Information about List Of File Formats

This is a list of file formats organized by type, as can be found on computers. Filename extensions are usually noted in parentheses if they differ from the format name or abbreviation. In theory, using the English alphabet (A-Z) and a three character extension, the number of combinations amounts to 17,576 (26³). If other acceptable characters are included, the maximum number of combinations is 195,112 (26+31)³. Unix-like systems have never had a three character limit on extensions, and Microsoft Windows NT, 95, 98, and Me don't have a three character limit on extensions for 32-bit or 64-bit applications on file systems other than pre-Windows 95/Windows NT 3.5 versions of the FAT file system, so some file system types are given extensions longer than three characters.

Archive and compressed

Main article: List of archive formats

• .?Q? — files compressed by the SQ program.
• 7z — 7-Zip compressed file
• ace
• ALZ — Alzip format
• AT3 - Sony's UMD Data compression (90mb compressed to 900kb)
• ARC
• ARJ
• big Special file compression format used by Electronic Arts for compressing the data for many of EA's games
• BKF (.bkf) — Microsoft backup created by NTBACKUP.EXE
• bzip2 (.bz2)
• cab — Microsoft Cabinet
• cpt/sea — Compact Pro (Macintosh)
• DAA — Closed-format, Windows-only compressed disk image
• deb — Debian Linux install package
• DMG — an Apple compressed/encrypted format
• EEA — An encrypted CAB, ostensibly for protecting e-mail attachments
• EGT (.egt) EGT Universal Document also used to create compressed cabinet files replaces .ecab
• ECAB (.ECAB, .ezip) EGT Compressed Folder used in advanced systems to compress entire system folders, replaced by EGT Universal Document
• ESS (.ess) EGT SmartSense File, detects files compressed using the EGT compression system.
• GHO (.gho, .ghs) — Norton Ghost
• gzip (.gz) — Compressed file
• jar — ZIP file with manifest for use with Java applications.
• LBR — Library file
• LQR — LBR Library file compressed by the SQ program.
• LHA (.lzh) - Lempel, Ziv, Huffman
• lzo
• lzx
• MacBinary (.bin)
• PAK — Enhanced type of .ARC archive
• Parchive (.par, .par2)
• Doom³ archive (.pk4) (Opens similarly to a zip archive.)
• RAR Rar Archive (.rar), for multiple file archive (rar to .r01-.r99 to s01 and so on)
• sit/sitx — StuffIt (Macintosh)
• tar
• .tar.gz, .tgz (gzipped tar file)
• TIB (.tib) — Acronis TrueImage
• uha (Ultra High Archive Compression)
• VSA — Altiris Virtual Software Archive
• Z — Unix compress file
• zoo
• zip

Physical recordable media archiving

• ISO - The generic file format for most optical media, including CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and UMD.
• IMG - For archiving MS-DOS formatted floppy disks.
• ADF - Amiga Disk Format, for archiving Amiga floppy disks

* ADZ - The GZip-compressed version of ADF.

* DMS - Disk Masher System, a disk-archiving system native to the Amiga.

• DSK - For archiving floppy disks from a number of other platforms, including the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
• D64 - An archive of a Commodore 64 floppy disk.

Computer-aided

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

Computer-aided design (CAD)

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

• ART — ArtCAM model
• ASC — BRL-CAD Geometry File (old ascii format)
• CCC — CopyCAD Curves
• CCM — CopyCAD Model
• CCS — CopyCAD Session
• CAD — CadStd
• DWG — AutoCAD and Open Design Alliance applications
• DGN — MicroStation design file
• DGK — Delcam Geometry
• DMT — Delcam Machining Triangles
• DXF — ASCII Drawing Interchange file format - AutoCAD
• EMB - Wilcom - Wilcom ES Designer Embroidery CAD file
• EXCELLON, or Excellon file
• FM — FeatureCAM Part File
• FMZ — FormZ Project file
• G — BRL-CAD Geometry File
• GERBER, or Gerber file
• ICD — IronCAD 2D CAD file
• IGES— Initial Graphics Exchange Specification
• Intergraph's Intergraph Standard File Formats
• Industry Foundation Classes for sharing AEC and FM data.
• PRT — Unigraphics, Pro/ENGINEER
• PLN — ArchiCad project
• PSMODEL — PowerSHAPE Model
• PWI — PowerINSPECT File
• RLF — ArtCAM Relief
• SLDASM — SolidWorks Assembly drawing
• SLDDRW — SolidWorks 2D drawing
• SLDPRT — SolidWorks 3D part model
• Softimage's dotXSI
• STEP — Standard for the Exchange of Product model data
• STL Stereo Lithographic data format (see ) used by various CAD systems and stereo lithographic printing machines.

