List of file formats

Last updated

This is a list of file formats used by computers, organized by type. Filename extension it is usually noted in parentheses if they differ from the file format name or abbreviation. Many operating systems do not limit filenames to one extension shorter than 4 characters, as was common with some operating systems that supported the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system. Examples of operating systems that do not impose this limit include Unix-like systems, and Microsoft Windows NT, 95-98, and ME which have no three character limit on extensions for 32-bit or 64-bit applications on file systems other than pre-Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5 versions of the FAT file system. Some filenames are given extensions longer than three characters. While MS-DOS and NT always treat the suffix after the last period in a file's name as its extension, in UNIX-like systems, the final period does not necessarily mean that the text after the last period is the file's extension. [1]

Contents

Some file formats, such as .txt or .text, may be listed multiple times.

Archive and compressed

Physical recordable media archiving

LemonOS/LemonTabOS/LemonRoid

Other extensions

Computer-aided design

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

Computer-aided design (CAD)

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

Electronic design automation (EDA)

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

Test technology

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

Database

Big Data (Distributed)

Desktop publishing

Document

These files store formatted text and plain text.

Financial records

Financial data transfer formats

Font file

General purpose

These file formats allow for the rapid creation of new binary file formats.

Geographic information system

Graphical information organizers

Graphics

Color palettes

Color management

Raster graphics

Raster or bitmap files store images as a group of pixels.

Vector graphics

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

3D graphics

3D graphics are 3D models that allow building models in real-time or non-real-time 3D rendering.

Mathematical

Object code, executable files, shared and dynamically linked libraries

Object extensions:

Page description language

Personal information manager

Presentation

Project management software

Reference management software

Formats of files used for bibliographic information (citation) management.

Scientific data (data exchange)

Multi-domain

Meteorology

Chemistry

Mathematics

Biology

Molecular biology and bioinformatics:

Biomedical imaging

Biomedical signals (time series)

Other biomedical formats

Biometric formats

Programming languages and scripts

Security

Authentication and general encryption formats are listed here.

Certificates and keys

X.509

Encrypted files

This section shows file formats for encrypted general data, rather than a specific program's data.

Password files

Password files (sometimes called keychain files) contain lists of other passwords, usually encrypted.

Signal data (non-audio)

Sound and music

Lossless audio

Uncompressed

  • 8SVX – Commodore-Amiga 8-bit sound (usually in an IFF container)
  • 16SVX – Commodore-Amiga 16-bit sound (usually in an IFF container)
  • AIFF, AIF, AIFC – Audio Interchange File Format
  • AU – Simple audio file format introduced by Sun Microsystems
  • AUP3 – Audacity’s file for when you save a song
  • BWF – Broadcast Wave Format, an extension of WAVE
  • CDDA – Compact Disc Digital Audio
  • DSF, DFFDirect Stream Digital audio file, also used in Super Audio CD
  • RAW – Raw samples without any header or sync
  • WAV – Microsoft Wave
  • CWAV – file read by the Nintendo 3DS for Home-screen sound effects

Compressed

Lossy audio

Sheet music files

Other file formats pertaining to audio

Playlist formats

Audio editing and music production

Recorded television formats

Source code for computer programs

Spreadsheet

Tabulated data

Video

Video editing, production

Video game data

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

Minecraft

files used by Mojang to develop Minecraft

TrackMania/Maniaplanet Engine

Formats used by games based on the TrackMania engine.

Doom engine

Formats used by games based on the Doom engine.

Quake engine

Formats used by games based on the Quake engine.

Unreal Engine

Formats used by games based on the Unreal engine.

Duke Nukem 3D Engine

Formats used by games based on this engine

Diablo Engine

Formats used by Diablo by Blizzard Entertainment.

