many legacy Unix applications. | |||
XCF | XCF, name derived from eXperimental Computing Facility | The GIMP Team | .xcf, .xcfbz2 (compressed), .xcfgz (compressed) | application/x-gimp-image | GIMP | ||
XPM | X-Pixmap | .xpm, .pm | image/x-xpm | Legacy Unix applications | |||
X3F | SIGMA RAW | SIGMA | .x3f | ||||
Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent- free |
Format | Compression algorithm | Raster/ vector | Maximum | Indexed color | Trans- | Meta- | Inter- | Multi-page | Anima-tion | Layers | Color manage-ment | Extend- able | HDR format | CMYK |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AI | Lossy and lossless | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | — | No | |
AVIF | AV1 Lossy and lossless | Raster | 12 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
BMP | None, RLE, JPEG, and PNG | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
BPG | HEVC, Lossy and lossless | Raster | 14 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | — | Yes | — | — | |
CD5 | Lossless, ACSC | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | |
CDR | Lossy and lossless | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | — | No | |
CPC | CPC | Raster | 1 | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes, via embedded dictionary | No | |
EPS | None, LZW, Deflate, RLE, DCT | Both | Device specific | No | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
EXR | None, RLE, ZIP, Piz, PXR24, and B44, B44A, DWAA, DWAB | Raster | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
FLIF | Lossless, MANIAC entropy coding | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | Yes | |
GIF | LZW | Raster | 255 colors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (GIF89a) | No | No |
HD Photo / JPEG XR | Lossy and lossless bi-orthogonal transform | Raster | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
ILBM | Optional run-length encoding | Raster | 8 bpc | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, Palette-shifting | No | No | Yes | No | |
JPEG | Lossy (and partly lossless), DCT, RLE, and Huffman predictive nearest neighbor | Raster | 8 bpc | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No (see unofficial JPEG-HDR) | Yes |
JPEG 2000 | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | 38 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | — | No | Yes |
JPEG XL | Lossy and lossless (VarDCT mode, Modular mode) | Raster | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
KRA | None | Both | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
ORA | Lossless | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
PAM | None | Raster | Up to 16 | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
PCX | None, RLE | Raster | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PGF | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | — | No | |
PICT | None, RLE, and QuickTime | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | No | No | No | — | No? | No | |
PNG | Lossless and deflate | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No (but see MNG and APNG) | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | No, see discussion | No |
PPM | None | Raster | 8 ppc | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PSD and PSB | None and RLE | Both | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | |
PSP | None | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | — | No | Yes | — | — | No | |
SVG | None and lossless gzip | Vector [a] | 8 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | — | Yes (1.2 draft) [7] | Yes (SMIL/SVG) | Yes | Yes [8] | Yes, XML based | — | |
TGA | None, RLE, and other | Raster | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | — | No | |
TIFF | None, LZW, RLE, ZIP, and other | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, via tags | Yes, TIFF float | Yes |
WebP | Lossy and lossless | Raster | 8 bpc | No [9] [10] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
XCF | None and lossless (gzip, bzip2 and xz) | Both | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Format | Compression algorithm | Raster/ vector | Maximum | Indexed color | Trans-parency | Meta- | Inter- | Multi-page | Anima-tion | Layers | Color manage-ment | Extend- able | HDR format | CMYK |
Multiple-image Network Graphics (MNG) is a graphics file format published in 2001 for animated images. Its specification is publicly documented and there are free software reference implementations available.
Portable Network Graphics is a raster-graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. PNG was developed as an improved, non-patented replacement for Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)—unofficially, the initials PNG stood for the recursive acronym "PNG's not GIF".
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.
Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display and printing hardware, vector data models and file formats, as well as the software based on these data models. Vector graphics are an alternative to raster or bitmap graphics, with each having advantages and disadvantages in specific situations.
