All Supported Formats

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a widely used lossy compression format for digital photographs and web images. It achieves significant file size reduction by discarding visual information that is less perceptible to the human eye. JPEG supports 24-bit color and is the most common format for storing and sharing photographic images.

JPEG is identical to JPG and refers to the same lossy image compression standard developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. The .jpeg extension is the full-length version of the file extension, while .jpg originated from the three-character limit of early Windows file systems. Both extensions produce and read the exact same file format.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a lossless raster image format that supports full alpha transparency. It was created as a patent-free replacement for GIF and uses DEFLATE compression to reduce file sizes without any loss of quality. PNG is ideal for images that require transparency or need to be edited repeatedly without degradation.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a bitmap image format that supports up to 256 colors per frame and simple frame-based animation. Developed by CompuServe in 1987, it uses LZW lossless compression and remains popular for short looping animations on the web. GIF also supports binary transparency, allowing one color to be designated as fully transparent.

BMP (Bitmap) is an uncompressed or minimally compressed raster image format developed by Microsoft. It stores image data pixel by pixel with no quality loss, supporting color depths from 1-bit monochrome to 32-bit with alpha. BMP files are typically very large because most implementations store raw pixel data without compression.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a flexible, high-quality raster image format widely used in professional photography and publishing. It supports multiple compression methods including LZW and ZIP lossless compression, as well as uncompressed storage, and can store images with very high bit depths. TIFF also supports multiple pages, layers, and extensive metadata within a single file.

TIF is the shortened file extension for the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) standard, functionally identical to files with the .tiff extension. The three-character extension originated from the 8.3 filename limitation of early DOS and Windows systems. TIF files are commonly used in professional imaging workflows where lossless quality is essential.

WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides both lossy and lossless compression for web images. It typically achieves 25-35% smaller file sizes than JPEG at equivalent visual quality, and also outperforms PNG for lossless compression. WebP supports alpha transparency and animation, making it a versatile replacement for JPEG, PNG, and GIF on the web.

HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is a container format based on the HEIF standard that stores images compressed with the HEVC (H.265) codec. It is the default photo format on Apple devices running iOS 11 and later, offering roughly 50% file size reduction compared to JPEG at similar quality. HEIC supports advanced features including image sequences, depth maps, and auxiliary data.

HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) is an image container format standardized by MPEG that can store still images and image sequences using various codecs, most commonly HEVC. It was designed to supersede JPEG by offering better compression, higher quality, and richer features such as image derivations and non-destructive edits. HEIF serves as the underlying standard for Apple HEIC format.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with support for interactivity and animation. Unlike raster formats, SVG images are defined by mathematical shapes and paths, allowing them to scale to any resolution without loss of quality. SVG files are human-readable text files that can be styled with CSS and manipulated with JavaScript.

ICO is an image format used to store icons in Microsoft Windows and for website favicons. A single ICO file can contain multiple images at different sizes and color depths, allowing the operating system or browser to select the most appropriate version. ICO files support sizes from 16x16 up to 256x256 pixels with up to 32-bit color depth including alpha transparency.

PSD (Photoshop Document) is the native file format for Adobe Photoshop, capable of storing layered images with full editing capabilities. It preserves layers, masks, adjustment layers, blend modes, text layers, vector paths, and smart objects in a single file. PSD supports color depths up to 32 bits per channel and multiple color spaces including RGB, CMYK, and Lab.

TGA (Truevision Graphics Adapter), also known as TARGA, is a raster graphics format originally developed by Truevision Inc. in 1984. It supports 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths with optional alpha channels and RLE compression. TGA remains widely used in the video game and 3D rendering industries due to its simplicity and reliable alpha channel support.

PCX (PiCture eXchange) is one of the earliest widely used bitmap image formats, originally developed by ZSoft Corporation for its PC Paintbrush program in the 1980s. It uses a simple run-length encoding (RLE) compression scheme and supports color depths from 1-bit to 24-bit. PCX was once the dominant bitmap format on DOS and early Windows platforms but has been largely superseded by PNG and JPEG.

PPM (Portable Pixmap Format) is a simple, uncompressed color image format belonging to the Netpbm family. It stores RGB pixel data in a straightforward human-readable ASCII or more compact binary format with a minimal header. PPM is valued for its extreme simplicity, making it easy to generate and parse programmatically.

PGM (Portable Graymap Format) is a grayscale image format in the Netpbm family, storing single-channel pixel intensity values. Like other Netpbm formats, it supports both ASCII (human-readable) and binary (compact) encoding modes. PGM is commonly used in academic and scientific contexts where simplicity and ease of programmatic manipulation are priorities.