Electronic design automation (EDA)

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

• GDSII
• OASIS, Open Artwork System Interchange Standard
• OpenAccess
• SPICE netlist format (see SPICE, netlist)
• LEF/DEF
• Intel HEX
• MS10 - NI Multisim file

Test technology

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

• Standard Test Data Format

Database

• ACCDB — Microsoft Database (Microsoft Office Access 2007)
• DB — Paradox
• DBF — DBase, DBase III/IV/V, Microsoft FoxPro, Oracle
• EGT - EGT Universal Document, used to compress sql databases to smaller files, may contain original EGT database style.
• ESS - EGT SmartSense is a databse of files and its compression style. Specific to EGT SmartSense
• EAP — Enterprise Architect Project
• FDB — Firebird Databases
• FP? — FileMaker
• FRM — MySQL table definition
• GDB — Borland InterBase Databases
• KEXI — Kexi database file (SQLite-based)
• KEXIC — shortcut to a database connection for a Kexi databases on a server
• MDB (.mdb, .ldb) — Microsoft Database (Access)
• ADP — Microsoft Access project (used for accessing databases on a server)
• MDE — Compiled Microsoft Database (Access)
• MDF — Microsoft SQL Server Database
• MYD — MySQL MyISAM table data
• MYI — MySQL MyISAM table index
• NSF — Lotus Notes database
• NTF — Lotus Notes database design template
• ODB — OpenOffice.org Base
• ORA — Oracle tablespace files sometimes get this extension (also used for configuration files)
• PDI — Portable Database Image
• SQL — bundled SQL queries
• WDB — Microsoft Works Database

Document

These files store formatted text.

ABW — AbiWord document AFP — Advanced Function Presentation — IBc Amigaguide ANS — ANSI text with Layout ASC — ASCII text with Layout AWW Ability Write CSV — ASCII text encoded as Comma Separated Values, used in most spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel or by most database management systems CWK — ClarisWorks / AppleWorks document DOC — Microsoft Word document DOCX — Microsoft Word 2007 XML based format DOT — Microsoft Word document template DOTX — Microsoft Word 2007 document template EGT - EGT Universal Document HTML — HyperText Markup Language (.html, .htm) HWP — Haansoft Hangul Word Processor document LWP — Lotus Word Pro MCW — Microsoft Word for Macintosh (versions 4.0 — 5.1) NB — Mathematica Notebook NBP — Mathematica Player Notebook ODT — OpenDocument Text document

OTT — OpenDocument text document template PAGES — Apple Pages document PAP — Papyrus word processor document Radix-64 RTF — Rich Text document SDW — StarWriter text document, used in earlier versions of StarOffice STW — StarOffice/OpenOffice.org/NeoOffice text document template SXW — StarOffice/OpenOffice.org/NeoOffice text document TeX (.tex) Texinfo (.info) Troff TXT — ASCII or Unicode raw text file UOML — UniqueObject Markup Language (UOML) is a XML-based markup language; uniqueobject.com WPD — WordPerfect document WPS — Microsoft Works document WPT — Microsoft Works document template WRF — ThinkFree Write WRI — Microsoft Write document XHTML (.xhtml, .xht) XML — eXtensible Markup Language — broader than just documents — OpenOffice employs XML