Real Virtuality Engine

Formats used by Bohemia Interactive. Operation:Flashpoint, ARMA 2 , VBS2

Roblox studio engine

RBXL – Roblox Studio place file (XML, binary) RBXM – Roblox Studio model file (XML, binary) RBXLX – Roblox Studio place file (exclusively XML) RBXMX – Roblox Studio model file (exclusively XML)

Source engine

Formats used by Valve. Half-Life 2 , Counter-Strike: Source , Day of Defeat: Source , Half-Life 2: Episode One , Team Fortress 2 , Half-Life 2: Episode Two , Portal , Left 4 Dead , Left 4 Dead 2 , Alien Swarm , Portal 2 , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Titanfall , Insurgency , Titanfall 2 , Day of Infamy

Pokemon generation V

Other formats

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 read-only memory (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 one file or ROM, rather an entire file or ROM structure contained within one file on the backup medium. [34]

Virtual machines

Microsoft Virtual PC, Virtual Server

VMware ESX, GSX, Workstation, Player

VirtualBox

Parallels Workstation

QEMU

Web page

Static

Dynamically generated

Markup languages and other web standards-based formats

Other

Cursors

Generalized files

General data formats

These file formats are fairly well defined by long-term use or a general standard, but the content of each file is often highly specific to particular software or has been extended by further standards for specific uses.

Text-based

Generic file extensions

These are filename extensions and broad types reused frequently with differing formats or no specific format by different programs.

Binary files

  • .bak, .bk – Bak file various backup formats: some just copies of data files, some in application-specific data backup formats, some formats for general file backup programs
  • BIN – binary data, often memory dumps of executable code or data to be re-used by the same software that originated it
  • DAT – data file, usually binary data proprietary to the program that created it, or an MPEG-1 stream of Video CD
  • DSK – file representations of various disk storage images
  • RAW – raw (unprocessed) data
  • SZH – files that are associated with zero unique file types (the most prevalent being the Binary Data format)

Text files

  • .cnf, .conf, .cfg – configuration file substantially software-specific
  • .log – logfiles usually text, but sometimes binary
  • .asc, .text, .txt – human-readable plain text, usually no more specific

Partial files

Differences and patches

  • diff – text file differences created by the program diff and applied as updates by patch

Incomplete transfers

Temporary files

Hacking game files

See also

Related Research Articles

A file viewer is a utility application software on operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, or Windows. The file viewer is responsible for user access of files located on a data storage device. File viewers allow the user to open and view content on a device, such as a Personal Computer (PC) or a mobile phone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Flash</span> Discontinued multimedia platform used to add animation and interactivity to websites

Adobe Flash is a discontinued multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDF</span> Portable Document Format, a digital file format

Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF has its roots in "The Camelot Project" initiated by Adobe co-founder John Warnock in 1991. PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008. The last edition as ISO 32000-2:2020 was published in December 2020.

X3D is a set of royalty-free ISO/IEC standards for declaratively representing 3D computer graphics. X3D includes multiple graphics file formats, programming-language API definitions, and run-time specifications for both delivery and integration of interactive network-capable 3D data. X3D version 4.0 has been approved by Web3D Consortium, and is under final review by ISO/IEC as a revised International Standard (IS).

A GIS file format is a standard for encoding geographical information into a computer file, as a specialized type of file format for use in geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial applications. Since the 1970s, dozens of formats have been created based on various data models for various purposes. They have been created by government mapping agencies, GIS software vendors, standards bodies such as the Open Geospatial Consortium, informal user communities, and even individual developers.

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.

Universal 3D (U3D) is a compressed file format standard for 3D computer graphics data.

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.

Open XML Paper Specification is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). In June 2009, Ecma International adopted it as international standard ECMA-388.

Design Web Format (DWF) is a file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of rich design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files. Because DWF files are highly compressed, they are smaller and faster to transmit than design files, without the overhead associated with complex CAD drawings. With DWF functionality, publishers of design data can limit the specific design data and plot styles to only what they want recipients to see and can publish multisheet drawing sets from multiple AutoCAD drawings in a single DWF file. They can also publish 3D models from most Autodesk design applications.

A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, designed by the company or organization to be secret, such that the decoding and interpretation of this stored data is easily accomplished only with particular software or hardware that the company itself has developed. The specification of the data encoding format is not released, or underlies non-disclosure agreements. A proprietary format can also be a file format whose encoding is in fact published, but is restricted through licences such that only the company itself or licensees may use it. In contrast, an open format is a file format that is published and free to be used by everybody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quick View</span> Windows file viewer software

Quick View is a file viewer in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems. The viewer can be used to view practically any file.

The following is a comparison of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books.

Xena is open-source software for use in digital preservation. Xena is short for XML Electronic Normalising for Archives.

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