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List of open file formats
open-in-new
<h2 id="multimedia">Multimedia</h2> <h3>Imaging</h3> <ul><li><a href="/facts/APNG/3DWjB2s5">APNG</a> – It allows for animated <a href="/facts/Portable_Network_Graphics/mwgK6xw5">PNG</a> files that work similarly to animated <a href="/facts/GIF/HfIBWrIC">GIF</a> files.</li> <li><a href="/facts/AVIF/d07UxHgf">AVIF</a> – An image format using <a href="/facts/AV1/d07UxHgf">AV1</a> compression.</li> <li><a href="/facts/FLIF/3C5cNcUY">FLIF</a> – Free Lossless Image Format.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Gerber_format/VJLmFm9j">GBR</a> – a <a href="/facts/2D_computer_graphics/j6dBxDpX">2D</a> binary vector image file format, the de facto standard in the printed circuit board (PCB) industry</li> <li><a href="/facts/Graphics_Interchange_Format/HfIBWrIC">GIF</a> – CompuServe's Graphics Interchange Format (openly published specification, but patent-encumbered by a third party; became free when patents expired in 2004)</li> <li><a href="/facts/JPEG/HQ8QS3uB">JPEG</a> – a lossy image format widely used to display photographic images, standardized by ISO/IEC</li> <li><a href="/facts/JPEG_2000/GAzXdHI2">JPEG 2000</a> – an image format standardized by ISO/IEC</li> <li><a href="/facts/JPEG_XL/gU0o8Kcr">JPEG XL</a> – an image format designed to outperform and replace existing formats. Especially <a href="/facts/JPEG/HQ8QS3uB">legacy JPEG</a>. Supports both lossy and lossless compression.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Multiple-image_Network_Graphics/BcLEmY46">MNG</a> – moving pictures, based on PNG</li> <li><a href="/facts/OpenEXR/Qrr9TgYb">OpenEXR</a> – a high dynamic range imaging image file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).</li> <li><a href="/facts/OpenRaster/0qzQWxFH">OpenRaster</a> – a format for raster graphics editors that saves layers</li> <li><a href="/facts/Portable_Network_Graphics/mwgK6xw5">PNG</a> – a raster image format standardized by ISO/IEC</li> <li><a href="/facts/QOI_(image_format)/fvQV7bWm">QOI</a> – a simple, fast and lossless open source image file format <a href="https://qoiformat.org/">https://qoiformat.org/</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Scalable_Vector_Graphics/ARq5C3YV">SVG</a> – a vector image format standardized by W3C</li> <li><a href="/facts/WebP/W5Gv7mhf">WebP</a> – image format developed by <a href="/facts/Google/GT9Sugza">Google</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/X_PixMap/4DqfE6Gf">XPM</a> – image file format used by the <a href="/facts/X_Window_System/ac2vRIQL">X Window System</a></li></ul> <h3>Audio</h3> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Apple_Lossless/a0D0hzbK">ALAC</a> – lossless audio codec, previously a <a href="/facts/Proprietary_format/9j6BjD7t">proprietary format</a> of <a href="/facts/Apple_Inc./oTJYta3k">Apple Inc.</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/FLAC/TbqpHlWy">FLAC</a> – lossless <a href="/facts/Audio_codec/DkXoa6YP">audio codec</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/DAISY_Digital_Talking_Book/MRmEGH8Y">DAISY Digital Talking Book</a> – a talking book format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Musepack/GX6WMwkl">Musepack</a> – an audio codec</li> <li><a href="/facts/MP3/yrBpxUSD">MP3</a> – lossy audio codec, previously patented</li> <li><a href="/facts/Ogg/TBjabnot">Ogg</a> – container for <a href="/facts/Vorbis/rqJDTF0T">Vorbis</a>, <a href="/facts/FLAC/TbqpHlWy">FLAC</a>, <a href="/facts/Speex/M7xqnPxN">Speex</a> and <a href="/facts/Opus_(audio_format)/VP4KuGre">Opus</a> (audio formats) & <a href="/facts/Theora/RnlKRQBb">Theora</a> (a video format), each of which is an open format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Opus_(audio_format)/VP4KuGre">Opus</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> – a lossy audio compression format developed by the <a href="/facts/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force/tIcCsFhX">IETF</a>. Suitable for <a href="/facts/VoIP/5QGBbXYg">VoIP</a>, videoconferencing (just audio), music transmission over the Internet and streaming applications (just audio).</li> <li><a href="/facts/Speex/M7xqnPxN">Speex</a> – speech codec</li> <li><a href="/facts/Vorbis/rqJDTF0T">Vorbis</a> – a lossy audio compression format.</li> <li><a href="/facts/WavPack/MN8nT9Gj">WavPack</a> – "Hybrid" (lossless/lossy) audio codec</li></ul> <h3>Video</h3> <ul><li><a href="/facts/AV1/d07UxHgf">AV1</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Dirac_(video_compression_format)/RJGIIss7">Dirac</a> – a video compression format supporting both lossless and lossy compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Matroska/hDrffBx0">Matroska (mkv)</a> – container for all type of multimedia formats (audio, video, images, subtitles)</li> <li><a href="/facts/WebM/tP4xgYJc">WebM</a> – a video/audio container format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Theora/RnlKRQBb">Theora</a> – a lossy video compression format.