Font file

• ABF — Adobe Binary Screen Font
• AFM — Adobe Font Metrics
• BDF — Bitmap Distribution Format
• BMF — ByteMap Font Format
• FON — Bitmapped Font — Microsoft Windows
• MGF — MicroGrafx Font
• OTF — OpenType Font
• PCF — Portable Compiled Font
• PostScript Font — Type 1, Type 2
• PFA — Printer Font ASCII
• PFB — Printer Font Binary — Adobe
• PFM — Printer Font Metrics — Adobe
• FOND — Font Description resource — Mac OS
• SNF — Server Normal Format
• TFM — TeX font metric
• TTF (.ttf, .ttc) — TrueType Font

Geographic information system

• APR (ESRI ArcView 3.3 and earlier project file)
• DEM (USGS DEM file format)
• E00 (ARC/INFO interchange file format)
• GeoTIFF (Geographically located raster data)
• GPX (XML-based interchange format)
• MXD (ESRI ArcGIS project file, 8.0 and higher)
• SHP (ESRI shapefile)
• World TIFF (Geographically located raster data: text file giving corner coordinate, raster cells per unit, and rotation)
• DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data)
• KML (Keyhole Markup Language, XML-based)

Graphical information organizers

• 3DT — 3D Topicscape The database in which the meta-data of a 3D Topicscape is held. A 3D Topicscape is a form of 3D concept map (like a 3D mind-map) used to organize ideas, information and computer files.
• ATY — 3D Topicscape file, produced when an association type is exported by 3D Topicscape. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).
• FES — 3D Topicscape file, produced when a fileless occurrence in 3D Topicscape is exported to Windows. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).
• MM — FreeMind mind map file (XML).
• MMP — Mind Manager mind map file.
• TPC — 3D Topicscape file, produced when an inter-Topicscape topic link file is exported to Windows. Used to permit round-trip (export Topicscape, change files and folders as desired, re-import them to 3D Topicscape).

Graphics

Main article: graphics file formats

Raster graphics

Raster (or Bitmap) files store images as a group of pixels.

ACT — Adobe Color Table. Contains a raw color palette and usually consists of 256 24-bit RGB colour values. ART — America Online proprietary format BMP — Microsoft Windows Bitmap formatted image BLP — Blizzard Entertainment proprietary texture format CIT — Intergraph is a monochrome bitmap format CPT — Corel PHOTO-PAINT image CUT — Dr. Halo image file DIB — Device-Independent Bitmap graphic DjVu — DjVu for scanned documents EGT - EGT Universal Document, used in EGT SmartSense to compress *.png to yet a smaller file Exif — Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras GIF — CompuServe's Graphics Interchange Format ICNS — file format use for icons in Mac OS X. Contains bitmap images at multiple resolutions and bitdepths with alpha channel. ICO — a file format used for icons in Microsoft Windows. Contains small bitmap images at multiple resolutions and sizes. IFF (.iff, .ilbm, .lbm) — ILBM JNG — a single-frame MNG using JPEG compression and possibly an alpha channel. JPEG, JFIF (.jpg or .jpeg) — a lossy image format widely used to display photographic images. JP2 — JPEG2000 LBM — Deluxe Paint image file MAX — ScanSoft PaperPort document MIFF — ImageMagick's native file format MNG — Multiple Network Graphics, the animated version of PNG MSP — a file format used by old versions of Microsoft Paint. Replaced with BMP in Microsoft Windows 3.0 NITF — A U.S. Government standard commonly used in Intelligence systems PBM — Portable bitmap PC1 — Low resolution, compressed Degas picture file PC2 — Medium resolution, compressed Degas picture file PC3 — High resolution, compressed Degas picture file PCF — Pixel Coordination Format PCX — a lossless format used by ZSoft's PC Paint, popular at one time on DOS systems.

PDN — Paint.NET image file PGM — Portable graymap PI1 — Low resolution, uncompressed Degas picture file PI2 — Medium resolution, uncompressed Degas picture file PI3 — High resolution, uncompressed Degas picture file PICT, PCT — Apple Macintosh PICT image PNG — Portable Network Graphic (lossless, recommended for display and edition of graphic images) PNM — Portable Any Map graphic bitmap image PPM — Portable Pixmap (Pixel Map) image PSB — Adobe Photoshop Big image file (for large files) PSD, PDD — Adobe Photoshop Drawing PSP — Paint Shop Pro image PX — Pixel image editor image file PXR — Pixar Image Computer image file QFX — QuickLink Fax image RAW — General term for minimally processed image data (acquired by a digital camera) RLE — a run-length encoded image SCT — Scitex Continuous Tone image file SGI, RGB, INT, BW — Silicon Graphics Image TGA (.tga, .targa, .icb, .vda, .vst, .pix) — Truevision TGA (Targa) image TIFF (.tif or .tiff) Tagged Image File Format (usually lossless, but many variants exist, including lossy ones) XBM — X Window System Bitmap XCF — GIMP image (from Gimp's origin at the eXperimental Computing Facility of the University of California) XPM — X Window System Pixmap