PBM (Portable Bitmap Format) is the simplest format in the Netpbm family, storing binary (black and white) images where each pixel is either 0 or 1. It uses a minimal plain-text header followed by pixel data in ASCII or binary encoding. PBM is commonly used for monochrome images in programming education and simple image processing tasks.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) Radiance format, also known as RGBE, stores images with a high dynamic range of luminance values using a run-length encoded format. Developed by Greg Ward for the Radiance lighting simulation system, it encodes each pixel as three 8-bit mantissas and a shared 8-bit exponent. HDR images capture a much wider range of brightness than standard 8-bit formats.

OpenEXR is a high dynamic range raster image format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in visual effects and motion picture production. It supports 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point pixels, multiple compression methods, arbitrary image channels, and multi-part files. OpenEXR is the industry standard for storing intermediate and final rendered frames in VFX pipelines.

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a modern image format based on the AV1 video codec, offering significantly better compression than JPEG and WebP. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, HDR, wide color gamut, alpha transparency, and animated sequences. AVIF is developed as a royalty-free open standard by the Alliance for Open Media.

DNG (Digital Negative) is an open raw image format developed by Adobe as a universal standard for storing raw camera sensor data. It embeds the raw image data along with standardized metadata, color profiles, and optionally a JPEG preview within a TIFF-based container. DNG was designed to address the proliferation of proprietary raw formats from different camera manufacturers.

CR2 (Canon Raw version 2) is Canon's proprietary raw image format used by Canon DSLR and mirrorless cameras. It stores unprocessed sensor data with full bit depth, white balance, and exposure settings as metadata rather than baked-in adjustments. CR2 files provide maximum flexibility for post-processing, preserving all the data captured by the camera sensor.

NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) is Nikon's proprietary raw image format capturing unprocessed data directly from the camera sensor. It supports 12-bit and 14-bit color depth with optional lossless or lossy compression, and embeds complete camera metadata. NEF files give photographers full control over white balance, exposure, and other parameters during post-processing.

ARW (Alpha Raw) is Sony's proprietary raw image format used by Sony Alpha mirrorless and DSLR cameras. Based on the TIFF specification, it stores unprocessed 12-bit or 14-bit sensor data with complete metadata. ARW files can be either uncompressed or use Sony's lossy or lossless compressed raw encoding.

RAW is a general term for unprocessed image data files captured directly from a camera's image sensor, though the .raw extension itself is sometimes used as a generic raw container. Different camera manufacturers use various proprietary raw formats, but files labeled .raw contain minimally processed sensor data preserving maximum detail and dynamic range. These files require specialized software to develop into viewable images.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is a graphics file format based on the PostScript page description language, containing both vector and raster data. It was developed by Adobe and is widely used in professional print publishing, often embedding a low-resolution preview image alongside the full PostScript code. EPS files can describe complex combinations of text, vector graphics, and embedded images.

APNG (Animated Portable Network Graphics) is an extension of the PNG format that enables frame-based animation similar to GIF but with full 24-bit color and 8-bit alpha transparency. It was developed by Mozilla and stores animation frames as additional PNG chunks within the file. APNG files degrade gracefully in applications that do not support animation, displaying the first frame as a static PNG.

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is the most widely used lossy audio compression format, developed by the Fraunhofer Society and standardized in 1993. It achieves significant file size reduction by using psychoacoustic modeling to discard audio frequencies less perceptible to human hearing. MP3 typically compresses audio to about one-tenth of its original size while maintaining acceptable quality for most listeners.

WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is an uncompressed audio format developed by Microsoft and IBM, storing raw PCM audio data in a RIFF container. It preserves the full quality of the original audio recording with no compression artifacts. WAV files are commonly used in professional audio production where lossless quality is essential.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open-source lossless audio compression format that typically reduces file sizes by 40-60% compared to uncompressed WAV. It preserves the complete original audio data bit-for-bit, allowing perfect reconstruction of the source. FLAC supports high-resolution audio up to 32-bit depth and 655,350 Hz sample rate with embedded metadata and album art.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is a lossy audio compression standard designed as the successor to MP3, offering better sound quality at equivalent bitrates. It is the default audio format for Apple devices, YouTube, and many streaming platforms. AAC supports sample rates from 8 to 96 kHz and up to 48 channels of audio.

Ogg Vorbis is a free, open-source lossy audio compression format contained in the Ogg multimedia container. It was designed as a patent-free alternative to proprietary formats like MP3 and AAC, and generally provides better audio quality than MP3 at equivalent bitrates. Ogg Vorbis supports variable bitrate encoding and is widely used in open-source software and gaming.

WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a proprietary audio compression format developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows Media framework. It supports lossy, lossless, and voice-optimized encoding profiles. WMA was designed to compete with MP3 and offers comparable quality at lower bitrates, though its usage has declined significantly in favor of more universal formats.

M4A is an audio-only MPEG-4 container file that typically contains either AAC or Apple Lossless (ALAC) encoded audio. It was popularized by Apple as the default format for music purchased from the iTunes Store and ripped from CDs in iTunes. M4A files support rich metadata including album art, lyrics, and chapter markers.

Opus is a highly versatile, open-source lossy audio codec standardized by the IETF, excelling at both voice and music encoding. It dynamically adapts between low-latency speech coding and high-quality music encoding within a single stream, and consistently outperforms MP3, AAC, and Vorbis in quality comparisons. Opus supports bitrates from 6 kbps to 510 kbps and is designed for real-time interactive audio.

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) is an uncompressed audio format developed by Apple, based on the IFF (Interchange File Format) structure. Like WAV, it stores raw PCM audio data at full quality, but uses big-endian byte ordering. AIFF is the standard uncompressed audio format in macOS and professional audio production on Apple platforms.

AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) is a compressed audio format optimized specifically for speech encoding, widely used in mobile telecommunications. It employs adaptive bitrate encoding that adjusts between 4.75 and 12.2 kbps based on network conditions, prioritizing speech intelligibility over music quality. AMR is the standard speech codec for GSM and UMTS mobile networks worldwide.

AC3 (Audio Codec 3), also known as Dolby Digital, is a lossy multi-channel audio compression format developed by Dolby Laboratories. It supports up to 5.1 surround sound channels at bitrates up to 640 kbps and is the standard audio format for DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and digital television broadcasting. AC3 uses psychoacoustic modeling to achieve efficient compression of surround sound content.

AU is an audio file format introduced by Sun Microsystems and commonly associated with Unix and NeXT systems. It supports various encodings including uncompressed PCM, mu-law, and A-law compression, with a simple header structure. AU was one of the earliest audio formats supported on the web and remains used in Unix-based audio programming.

MKA (Matroska Audio) is the audio-only variant of the Matroska multimedia container format. It can encapsulate virtually any audio codec including FLAC, AAC, Vorbis, Opus, MP3, and DTS within a single flexible container. MKA supports multiple audio tracks, chapters, tags, and embedded artwork in an open-standard container.

MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is the most widely used digital video container format, capable of storing video, audio, subtitles, and metadata. It typically contains H.264 or H.265 encoded video with AAC audio, providing an excellent balance of quality and compression. MP4 is the standard format for web video, streaming, and virtually all modern video platforms.

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in 1992 as part of the Video for Windows framework. It stores video and audio data interleaved together and supports a wide variety of codecs. While AVI is a mature and widely supported format, it lacks many features found in modern containers such as native streaming support and variable frame rates.

MKV (Matroska Video) is a free, open-standard multimedia container that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, subtitle, and metadata tracks in a single file. It supports virtually any codec and is especially popular for high-definition video content with multiple audio and subtitle options. Matroska is designed to be future-proof with a flexible, extensible EBML-based structure.

MOV is the native video container format for Apple's QuickTime multimedia framework, supporting a wide range of codecs including H.264, H.265, ProRes, and Apple Intermediate Codec. It stores video, audio, timecode, and metadata tracks with high fidelity and is extensively used in professional video production. MOV files from Apple devices often use highly efficient HEVC encoding.

WMV (Windows Media Video) is a proprietary video compression format developed by Microsoft, based on the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container. It was designed for streaming and local playback on Windows platforms and includes built-in DRM support for content protection. WMV has largely been superseded by H.264/MP4 for most modern use cases.

FLV (Flash Video) is a container format that was used to deliver video content over the internet via Adobe Flash Player. It typically contains video encoded with Sorenson Spark or VP6 codecs and audio in MP3 or AAC format. FLV was once the dominant web video format but became obsolete after major browsers discontinued Flash Player support in 2020.

WebM is an open, royalty-free multimedia container format developed by Google, designed specifically for web video delivery. It contains VP8 or VP9 video codecs with Vorbis or Opus audio, and is natively supported by all major web browsers. WebM offers competitive compression efficiency while avoiding patent licensing requirements.

M4V is a video container format developed by Apple that is essentially identical to MP4 but may include Apple's FairPlay DRM copy protection. It typically contains H.264 video with AAC audio and is the standard format for video content purchased or rented from the Apple iTunes Store. Unprotected M4V files can generally be played by renaming them to .mp4.

