List of File Formats with Types and Extensions

File Formats store a large variety of raw information in a structured format so that the data can be easily stored, processed, and harnessed. A file format is a standard way of storing data on a computer file. There are multiple types of file formats present which can be used to store and retrieve data efficiently. We will discuss the unique features and use cases for different kinds of file formats and compare them.

As the technology is growing it has become more important to save the data in an organised and structured manner.

Most Used file formats

Explore a wide range of common file formats and learn how to work with them effectively.

• Text: This type of file contains only text without any formatting and can be opened with any text editor.
  Different types of text formats include: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf, .wpd
• Image: This file type includes binary information about images and defines how the image will be stored and compressed.
  Different types of Image File Format include: .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .HEIF
• Audio: This type of file format stores audio data. It stores raw data in an encoded format and uses codec to perform compression and decompression.
  Different types of Audio file formats include .aac, .mp3, .wav
• Video: This type of file format contains digital video data. It performs lossy compression to store video data where audio and video are separately encoded and stored.
  Different types of Video File Formats include: .amv, .mpeg, .flv, .avi
• Program: These file formats store codes that can be run on the computer through compiling or interpreting.
  Different types of Programming File Formats include: .c, .java, .py, .js
• Compressed/Archive: These files store data in a compressed format on the computer and can be used to easily transport data between computers. These files need to be decompressed before use.
  Different types of Compressed File Formats include: .iso, .rar, .tar, .7z
• Web page: These files include information related to the website, web pages, and server. these generally include programming scripts for static or dynamic web pages. 
  Different types of Web Page File Format include: .html, .asp, .css, .xps.

Recent File format published articles.

Text File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.txt	Plain Text	The most basic text file format, containing only ASCII characters and carriage returns to separate lines.
.rtf	Rich Text Format	A more advanced text file format that allows basic formatting like bold, italics, and font styles.
.docx	Word Open XML Document	Commonly used by Microsoft Word for storing and saving documents
.csv	Comma-Separated Values	A simple format for storing tabular data, with each row representing a data record and commas separating fields.
.doc	Word Document	Used for word processing documents stored in Microsoft Word Binary File Format
.wps	WPS Office Word Document	A proprietary document file format developed by Kingsoft Office.
.wpd	WordPerfect Document	A document file format associated with WordPerfect, a word processing software.
.msg	Message	Microsoft Outlook message format; contains email messages with formatting, attachments, and other information.

Image File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.jpg	Joint Photographic Experts Group	A lossy compression format that is commonly used for photographs and other images with a lot of detail.
.png	Portable Network Graphics	A lossless compression format that is commonly used for images with sharp edges or text.
.webp	Web Picture Format	It Supports both lossy and lossless image compression with support of 24-bit RGB color.
.gif	Graphics Interchange Format	The limited-color format is commonly used for animations and small images.
.tif	Tagged Image File Format	High-quality format that is commonly used for professional photography and printing.
.bmp	Bitmap	An uncompressed format that is commonly used by Microsoft Windows.
.eps	Encapsulated PostScript file	A vector format that is commonly used for print graphics.

Audio File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.mp3	MP3 Audio File	Commonly used for storing and distributing music.
.wma	Windows Media Audio	Developed by Microsoft for audio compression, often used for streaming and downloading music.
.snd	Sound	A generic file extension for sound files, often associated with audio data.
.wav	WAVE Audio File	Commonly used for storing and recording audio.
.ra	RealAudio	It’s a playlist file format that is commonly used for storing and distributing playlists.
.au	Audio	Used for storing audio data, commonly associated with Sun Microsystems.
.aac	Advanced Audio Coding	Used as an in-vogue sound field design for packed virtual sound and tune data.

Video File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.mp4	MPEG-4 Video File	Multimedia container format that commonly stores video and audio data.
.3gp	3GPP Multimedia File	Multimedia container format that is commonly used for mobile phones.
.avi	Audio Video Interleave File	An older multimedia container format that is still supported by many devices.
.mpg	MPEG Video File	Older video compression format that is still supported by some devices.
.mov	Apple QuickTime Movie	The format that is commonly used by Apple devices.
.wmv	Windows Media Video File	The format that is commonly used by Microsoft devices.