Vector graphics

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

• AWG — Ability Draw
• AI — Adobe Illustrator Document
• EPS — Encapsulated Postscript
• CGM — Computer Graphics Metafile an ISO Standard
• CDR — CorelDRAW vector image
• CMX — CorelDRAW vector image
• DXF — ASCII Drawing Interchange file Format, used in AutoCAD and other CAD-programs
• EGT - EGT Universal Document, EGT Vector Draw images are used to draw vector to a website
• SVG — Scalable Vector Graphics, employs XML
• Scene description languages (3D vector image formats)
• MOVIE.BYU
• RenderMan
• VRML — Virtual Reality Modeling Language
• X3D
• WMF — Windows Meta File
• EMF — Enhanced (Windows) MetaFile, an extension to WMF

3D graphics

3D graphics are 3D models that allow you to build models in real-time or non real-time 3D rendering.

• 3DMF — QuickDraw 3D Metafile (.3dmf)
• 3DS,MAX — 3D Studio Max Model (.max, .3ds)
• AC — AC3D Model (.ac)
• AN8 — Anim8or Model (.an8)
• AOI — Art of Illusion Model (.aoi)
• B3D — Blitz3D Model (.b3d)
• BLEND — Blender (.blend)
• COB — Caligari Object (.cob)
• CFL — Compressed File Library (.cfl)
• DAE — COLLADA (.dae)
• DTS — Torque Game Engine (.dts)
• EGG — Panda3D Engine
• FACT — Electric Image (.fac)
• G — BRL-CAD geometry (.g)
• GLM - Ghoul Mesh (.glm)
• LWO — Lightwave Object (.lwo)
• LWS — Lightwave Scene (.lws)
• LXO — Luxology Modo (software) file (.lxo)
• MA — Alias Maya ASCII File (.ma)
• MB — Alias Maya Binary File (.mb)
• MESH — Meshwork Model (.mesh)
• NIF Gamebryo NetImmerse File (.nif)
• OBJ — OBJ (.obj)
• RWX — RenderWare Object (.rwx)
• SLDASM — SolidWorks Assembly Document (.sldasm)
• SLDPRT — SolidWorks Part Document (.sldprt)
• WINGS — Wings3D (.wings)
• X — DirectX 3D Model (.x)
• Z3D — Zmodeler (.z3d)

Object code, executable files, shared and dynamically-linked libraries

• .8BF files are plugins for some photo editing programs including Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, GIMP and Helicon Filter.
• a.out (no suffix for executable image, .o for object files, .so for shared object files; classic UNIX object format, now often superseded by ELF)
• .Class files, used in Java
• COFF (no suffix for executable image, .o for object files) UNIX Common Object File Format, now often superseded by ELF
• COM files, used in DOS
• .EAR files, archives of Java enterprise applications
• EGT is a basic Universal Document and also Launches the EGT SmartSense executable file, like it replace the exe. I don't know how it works.
• ELF (no suffix for executable image, .o for object files, .so for shared object files) used in many modern Unix and Unix-like systems, including Solaris, other System V Release 4 derivatives, Linux, and BSD)
• DOS executable (.exe; used in DOS)
• .JAR files, archives of Java class files
• .XPI (which is a PKZIP archive that can be run by Mozilla web browsers to install software) (.xpi)
• Mach-O (no suffix for executable image, .o for object files, .dylib and .bundle for shared object files) Mach based systems, notably native format of Mac OS X)
• NetWare Loadable Module (.NLM); the native 32-bit binaries compiled for Novell's NetWare Operating System (versions 3 and newer)
• New Executable (.EXE; used in DOS 4.0 and later, 16-bit Microsoft Windows, and OS/2)
• Portable Executable (.EXE, .DLL; used in Microsoft Windows and some other systems)
• Preferred Executable Format (Mac OS versions 9 and under; compatible with Mac OS X via the Classic emulator)
• .s1es — Executable used for S1ES learning system.
• Value Added Process (.VAP); the native 16-bit binaries compiled for Novell's NetWare Operating System (version 2, NetWare 286, Advanced NetWare, etc.)
• .WAR files, archives of Java Web applications
• XBE XBox executable
• XCOFF (no suffix for executable image, .o for object files, .a for shared object files) extended COFF, used in AIX
• XEX XBox 360 executable