MPG is a common file extension for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video files, standards developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-1 was the first widely used video compression standard (used in Video CDs), while MPEG-2 became the standard for DVD-Video and digital television broadcasting. MPG files contain multiplexed video and audio streams in a program or transport stream.

MPEG files use the full-length extension for MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video content, functionally identical to .mpg files. The MPEG video standard was groundbreaking when introduced, establishing the foundation for all modern video compression. MPEG-2 in particular remains in active use for broadcasting and DVD content despite being superseded by newer codecs for streaming.

3GP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is a multimedia container format designed for 3G mobile phones to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements. It stores video encoded with H.263 or MPEG-4 Part 2 and audio in AMR or AAC at low bitrates optimized for mobile networks. 3GP prioritizes small file sizes and low bandwidth over video quality.

OGV (Ogg Video) is a free, open-source video file format using the Theora video codec within the Ogg container, typically paired with Vorbis audio. It was created as a patent-free alternative to MPEG-4 and H.264 for web video delivery. While historically significant for open web standards, OGV has been largely superseded by WebM as the preferred open video format.

TS (MPEG Transport Stream) is a container format designed for broadcasting and streaming MPEG video over unreliable or lossy media. It divides content into small fixed-size packets (188 bytes) with error correction capabilities, allowing decoders to resynchronize after transmission errors. TS is the standard container for digital television broadcasting, Blu-ray discs, and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).

VOB (Video Object) is the container format used on DVD-Video discs, containing multiplexed MPEG-2 video, audio (AC3, DTS, or MPEG), subtitles, and navigation data. Each VOB file typically represents a portion of the DVD content, with files limited to approximately 1 GB due to the UDF filesystem used on DVDs. VOB files can include copy protection data such as CSS encryption.

ASF (Advanced Systems Format) is a proprietary digital container format developed by Microsoft primarily for streaming media. It can contain audio and video encoded with Windows Media codecs along with metadata, scripts, and DRM information. ASF serves as the underlying container for both WMV (video) and WMA (audio) files.

MXF (Material Exchange Format) is a professional container format standardized by SMPTE for the exchange of video and audio content along with comprehensive metadata. It is designed for broadcast and post-production workflows, supporting frame-accurate editing, timecode, and rich descriptive metadata. MXF wraps various professional codecs including DNxHD, ProRes, XDCAM, and AVC-Intra.

F4V is an Adobe Flash-compatible video container format based on the ISO base media file format (similar to MP4). Unlike the older FLV format, F4V supports H.264 video and AAC audio, providing significantly better quality and compression. F4V was introduced by Adobe to bring modern codec support to Flash Player before its eventual discontinuation.

M2TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream) is a container format used for Blu-ray discs and AVCHD camcorders, based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream standard with additional Blu-ray-specific extensions. It stores high-definition video (H.264, VC-1, or MPEG-2) with lossless or lossy surround sound audio. M2TS files preserve the full quality of Blu-ray disc content including multiple audio and subtitle tracks.

In the video conversion context, GIF serves as a simple animated image format that can represent short video clips as frame-based animations. Converting video to GIF creates a looping animation with no audio, limited to 256 colors per frame. Despite its technical limitations, animated GIF remains the most universal format for sharing short video clips as embeddable animations.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a universal document format developed by Adobe that preserves the exact layout, fonts, images, and formatting of a document regardless of the software or device used to view it. PDF supports interactive elements including forms, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and digital signatures. It is the de facto standard for sharing documents that must appear identical everywhere.

DOCX is the default document format for Microsoft Word since 2007, based on the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard. It stores document content as compressed XML files within a ZIP archive, supporting rich text formatting, images, tables, styles, and tracked changes. DOCX is the most widely used editable document format in business and education.

DOC is the legacy binary document format used by Microsoft Word from version 97 through 2003. It stores formatted text, images, and objects in a proprietary binary format based on the Compound File Binary Format. While superseded by DOCX, DOC files remain common in legacy document archives and are still readable by modern word processors.

ODT (OpenDocument Text) is an open-standard document format defined by the OASIS OpenDocument Format specification, using XML within a ZIP archive. It is the native format for LibreOffice Writer and Apache OpenOffice Writer, and is supported by many other word processors. ODT was designed as a vendor-neutral alternative to proprietary formats like DOC and DOCX.

RTF (Rich Text Format) is a document file format developed by Microsoft that supports basic text formatting including fonts, colors, bold, italic, and simple tables. It uses a plain-text markup syntax that is readable across virtually all word processors and operating systems. RTF was designed as an interchange format for formatted documents between different applications.