</li></ul> <h3>Various</h3> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Wavefront_.obj_file/zEr5znPH">OBJ</a> - A 3D model/scene format developed by Wavefront Technologies.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Collada/SEslfjPj">DAE</a> - A 3D model/scene format standardized by Khronos.</li> <li><a href="/facts/GlTF/yjTo1Psp">glTF</a> - A 3D model/scene format standardized by Khronos.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Continuous_Media_Markup_Language/Yqx9u1rx">CMML</a> – timed metadata and subtitles</li> <li><a href="/facts/Synchronized_Multimedia_Integration_Language/JhWwHaa0">SMIL</a> – a media playlisting format and multimedia integration language<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/VRML/EkNXun7G">VRML</a>/<a href="/facts/X3D/4PHPbmHl">X3D</a> – realtime 3D data formats standardized by ISO/IEC</li> <li><a href="/facts/XML_Shareable_Playlist_Format/VBU90Xob">XSPF</a> – a playlist format for multimedia</li></ul> <h3>Text</h3> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Plain_text/TSlSSAg2">Plain text</a> – encoded in numerous non-proprietary encodings, such as <a href="/facts/ASCII/vGUI33Qu">ASCII</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Comma-separated_values/dv1pSR1r">CSV</a> – comma-separated values, commonly used for <a href="/facts/Spreadsheet/0cvc1GeB">spreadsheets</a> or simple <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">databases</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Hypertext_Markup_Language/sSc3fT78">HTML</a> – HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Unicode_Transformation_Format/DDu3MfPV">Unicode Transformation Formats</a> – text <a href="/facts/Character_encoding/ShJHIMoA">encodings</a> with support for all common languages and scripts <ul><li><a href="/facts/UTF-8/xlaVHSyf">UTF-8</a> – <a href="/facts/Byte_oriented/FXd1gTfC">byte oriented</a> and ASCII compatible</li> <li><a href="/facts/UTF-16/ofSmbCem">UTF-16</a> – 16-bit oriented</li></ul></li> <li><a href="/facts/Markdown/yAL6qk7M">Markdown</a> – Lightweight markup language that converts to HTML</li> <li><a href="/facts/DVI_(file_format)/afmP6zeJ">DVI</a> – device independent (TeX)</li> <li><a href="/facts/DocBook/8RpRVfCQ">DocBook</a> – <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a>-based standard to publish books</li> <li><a href="/facts/Darwin_Information_Typing_Architecture/mTDd9vU3">Darwin Information Typing Architecture</a> – adaptable XML-based format for technical documentation, maintained by the <a href="/facts/OASIS_(organization)/a2r8y7tX">OASIS</a> consortium<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/EPUB/5K41t91V">ePub</a> – e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)</li> <li><a href="/facts/FictionBook/h3h4xq9C">FictionBook</a> – XML-based e-book format, which originated and gained popularity in Russia</li> <li><a href="/facts/LaTeX/c1lvjF0A">LaTeX</a> – document markup language</li> <li><a href="/facts/Office_Open_XML/294uNJrf">Office Open XML</a> – a formatted text format (ISO/IEC 29500:2008);<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> see <a href="/facts/Office_Open_XML/294uNJrf">Licensing</a> for details</li> <li><a href="/facts/OpenDocument/pMtcVuNr">OpenDocument</a> – a formatted text format (ISO/IEC 26300:2006);<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> see <a href="/facts/OpenDocument/pMtcVuNr">Licensing</a> for details</li> <li><a href="/facts/OpenXPS/u2W4ES5g">OpenXPS</a> – open standard for a page description language and a fixed-document format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Portable_Document_Format/C9Mn1vYL">PDF</a> started as a proprietary standard. PDF version 1.7 was standardized as ISO 32000-1<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> in 2008. However, some technologies indispensable for the full implementation of ISO 32000-1 are defined only by Adobe and remain proprietary (e.g. Adobe XML Forms Architecture, Adobe JavaScript).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> ISO 32000-2:2017 (PDF 2.0) does not include these dependencies. Various subsets of PDF have been standardized to meet a variety of needs, including ISO 15930 (<a href="/facts/PDF/X/T8N8m8fw">PDF/X</a>), ISO 19005 (<a href="/facts/PDF/A/pYs3Gxy1">PDF/A</a>), ISO 14829 (<a href="/facts/PDF/UA/xdYonMQk">PDF/UA</a>) and ISO 24517 (<a href="/facts/PDF/E/DY02KbYB">PDF/E</a>). The <a href="/facts/PDF_Association/MRmBWPCc">PDF Association</a> has also standardized <a href="https://www.pdfa.org/publication/pdfraster-1-0/">PDF/raster</a>).