Object Extensions

*.VBX — Visual Basic Extensions

*.OCX — Object Control Extensions

• .tlb — Windows Type Library

Page description language

• DVI
• EGT Universal Document can be used to store css type styles (*.egt)
• PCL
• PDF
• PostScript (.ps, .ps .gz)
• SNP — Microsoft Access Report Snapshot
• XPS
• XSL-FO (Formatting Objects)
• Configurations, Metadata
• CSS
• XSLT,XSL — XML Style Sheet (.xslt, .xsl)
• TPL — Web template (.tpl)

Presentation

• KEY, KEYNOTE — Apple Keynote Presentation
• NB — Mathematica slideshow
• NBP — Mathematica Player slideshow
• ODP — OpenDocument presentation
• OTP — OpenDocument presentation template
• PPS — Microsoft PowerPoint Show
• PPT — Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation
• PRZ — Lotus Freelance Graphics
• SHF — ThinkFree Show
• STI — OpenOffice.org 1.* Presentation template
• SXI — OpenOffice.org 1.* Presentation
• WATCH — Dataton Watchout Presentation

Scientific data formats (data exchange)

• IMG,HDR — Analyze (.img/.hdr)
• CDF — Common Data Format http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdf/cdf_home.html
• FITS Flexible Image Transport format — Standard data format for astronomy http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/
• NetCDF Network common data format http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/netcdf/docs.html
• HDR, [HDF]ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/Solid_Earth/Access_Tools/FREEFORM/documentation/ffu31.pdf, h4 or h5 — Hierarchical Data Format http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
• MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital imaging format, used by the FreeSurfer brain analysis package.
• MGZ, Massachusetts General Hospital zip, used by the FreeSurfer brain analysis package.
• SDXF (Structured Data Exchange Format)
• SPC (Spectroscopic data)
• DCM — DICOM format
• EAS3 - EAS3 binary file format for structured data

Meteorology

• GRIB - Grid In Binary, WMO format for weather model data
• BUFR - WMO format for weather observation data
• NetCDF Network common data format http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/netcdf/docs.html
• PP - UK Met Office format for weather model data
• NASA-Ames - Simple text format for observation data. First used in aircraft studies of the atmosphere.

Chemical/biological file formats

• Chemical - Typical examples (Details can be found in the chemical file format article.)
• CML — Chemical Markup Language (CML) (.cml)
• Chemical table file (CTab) (.mol, .sd, .sdf)
• Joint Committee on Atomic and Molecular Physical Data (JCAMP) (.dx, .jdx)
• Simplified molecular input line entry specification (SMILES) (.smi)

Biology

• Molecular biology:
• SCF,ABI - DNA Chromatogram files
• FASTA - The FASTA file format, for sequence data
• ACE - Sequence assembly format
• PHD - Phred output, from the basecalling software Phred

Script

• ASL — anim8or scripting language
• ASP — Active Server Pages
• AU3 — AutoIt version 3
• BAT — Batch file
• BAS — QBasic & QuickBASIC
• BB — Blitz3D
• BMAX — BlitzMax
• CMD — Batch file
• EGG — Chicken
• EGT — EGT Asterisk Application Source File, EGT Universal Document
• HTA — HTML Application
• ICI — ICI
• ITCL — Itcl
• JS — JavaScript
• LUA — Lua
• M — Mathematica package file
• MRC — mIRC Script
• NCF — NetWare Command File (scripting for Novell's NetWare OS)
• NUT — Squirrel
• PHP — PHP
• PHP? — PHP (? = version number)
• PL — Perl
• PS1 — Windows PowerShell shell script
• PS1XML — Windows PowerShell format and type definitions
• PSC1 — Windows PowerShell console file
• PY — Python
• PYC — Python
• PYO — Python
• RB — Ruby
• SCPT — Applescript
• SH — Shell script
• TCL — Tcl
• VBS — Visual Basic Script