Program File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.c	C/C++ Source Code File	General-purpose programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs between 1969 and 1972.
.cpp	C++ source Code File	A general-purpose programming language developed by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension to the C programming language.
.java	Java Source Code File	Programming language created by Sun Microsystems that is now owned by Oracle Corporation.
.py	Python script	The programming language was developed by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991.
.js	Javascript	A scripting language that is primarily used to add interactivity to web pages.
.ts	TypeScript	A superset of JavaScript that adds optional static typing.
.cs	C# Ssource Code File	A programming language developed by Microsoft as part of the .NET framework.
.swift	Swift Source Code File	Programming language developed by Apple for developing iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux applications
.dta	Document Type Definition File	A data storage format commonly used by Stata, a statistical software program.
.pl	Perl Script	A programming language developed by Larry Wall at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the early 1980s.
.sh	Bash Shell Script	A shell scripting language commonly used to automate tasks on Unix-like operating systems
.bat	Batch file	Batch file format used to automate tasks on Windows systems; contains a series of commands to be executed by the command interpreter.
.com	Command file	A COM file is an executable file format used for programs on older Windows systems. COM files have limited functionality compared to modern formats.
.exe	Executable file	An executable file is a type of computer file that contains compiled code that can be run directly by the operating system. Executable files are commonly used to run programs.

Compressed/Archive File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.rar	WinRAR Compressed Archive	A proprietary file archiver developed by Eugene Roshal.
.zip	Zipped File	A lossless data compression format that packages multiple files into a single archive file.
.hqx	BinHex	A Macintosh binary-to-text encoding format, often used to transfer binary files through email.
.arj	Archived by Robert Jung	A file compression format, similar to ZIP and RAR, used to compress and archive files.
.tar	Compressed Tarball File	This file archiving format groups multiple files into a single archive file.
.arc	ARC archive file	An ARC file is an archive file format used for compressing and storing files. ARC is an outdated format and has been replaced by ZIP and other newer options.
.sit	StuffIt archive file	A SIT file is an archive file format used on Macintosh systems. SIT is similar to ARC but is specific to Macs.
.gz	GZIP compressed file	A GZ file is a file format created with gzip compression. Gzip shrinks the size of files for storage and transmission.
.z	Compressed file	A Z file is a compressed file format associated with the “compress” compression program on Unix systems.

Web page File Formats

Extension	Full Form	Description
.html	HyperText Markup Language File	HTML is the standard markup language for creating web pages.
.htm	HyperText Markup Language File	Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document format with the less common file extension; identical to .html files.
.xhtml	Extensible Hypertext markup language File	This is a markup language that combines HTML with XML.
.asp	Active Server page	A web development technology that allows developers to create dynamic web pages using server-side scripting.
.css	Cascading Style Sheet	This is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a web page.
.aspx	Active Server Page Extended File	This allows developers to create dynamic web pages using server-side scripting in ASP.NET.
.rss	Rich Site Summary	This is a web feed format that allows users to subscribe to updates from websites.

Features of File Formats

• Structure Data: File Formats have a basic structure of how data should be stored in the file.
• Extension: Extensions are useful so that the operating system can check which type of file is being used.
• Metadata: This is the data that stores useful information about the file such as author name, license, etc.
• Interoperability: This feature enables multiple systems to use the same file format.

FAQs(Frequently Asked Questions):

What is the importance of file formats?

Ans. File formats are necessary as they help to determine in what structure the data will be stored, accessed, processed, archived and processed. It sets a standard to store information in a computer file.

What is a file extension and why it is important?

Ans. File extension are characters written after period symbol in a file name. They are used by the operating systems to define which program is the file associated with. File extensions indicate the file format and cannot be renamed.

What are JSON, CSV and XMl file formats used for?

Ans. JSON is used for data exchange in modern day web development as it is lightweight and compact. CSV is used when the amount of data to send is large and there are bandwidth issues. XML was used in document markups and its popularity has decreased after the introduction of JSON.

How to choose a file format for storing data for a project?

Ans. To choose a data format, we should have a clear understanding of what type of data we are going to work with. If the data is to be kept lightweight and compact we should prefer JSON format for storing data. If we want a structure data in format of row and column an the amount of data is large we should use XML anf if we are working on legacy projects we will generally work with XML data format for document markups.