</li> <li><a href="/facts/PostScript/h2XwbcmC">PostScript</a> – a <a href="/facts/Page_description_language/aUNGG3uU">page description language</a> and <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming language</a>, started as a proprietary standard but is now a public specification.</li> <li><a href="/facts/XHTML/6qHnmJSg">XHTML</a> – XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely used Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language in which web pages are written.</li> <li><a href="/facts/ZIM_(file_format)/d434z9TG">ZIM</a> – a file format that stores <a href="/facts/Wiki/uCKCEzqb">wiki</a> content for offline usage.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="archiving-and-compression">Archiving and compression</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/7z/qG1rNuWr">7z</a> – for archiving and/or compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/B1_(archive_format)/t3Fa8ajx">B1</a> – for archiving and/or compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Bzip2/waffQ2m0">bzip2</a> – for compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Gzip/H23uqvyx">gzip</a> – for compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Lzip/nBIgH6hH">lzip</a> – for compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Mozilla_Archive_Format/zWkf6aeh">MAFF</a> – for web page archiving, based on <a href="/facts/ZIP_(file_format)/qDrrYIB9">ZIP</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/PAQ/puvtoFtK">PAQ</a> – for compression</li> <li>SQX – for archiving and/or compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/Tar_(file_format)/DCJ37j3d">tar</a> – for archiving</li> <li><a href="/facts/XZ_Utils/HkIBGKps">xz</a> – for compression</li> <li><a href="/facts/ZIP_(file_format)/qDrrYIB9">ZIP</a> – for archiving and/or compression; the base format is in the public domain, but newer versions have some patented features<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="other">Other</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Cascading_Style_Sheets/tA90XBQo">CSS</a> – style sheet format usually used with (X)HTML, standardized by <a href="/facts/W3C/lGWmhF6M">W3C</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/DjVu/gDukkcd1">DjVu</a> – file format for scanned images or documents</li> <li><a href="/facts/EAS3/f68IWqvF">EAS3</a> – binary file format for <a href="/facts/Floating_point/eIckahxe">floating point</a> data</li> <li><a href="/facts/Executable_and_Linkable_Format/ro2CYqso">ELF</a> – Executable and Linkable Format</li> <li><a href="/facts/FreeOTFE/QM6pwR3n">FreeOTFE</a> – container for encrypted data</li> <li><a href="/facts/GPS_eXchange_Format/w4LPXvF7">GPX</a> – GPs eXchange format – for describing waypoints, tracks and routes</li> <li><a href="/facts/Hierarchical_Data_Format/IaIFvRP1">HDF</a> – multi-platform data format for storing multidimensional arrays, among other data structures</li> <li><a href="/facts/HTML/sSc3fT78">HTML</a>/<a href="/facts/XHTML/6qHnmJSg">XHTML</a> – <a href="/facts/Markup_language/WwhlNVIu">markup language</a> for <a href="/facts/Web_page/5JK7xQLe">web pages</a> (ISO/IEC 15445:2000)</li> <li><a href="/facts/ICalendar/0hbY7Pt2">iCalendar</a> – calendar data format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Industry_Foundation_Classes/7fGMA75q">IFC</a> – data model describing building and construction industry data</li> <li><a href="/facts/JSON/bs1rUAhd">JSON</a> – object notation, subset of <a href="/facts/YAML/mAY10H2Y">YAML</a> and correct <a href="/facts/ECMAScript/M7nDHsB5">ECMAScript</a> statement</li> <li><a href="/facts/Linear_Tape_File_System/6IXU3sEQ">LTFS</a> – Linear Tape File System</li> <li><a href="/facts/LUKS/mKPeeurF">LUKS</a> – disk-encryption specification originally intended for Linux</li> <li><a href="/facts/NetCDF/DUwTEW7n">NetCDF</a> – data format for multidimensional arrays</li> <li><a href="/facts/NZB/vgu3FIAN">NZB</a> – for multipart binary files on <a href="/facts/Usenet/lYJWFBR6">Usenet</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Resource_Description_Framework/WMufyukm">RDF</a> - graph based data model standardized by W3C, includes 7 standard serializations, N-Triples, N-Quads, Turtle, TriG, RDF/XML, JSON-LD and RDFa</li> <li><a href="/facts/RSS/WBAWrkdj">RSS</a> – syndication</li> <li><a href="/facts/SDXF/kMIeNHpn">SDXF</a> – the Structured Data eXchange Format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Simple_file_verification/Xzb02KRA">SFV</a> – checksum format</li> <li><a href="/facts/Thing_Description/jEFWcQQC">Thing Description</a> – file format for <a href="/facts/W3C/lGWmhF6M">W3C</a> <a href="/facts/Web_of_Things/ak4Bn1cA">Web of Things</a> data models</li> <li><a href="/facts/TrueCrypt/vK1yL9Io">TrueCrypt</a> – discontinued container for encrypted data</li> <li><a href="/facts/Web_Open_Font_Format/Ev5CvN9P">WOFF</a> – font file format used in webpages</li> <li>XCF – GIMP project file</li> <li><a href="/facts/Extensible_Markup_Language/clNgUfWk">XML</a> – a general-purpose <a href="/facts/Markup_language/WwhlNVIu">markup language</a>, standardized by <a href="/facts/W3C/lGWmhF6M">W3C</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/YAML/mAY10H2Y">YAML</a> – human readable data serialization format</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: <i>FOSS Open Standards</i> <ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130205134336/http://www.openformats.org/main">OpenFormats</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Free File Format Definition". LINFO.org. Retrieved 11 February 2007. <a href="http://www.linfo.org/free_file_format.html" target="_blank">http://www.linfo.org/free_file_format.