Signal data formats (non-audio)

• ACQ — AcqKnowledge File Format for Windows/PC from Biopac
• BKR — The EEG data format developed at the University of Technology Graz
• BDF — BioSemo data format — similar to EDF but 24bit
• CFWB — Chart Data File Format from ADInstruments
• EDF — European data format
• FEF — File Exchange Format for Vital signs
• GDF — General data formats for biomedical signals
• GMS — Gesture And Motion Signal format
• IROCK — intelliRock Sensor Data File Format
• MFER — Medical waveform Format Encoding Rules
• SCP-ECG — Standard Communication Protocol for Computer assisted electrocardiography
• SEG Y — Reflection seismology data format
• SIGIF — SIGnal Interchange Format
• and many others http://www.dpmi.tugraz.at/~schloegl/matlab/eeg

Sound and music

Lossless audio

• Uncompressed
• AIFF
• AU
• CDDA
• IFF-8SVX
• IFF-16SV
• RAW (raw samples without any header or sync)
• WAV — Microsoft Wave
• Compressed
• FLAC (free lossless codec of the Ogg project)
• LA — Lossless Audio (.la)
• PAC — LPAC (.pac)
• M4A — Apple Lossless (M4A)
• APE — Monkey's Audio (APE)
• OptimFROG
• RKA — RKAU (.rka)
• SHN — Shorten (SHN)
• TTA free lossless audio codec (True Audio)
• WV — WavPack (.wv)
• WMA — Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless (WMA)

Lossy audio

• MP2 (MPEG Layer 2)
• MP3 (MPEG Layer 3)
• Speex (Ogg project, specialized for voice, low bitrates)
• Vorbis (Ogg project, free and similar in principle to MP3)
• GSM (GSM Full Rate, originally developed for use in mobile phones)
• WMA — Windows Media Audio (.WMA)
• AAC (.m4a, .mp4, .m4p, .aac) — Advanced Audio Coding (usually in an MPEG-4 container)
• MPC — Musepack
• VQF — Yamaha TwinVQ
• RealAudio (RA, RM)
• OTS Audio File (similar to MP3, with more data stored in the file and slightly better compression; designed for use with OtsLabs' OtsDJ)
• SWA — Macromedia Shockwave Audio (Same compression as MP3 with additional header information specific to Macromedia Director — see What is the difference between MP3 and SWA files?)
• VOX — Dialogic ADPCM Low Sample Rate Digitized Voice (VOX)
• VOC — Creative Labs Soundblaster Creative Voice 8-bit & 16-bit (VOC)
• DWD — DiamondWare Digitized (DWD)
• SMP — Turtlebeach SampleVision (SMP)

Other music formats

• CUST (DeliPlayer custom sound file format)
• MID (standard MIDI file; most often just notes and controls but occasionally also sample dumps)
• MUS (Finale Notation file, see also Finale (software)
• SIB (Sibelius Notation file, see also Sibelius (computer program)
• GYM — Sega Genesis YM2612 log
• VGM (stands for "Video Game Music", log for several different chips)
• PSF — Portable Sound Format
• NSF (NES Sound Format, bytecode program to play NES music)
• MOD (Soundtracker and Protracker sample and melody modules)
• PTB (Power Tab Editor tab)
• S3M (Scream Tracker 3 module, with a few more effects and a dedicated volume column)
• XM (Fast Tracker module, adding instrument envelopes)
• IT (Impulse Tracker module, adding compressed samples, note-release actions, and more effects including a resonant filter)
• MT2 (MadTracker 2 module. It could be resumed as being XM and IT combined with more features like track effects and automation.)
• MNG (BGM for the Creatures game series, starting from Creatures 2; a free editor and player is available)
• PSF — PlayStation Sound Format.
• RMJ — RealJukebox Media used for RealPlayer.
• SPC — Super Nintendo Entertainment System sound file format.
• NIFF (Notation Interchange File Format)
• MusicXML
• YM (Atari ST/Amstrad CPC YM2149 sound chip format)