Tag Image File Format or Tagged Image File Format, commonly known by the abbreviations TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character recognition, image manipulation, desktop publishing, and page-layout applications. The format was created by the Aldus Corporation for use in desktop publishing. It published the latest version 6.0 in 1992, subsequently updated with an Adobe Systems copyright after the latter acquired Aldus in 1994. Several Aldus or Adobe technical notes have been published with minor extensions to the format, and several specifications have been based on TIFF 6.0, including TIFF/EP, TIFF/IT, TIFF-F and TIFF-FX.
Digital Negative (DNG) is an open, lossless raw image format developed by Adobe and used for digital photography. It was launched on September 27, 2004. The launch was accompanied by the first version of the DNG specification, plus various products, including a free-of-charge DNG converter utility. All Adobe photo manipulation software released since the launch supports DNG.
These tables compare features of multimedia container formats, most often used for storing or streaming digital video or digital audio content. To see which multimedia players support which container format, look at comparison of media players.
A number of vector graphics editors exist for various platforms. Potential users of these editors will make a comparison of vector graphics editors based on factors such as the availability for the user's platform, the software license, the feature set, the merits of the user interface (UI) and the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Another important factor is the application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.
The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is an ISO standard, originally created by Adobe Systems Inc., for the creation, processing and interchange of standardized and custom metadata for digital documents and data sets.
An image file format is a file format for a digital image. There are many formats that can be used, such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Most formats up until 2022 were for storing 2D images, not 3D ones. The data stored in an image file format may be compressed or uncompressed. If the data is compressed, it may be done so using lossy compression or lossless compression. For graphic design applications, vector formats are often used. Some image file formats support transparency.
A camera raw image file contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, a motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed, and contain large amounts of potentially redundant data. Normally, the image is processed by a raw converter, in a wide-gamut internal color space where precise adjustments can be made before conversion to a viewable file format such as JPEG or PNG for storage, printing, or further manipulation. There are dozens of raw formats in use by different manufacturers of digital image capture equipment.
Tag Image File Format/Electronic Photography (TIFF/EP) is a digital image file format standard – ISO 12234-2, titled "Electronic still-picture imaging – Removable memory – Part 2: TIFF/EP image data format". This is different from the Tag Image File Format, which is a standard administered by Adobe currently called "TIFF, Revision 6.0 Final – June 3, 1992".
In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the Interglobal Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes of a particular device or viewing requirement by defining a mapping between the device source or target color space and a profile connection space (PCS). This PCS is either CIELAB (L*a*b*) or CIEXYZ. Mappings may be specified using tables, to which interpolation is applied, or through a series of parameters for transformations.
ExifTool is a free and open-source software program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, video, and PDF metadata. As such, ExifTool classes as a tag editor. It is platform independent, available as both a Perl library (Image::ExifTool) and a command-line application. ExifTool is commonly incorporated into different types of digital workflows and supports many types of metadata including Exif, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the manufacturer-specific metadata formats of many digital cameras.
Animation of Scalable Vector Graphics, an open XML-based standard vector graphics format is possible through various means:
CinemaDNG is the result of an Adobe-led initiative to define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files. CinemaDNG caters for sets of movie clips, each of which is a sequence of raw video images, accompanied by audio and metadata. CinemaDNG supports stereoscopic cameras and multiple audio channels. CinemaDNG specifies directory structures containing one or more video clips, and specifies requirements and constraints for the open format files,, within those directories, that contain the content of those clips.
WebP is a raster graphics file format developed by Google intended as a replacement for JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as animation and alpha transparency.
Modern HTML5 has feature-parity with the now-obsolete Adobe Flash. Both include features for playing audio and video within web pages. Flash was specifically built to integrate vector graphics and light games in a web page, features that HTML5 also supports.
JPEG XL is a royalty-free open standard for the compressed representation of raster graphics images. It defines a graphics file format and the abstract device for coding JPEG XL bitstreams. It is developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) and standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the international standard ISO/IEC 18181. As a superset of JPEG/JFIF encoding, with a compression mode built on a traditional block-based transform coding core and a "modular mode" for synthetic image content and lossless compression. Optional lossy quantization enables both lossless and lossy compression.