TXT (Plain Text) is the simplest document format, containing only unformatted text characters with no styling, images, or metadata. It uses standard character encodings like ASCII or UTF-8 and can be opened by any text editor on any platform. Plain text files are the most universal and long-lived document format in computing.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. It defines the structure and content of documents using tags, and can incorporate CSS for styling and JavaScript for interactivity. HTML documents are rendered by web browsers and serve as the foundation of the World Wide Web.

XLSX is the default spreadsheet format for Microsoft Excel since 2007, based on the Office Open XML standard. It stores data in worksheets organized into rows and columns, supporting formulas, charts, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and macros. XLSX uses ZIP-compressed XML files, resulting in smaller file sizes than the legacy XLS format.

XLS is the legacy binary spreadsheet format used by Microsoft Excel from version 97 through 2003. It stores worksheets with data, formulas, charts, and formatting in a proprietary binary structure. While superseded by XLSX, XLS files remain prevalent in legacy business systems and archives.

ODS (OpenDocument Spreadsheet) is an open-standard spreadsheet format defined by the OASIS OpenDocument specification. It is the native format for LibreOffice Calc and Apache OpenOffice Calc, storing data, formulas, charts, and formatting in XML within a ZIP archive. ODS provides a vendor-neutral alternative to proprietary Excel formats.

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a plain-text tabular data format where each line represents a row and values within a row are separated by commas. It is the most universal format for exchanging structured data between different applications, databases, and programming languages. CSV files contain only raw data with no formatting, formulas, or multiple sheets.

TSV (Tab-Separated Values) is a plain-text tabular data format identical in concept to CSV but using tab characters instead of commas as delimiters. Tabs are less likely to appear naturally in data fields compared to commas, reducing the need for quoting and escaping. TSV is commonly used in bioinformatics, data science, and text processing.

PPTX is the default presentation format for Microsoft PowerPoint since 2007, based on the Office Open XML standard. It stores slides with text, images, animations, transitions, speaker notes, and multimedia in a ZIP-compressed XML structure. PPTX is the dominant format for business and educational presentations worldwide.

PPT is the legacy binary presentation format used by Microsoft PowerPoint from version 97 through 2003. It stores slides with text, images, and basic animations in a proprietary binary structure. While superseded by PPTX, PPT files remain common in legacy archives and are supported by modern presentation software.

ODP (OpenDocument Presentation) is an open-standard presentation format defined by the OASIS OpenDocument specification. It is the native format for LibreOffice Impress and Apache OpenOffice Impress, storing slides with text, images, transitions, and animations in XML within a ZIP archive. ODP provides a vendor-neutral alternative to proprietary PowerPoint formats.

Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber that uses simple text formatting syntax to create structured documents. It is designed to be readable as plain text while also being convertible to HTML and other formats. Markdown has become the standard for documentation, README files, and content authoring across the software development ecosystem.

TeX/LaTeX is a typesetting system and document preparation language developed by Donald Knuth (TeX) and Leslie Lamport (LaTeX), widely used in academia for producing high-quality scientific and mathematical documents. LaTeX uses markup commands to define document structure and formatting, excelling at complex mathematical notation, bibliographies, and cross-references. It produces publication-quality output, typically compiled to PDF.

EPUB (Electronic Publication) is an open e-book standard maintained by the W3C, using XHTML content with CSS styling packaged in a ZIP container. It supports reflowable text that adapts to different screen sizes and devices, as well as fixed-layout content for graphic-rich publications. EPUB is the most widely supported e-book format across non-Amazon e-readers and reading applications.

TTF (TrueType Font) is a font format developed jointly by Apple and Microsoft in the late 1980s, using quadratic Bezier curves to define glyph outlines. It supports font hinting instructions that optimize rendering at small sizes on screen, and includes tables for kerning, ligatures, and other typographic features. TTF remains one of the most widely used font formats across all operating systems.

OTF (OpenType Font) is an advanced font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe that extends TrueType with support for PostScript cubic Bezier outlines (CFF/CFF2) and advanced typographic features. OpenType fonts can contain up to 65,536 glyphs, supporting extensive language coverage and sophisticated typographic features like stylistic alternates, swashes, and contextual ligatures. OTF is the preferred format for professional typography.

WOFF (Web Open Font Format) is a web font format that wraps TrueType or OpenType font data with additional compression and metadata in a web-optimized container. It was developed by the W3C to provide a standardized, compressed font format specifically for web delivery. WOFF typically achieves 40% compression compared to raw TTF/OTF files.

WOFF2 (Web Open Font Format 2.0) is the successor to WOFF, using Brotli compression to achieve approximately 30% better compression than WOFF and over 50% reduction compared to raw TTF/OTF files. It is the recommended web font format for modern websites due to its superior compression and universal browser support. WOFF2 also includes font-specific preprocessing to further optimize compression.