Playlist formats

• ASX — Advanced Stream Redirector (.asx)
• M3U
• PLS
• RAM — Real Audio Metafile For Real Audio files only.
• XSPF — the XML Shareable Playlist Format

Audio Editing & Music Production formats

• AUP — Audacity project file
• CEL — Adobe Audition loop file (Cool Edit Loop)
• CPR — Steinberg Cubase project file
• NPR — Steinberg Nuendo project file
• CWP — Cakewalk Sonar project file
• DRM — Steinberg Cubase drum file
• OMF — cross-application format Open Media Framework application-exchange bundled format
• SES — Adobe Audition multitrack session file
• STF — StudioFactory project file. It contains all necessary patches, samples, tracks and settings to play the file.
• SYN — SynFactory project file. It contains all necessary patches, samples, tracks and settings to play the file.

Source code for computer programs

(see also: Script)

• ASM, S — Assembly Language source
• BAS — BASIC, Visual Basic module
• C — C source
• CLS — Visual Basic class
• COB, CBL — Cobol source
• CPP, CC, CXX — C++ source
• CS — C# source
• D — D source
• E — Eiffel source
• EFS - EGT Forever Source File
• EGT - EGT Asterisk Source File, could be J, C#, VB.net, EF 2.0 (EGT Forever)
• FOR, FTN, F, F77 — Fortran source
• FRM — Visual Basic form
• FRX — Visual Basic form stash file (binary form file)
• GED — Game Maker Extension Editable file as of version 7.0
• GM6 — Game Maker Editable file as of version 6.x
• GMD — Game Maker Editable file up to version 5.x
• GMK — Game Maker Editable file as of version 7.0
• GML — Game Maker Language script file
• H — C/C++ header file
• HPP, HXX — C++ header file
• INC — Turbo Pascal included source
• JAVA — Java source
• L — Lex source
• M — Objective-C source
• M — Matlab
• M — Mathematica
• M4 — m4 source
• ML — Standard ML / Objective CAML source
• N — Nemerle source
• PAS, PP, P — Pascal source (DPR for projects)
• P — Parser source
• PHP, PHP3, PHP4, PHP5, PHPS, Phtml — PHP source
• PL, PM — Perl
• PY — Python programming language source
• RESX — Resource file for .NET applications
• VB — Visual Basic.NET source
• VBP — Visual Basic project
• Y — YACC source

Spreadsheet

• 123 — Lotus 1-2-3
• AWS — Ability Spreadsheet
• CLF — ThinkFree Calc
• CSV — Comma-Separated Values
• gnumeric — Gnumeric spreadsheet, a gziped XML file
• ODS — OpenDocument spreadsheet
• OTS — OpenDocument spreadsheet template
• QPW — Quattro
• SLK — SYLK (SYmbolic LinK)
• STC — StarOffice/OpenOffice.org 1.* Spreadsheet template
• SXC — StarOffice/OpenOffice.org 1.* Spreadsheet
• TAB — tab delimited columns; also TSV (Tab-Separated Values)
• VC — Visicalc
• WK1 — Lotus 1-2-3 up to version 2.01
• WK3 — Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.0
• WK4 — Lotus 1-2-3 version 4.0
• WKS — Lotus 1-2-3
• WKS — Microsoft Works
• WQ1 — Quattro Pro DOS version
• XLK — Microsoft Excel worksheet backup
• XLS — Microsoft Excel worksheet sheet (97-2003)
• XLSX - Microsoft Excel worksheet sheet (2007)
• XLR — Microsoft Works version 6.0
• XLT — Microsoft Excel worksheet template
• XLW — Microsoft Excel worksheet workspace (version 4.0)

Tabulated data

• tab
• CSV — Comma-separated values
• dif (accessible by many spreadsheet applications)