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Opus Interactive Audio Codec". Retrieved 1 October 2013. <a href="http://opus-codec.org/" target="_blank">http://opus-codec.org/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Synchronized Multimedia Home page". W3C. <a href="http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1)". W3C. <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/PR-SMIL2-20050927/" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/PR-SMIL2-20050927/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC". OASIS. Retrieved 7 July 2016. <a href="https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita" target="_blank">https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"Publication of ISO/IEC 29500:2008, Information technology - Document description and processing languages - Office Open XML file formats". ISO. 18 November 2008. Archived from the original on 15 May 2019. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190515154536/https://www.iso.org/news/2008/11/Ref1181.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190515154536/https://www.iso.org/news/2008/11/Ref1181.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"ISO/IEC 26300:2006 - Information technology – Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0". ISO. <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=43485" target="_blank">http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=43485</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"ISO 32000-1:2008 – Document management – Portable document format – Part 1: PDF 1.7". International Organization for Standardization. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2010. <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51502" target="_blank">http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51502</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Duff Johnson (10 June 2010), Is PDF an open standard? – Adobe Reader is the de facto Standard, not PDF, archived from the original on 4 April 2014, retrieved 19 January 2014 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140404153803/http://www.planetpdf.com/enterprise/article.asp?ContentID=Is_PDF_an_open_standard&page=1" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20140404153803/http://www.planetpdf.com/enterprise/article.asp?ContentID=Is_PDF_an_open_standard&page=1</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Leonard Rosenthol (2012). "PDF and Standards" (PDF). Adobe Systems. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130902000323/http://cdn.parleys.com/p/5148922a0364bc17fc56c6e5/iSUM2012_00_LRO_presentation.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20130902000323/http://cdn.parleys.com/p/5148922a0364bc17fc56c6e5/iSUM2012_00_LRO_presentation.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>"openZIM". <a href="http://www.openzim.org/Main_Page" target="_blank">http://www.openzim.org/Main_Page</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>".ZIP Application Note". PKWARE. Archived from the original on 29 December 2010. Retrieved 24 December 2010. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101229011602/http://www.pkware.com/support/zip-app-note" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20101229011602/http://www.pkware.com/support/zip-app-note</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>"Latest OOX-ODF FUD-Spat: States Prepare to Ban Zip and PDF Files". Orcmid's Lair. 7 February 2007. Retrieved 24 December 2010. <a href="http://orcmid.com/blog/2007/02/latest-oox-odf-fud-spat-states-prepare.asp" target="_blank">http://orcmid.com/blog/2007/02/latest-oox-odf-fud-spat-states-prepare.asp</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Livingston, Brian (8 September 2003). "PKZip Must Open Up". eWEEK. Retrieved 24 December 2010. <a href="http://brianlivingston.com/eweek/article2/0,4149,1257562,00.html" target="_blank">http://brianlivingston.com/eweek/article2/0,4149,1257562,00.html</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>"Extensible Markup Language (XML)". W3C. <a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/XML/</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>