EPUB (Electronic Publication) is the most widely adopted open e-book standard, maintained by the W3C. It packages XHTML content, CSS styling, images, and metadata in a ZIP container with reflowable text that adapts to any screen size. EPUB 3 adds support for multimedia, scripting, and advanced accessibility features including text-to-speech and screen reader compatibility.

MOBI (Mobipocket) is an e-book format originally developed by Mobipocket SA and later acquired by Amazon for the Kindle platform. It is based on the Open eBook standard with proprietary extensions for DRM and Kindle-specific features. While Amazon has largely transitioned to newer KF8/AZW3 formats, MOBI remains widely used for sideloading e-books onto older Kindle devices.

AZW3, also known as Kindle Format 8 (KF8), is Amazon's modern e-book format that replaced MOBI as the primary Kindle format. It is essentially a modified EPUB wrapped in Amazon's proprietary container, supporting HTML5, CSS3, embedded fonts, and advanced layout features not available in MOBI. AZW3 files provide significantly better formatting and typography on Kindle devices and apps.

PDF (Portable Document Format) is used for e-books that require fixed-layout presentation preserving exact page design, typography, and image placement. Unlike reflowable e-book formats, PDF e-books display identically on every device, making them ideal for illustrated content, textbooks with complex layouts, and academic publications. PDF e-books support bookmarks, hyperlinks, and annotations.

FB2 (FictionBook 2.0) is an XML-based e-book format popular primarily in Russia and Eastern Europe. It stores book content with structured metadata including author information, genre classification, and series data in a single XML file. FB2 separates content structure from presentation, allowing reading applications to apply their own styling while preserving the logical document hierarchy.

Plain text files serve as the simplest possible e-book format, containing only raw text with no formatting, images, or metadata. Despite their limitations, plain text e-books are universally readable on any device and platform, and are commonly used for public domain literature distribution through Project Gutenberg. Text files ensure maximum accessibility and long-term preservation.

RTF (Rich Text Format) is occasionally used as an e-book interchange format, providing basic text formatting capabilities including fonts, bold, italic, and paragraph styling. It offers a middle ground between plain text and fully featured e-book formats, with universal readability across word processors. RTF is sometimes used as an intermediate format when converting between e-book formats.

HTML files can function as basic e-books, offering formatted text with headings, images, hyperlinks, and CSS styling viewable in any web browser. Many e-book conversion tools accept HTML as input or produce it as output, since EPUB itself is essentially packaged HTML. Single-file HTML e-books provide a simple way to distribute readable content without requiring specialized e-book software.

DOCX files are commonly used as e-book source manuscripts before conversion to distribution formats like EPUB or MOBI. Microsoft Word and compatible editors provide a familiar writing environment with rich formatting, styles, and heading structure that maps well to e-book chapter organization. Many e-book conversion tools like Calibre accept DOCX as a primary input format.

ZIP is the most widely used archive format, combining file bundling and compression in a single container. Developed by Phil Katz in 1989, it uses per-file DEFLATE compression and supports password-based encryption. ZIP is natively supported by Windows, macOS, and Linux without requiring additional software, making it the universal choice for file distribution and sharing.

TAR (Tape Archive) is a Unix archive format that bundles multiple files and directories into a single file while preserving file permissions, ownership, timestamps, and symbolic links. TAR itself performs no compression; it is purely an archival format. TAR is almost always used in combination with a compression tool like gzip, bzip2, or xz to create compressed archives.

GZ (gzip) is a compression format using the DEFLATE algorithm, developed by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free replacement for the Unix compress utility. Gzip compresses a single file or data stream and is most commonly used in combination with TAR to create .tar.gz archives. It is the standard compression format for web content delivery via HTTP compression.

BZ2 (bzip2) is a compression format using the Burrows-Wheeler block-sorting algorithm, providing significantly better compression ratios than gzip at the cost of slower speed. Developed by Julian Seward, bzip2 compresses a single file or data stream and is commonly paired with TAR to create .tar.bz2 archives. It is widely used in the open-source community for distributing source code.

XZ is a compression format using the LZMA2 algorithm, providing the best compression ratios among common Unix compression tools. It was designed as a replacement for bzip2 and gzip in the .tar.xz combination, achieving significantly smaller files at the cost of higher memory usage and slower compression speed. XZ has become the default compression for many Linux distribution packages.

7z is an archive format developed by Igor Pavlov for the 7-Zip archiver, using LZMA and LZMA2 compression algorithms by default. It supports multiple compression methods, solid compression (compressing multiple files as a single data stream), AES-256 encryption, and very large file sizes. 7z typically achieves 30-70% better compression than ZIP for similar content.

TAR.GZ (also written as .tgz) combines the TAR archival format with gzip compression, creating a compressed archive of multiple files and directories. This two-step process first bundles files into a TAR archive preserving Unix permissions and structure, then compresses the result with gzip. TAR.GZ is the most common archive format on Unix and Linux systems.

TAR.BZ2 combines the TAR archival format with bzip2 compression, offering better compression ratios than tar.gz at the cost of slower processing speed. Like tar.gz, it preserves Unix file attributes including permissions, ownership, and timestamps. TAR.BZ2 is commonly used when smaller archive sizes are preferred over faster compression and extraction.

TAR.XZ combines the TAR archival format with XZ (LZMA2) compression, providing the best compression ratios available among standard Unix archive formats. It produces significantly smaller archives than tar.gz or tar.bz2, making it the preferred choice for distributing large software packages. TAR.XZ has become the default release format for the Linux kernel and many major open-source projects.

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a plain-text tabular data format where each line represents a row and values are separated by commas. It is the most universal format for exchanging structured data between databases, spreadsheets, and programming languages. CSV files contain only raw data with no formatting, types, or structural hierarchy.

TSV (Tab-Separated Values) is a plain-text tabular data format using tab characters as delimiters instead of commas. Since tabs rarely appear in data values, TSV avoids many of the quoting and escaping complexities of CSV. TSV is particularly popular in bioinformatics, linguistics, and data processing pipelines.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight, text-based data interchange format derived from JavaScript object literal syntax. It supports nested objects, arrays, strings, numbers, booleans, and null values in a hierarchical structure. JSON has become the dominant data format for web APIs, configuration files, and modern application data exchange.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible, self-describing markup language designed for storing and transporting structured data. It uses hierarchical tags to define data elements and supports schemas (XSD), namespaces, and transformations (XSLT) for validation and processing. XML was the dominant data interchange format before JSON and remains essential in enterprise systems, SOAP web services, and document formats.

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-friendly data serialization format that uses indentation and minimal punctuation to represent hierarchical data structures. It supports scalars, sequences, mappings, comments, and multi-line strings with a syntax designed for readability. YAML is the preferred configuration format for DevOps tools, CI/CD pipelines, and Kubernetes.

TOML (Tom's Obvious Minimal Language) is a configuration file format designed to be easy to read and write while mapping unambiguously to a hash table. Created by Tom Preston-Werner (co-founder of GitHub), it uses a simple key-value syntax with explicit typing and supports tables, arrays, dates, and inline tables. TOML avoids the indentation pitfalls of YAML and the verbosity of JSON for configuration.

XLSX is a structured data format based on Office Open XML that organizes data in worksheets with rows, columns, formulas, and formatting. In the data conversion context, XLSX provides a rich tabular data container with multiple sheets, data types, and cell formatting that goes beyond what CSV or TSV can represent. It is the most common format for sharing structured business data.

ODS (OpenDocument Spreadsheet) is an open-standard tabular data format that stores structured data with formatting, formulas, and multiple sheets in a ZIP-compressed XML container. It provides similar capabilities to XLSX but as a vendor-neutral open standard. ODS is the native format for LibreOffice Calc and is supported by most spreadsheet applications.

Apache Parquet is a columnar binary storage format designed for efficient data processing and analytics at scale. It organizes data by columns rather than rows, enabling highly efficient compression and encoding schemes that exploit column-level data patterns. Parquet is the standard storage format for big data ecosystems including Apache Spark, Hadoop, and cloud data lakes.

INI (Initialization) is a simple plain-text configuration format that organizes key-value pairs into named sections. It was widely used in Windows applications and remains common in many cross-platform configuration scenarios. INI files use a straightforward syntax with section headers in square brackets and key=value pairs, with support for comments.

SRT (SubRip Subtitle) is the most widely used text-based subtitle format, storing numbered subtitle entries with timestamps and plain text content. Each entry contains a sequence number, start and end timestamps in HH:MM:SS,mmm format, and one or more lines of text. SRT is supported by virtually every media player and video platform due to its simplicity and ubiquity.

ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) is a feature-rich subtitle format that extends SSA with advanced styling, positioning, animation, and drawing capabilities. It supports multiple named styles with fonts, colors, borders, and shadows, as well as per-line override tags for effects like fading, movement, rotation, and karaoke highlighting. ASS is the standard format for styled anime subtitles.

SSA (SubStation Alpha) is a subtitle format that introduced styled subtitles with named styles, font selection, color control, and basic positioning. It was developed for the SubStation Alpha subtitle editor and later extended into the ASS format. SSA supports multiple subtitle styles, collision detection, and basic timing and display features.

WebVTT (Web Video Text Tracks) is the W3C standard subtitle and caption format designed for use with HTML5 video elements. It is based on SRT with additional features including CSS-based styling, cue positioning, vertical text support, and chapter markers. WebVTT is the only subtitle format natively supported by all modern web browsers for HTML5 video playback.

SUB (MicroDVD Subtitle) is a frame-based subtitle format that uses frame numbers rather than timestamps for timing synchronization. Each line contains start and end frame numbers enclosed in curly braces followed by the subtitle text, with pipe characters separating multiple display lines. SUB requires knowing the video frame rate to correctly synchronize subtitle display timing.

JSON-based subtitle formats store timed text data in structured JSON objects, commonly used by web applications, speech-to-text services, and modern video platforms. Various JSON subtitle schemas exist, including those used by YouTube auto-captions, Amazon Transcribe, and custom web video players. JSON subtitles can include rich metadata such as speaker identification, confidence scores, and word-level timing.

STL (Stereolithography) is a 3D model format that represents surfaces as a collection of unstructured triangular facets, each defined by a unit normal vector and three vertices. Originally developed by 3D Systems for stereolithography 3D printing in 1987, it stores only geometry with no color, texture, or material information. STL exists in both ASCII and binary variants, with binary being more compact.

OBJ (Wavefront Object) is a widely used plain-text 3D model format that stores geometry including vertices, texture coordinates, normals, and polygon faces. Developed by Wavefront Technologies, it supports polygonal meshes with optional material and texture references through companion .mtl (Material Template Library) files. OBJ is one of the most universally supported 3D interchange formats.

PLY (Polygon File Format or Stanford Triangle Format) is a flexible 3D model format designed for storing data from 3D scanners, supporting per-vertex properties like color, normals, and custom attributes. It was developed at Stanford University and supports both ASCII and binary encoding. PLY is particularly common in 3D scanning, point cloud processing, and computer graphics research.

GLB (GL Transmission Format Binary) is the binary container version of glTF 2.0, packaging the JSON scene description, binary geometry buffers, and texture images into a single self-contained file. Developed by the Khronos Group, it is designed as the "JPEG of 3D" for efficient transmission and loading of 3D content. GLB supports PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials, skeletal animation, and morph targets.

OFF (Object File Format) is a simple plain-text 3D model format that stores polygon meshes as lists of vertices and face definitions. It was developed at Princeton University and uses a minimal header followed by vertex coordinates and face indices. OFF is commonly used in computational geometry research and academic settings due to its simplicity.

DAE (COLLADA - COLLAborative Design Activity) is an XML-based 3D interchange format managed by the Khronos Group, designed for exchanging digital assets between different 3D content creation tools. It supports geometry, materials, textures, animations, physics, kinematics, and complete scene hierarchies in a rich XML schema. COLLADA serves as a comprehensive interchange format for complex 3D scenes.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based vector graphics format standardized by the W3C for describing two-dimensional graphics. It defines images using mathematical paths, shapes, text, and transformations that render perfectly at any resolution. SVG supports CSS styling, JavaScript interactivity, animation (SMIL), gradients, filters, and clipping paths.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is a vector graphics format based on the PostScript page description language, capable of containing vector paths, text, and embedded raster images. It includes a bounding box definition and optional low-resolution preview for display in applications that cannot interpret PostScript. EPS has been an industry standard in professional print production for decades.

PDF (Portable Document Format) serves as a versatile vector graphics container based on PostScript, preserving vector paths, text, fonts, and images with exact fidelity. In the vector conversion context, PDF maintains mathematical precision of vector elements while supporting transparency, color management, and embedded fonts. PDF has largely replaced EPS as the preferred vector interchange format for print production.

DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data interchange format developed by Autodesk to enable interoperability between AutoCAD and other CAD programs. It represents 2D and 3D vector geometry including lines, arcs, circles, polylines, dimensions, and text in a tagged ASCII or binary format. DXF is the most widely supported vector format for technical drawings and manufacturing data.

EMF (Enhanced Metafile) is a Windows vector graphics format that records GDI (Graphics Device Interface) drawing commands for resolution-independent rendering. It is the enhanced successor to WMF, supporting 32-bit coordinates, more drawing primitives, and embedded device-independent bitmaps. EMF is commonly used for vector graphics clipboard operations and printing on Windows.

WMF (Windows Metafile) is a legacy Windows vector graphics format that records 16-bit GDI drawing commands. It was the original metafile format for Windows and stores vector drawing operations including lines, shapes, text, and embedded bitmaps. WMF has been largely superseded by EMF but remains relevant for legacy compatibility with older Windows applications and documents.