Video

Main article: video file formats

• AAF (mostly intended to hold edit decisions and rendering information, but can also contain compressed media essence)
• 3GP — the most common video format for cell phones
• GIF — Animated GIF(simple animation; until recently often avoided because of patent problems)
• ASF (ASF is a shell, which enables any form of compression to be used; MPEG-4 is common. Video in ASF-containers is also called Windows Media Video (WMV))
• AVCHD - Advanced Video Codecs High Definition
• AVI — (AVI is a shell, which enables any form of compression to be used; MPEG-1 and a variant of MPEG-4 are common)
• DSH
• FLV (*.flv) A video file encoded to run in a flash animation.
• M1V MPEG-1 Video file
• M2V MPEG-2 Video file
• SWF — Macromedia Flash (.swf for viewing,
• FLA — Macromedia Flash for producing)
• FLR — A text file which contains scripts extracted from SWF by a free ActionScript decompiler named FLARE
• MKV — Matroska (*.mkv) (Matroska is a container format, which enables any video format such as MPEG-4 or Xvid to be used along with other content such as subtitles and detailed meta information)
• WRAP — MediaForge (*.wrap)
• MNG (mainly simple animation containing PNG and JPEG objects, often somewhat more complex than animated GIF)
• MOV (QuickTime, a container format, which enables any form of compression to be used; Sorenson codec is the most common. QTCH is the filetype for cached video and audio streams.)
• MPEG (.mpeg, .mpg, .mpe)

*MPEG-4, shortened "MP4", a popular video format most often used for Sony's PlayStation Portable and Apple's iPod.

• MXF Material Exchange Format is a standardized wrapper format for audio/visual material developed by SMPTE
• NSV Nullsoft Streaming Video is a media container designed for streaming video content over the internet.
• OGM (OGM is a container format created so that Ogg Vorbis could be used for the audio of a video as this could not be done with AVI)
• Tarkin (Ogg project, all Tarkin files are Ogg files)
• Theora (Ogg project, all Theora files are Ogg files)
• RM — RealMedia
• SVI Samsung video format for portable players
• SMI SAMI Caption file. (HTML like subtitle for movie files)
• WMV Windows Media Video (See ASF)
• Xvid

Video Editing & Production formats

• MSWMM — Windows Movie Maker Project file
• PPJ — Adobe Premiere Pro Video Editing File

Video game data

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

• DOOM Engine — File formats used by games based off the DOOM engine.
• DEH — DeHackEd files to mutate the game executable
• DSG — Saved game
• LMP — Saved demo recording
• MUS — Music file (usually contained within a WAD file)
• WAD — Data storage (contains music, maps, and textures)
• QUAKE Engine — File formats used by games based off the Quake engine.
• BSP — (For Binary space partitioning) compiled map format
• MAP — Raw map format used by editors like Valve Hammer Editor or QuArK
• MDL — Model for an item used in the game
• PAK — Data storage
• PK3/PK4 — used by the Quake III and Quake 4 game engines, respectively, to store game data, textures etc. They are actually .zip files.
• Duke Nukem 3D Engine — File formats used by games based off the Duke Nukem 3D engine.
• DMO — Save game
• GRP — Data storage
• MAP — Map (usually constructed with BUILD.EXE)
• Other Formats
• B — used for Grand Theft Auto saved game files
• BOL — used for levels on Poing!PC
• DBPF — The Sims 2, DBPF, Package
• GCF — format used by the Steam content management system for file archives.
• MAP — format used by for archive compression, Doom³, and various other games
• REP — used by Blizzard Entertainment for scenario replays in StarCraft.
• Simcity 4, DBPF (.dat, .SC4Lot, .SC4Model) (All game plugins use this format, commonly with different file extensions)
• SMZIP - auto extractor for Stepmania songs, themes and announcer packs.
• UT2K4 — for Unreal Tournament 2004

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 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 a single file or ROM, rather an entire file or ROM structure contained within a single file on the backup medium.

• JAG,J64 — Atari Jaguar (.jag, .j64)
• NDS - Nintendo DS (.nds)
• GB — Game Boy (.gb) (this applies to the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color)

* GBC — Game Boy Color (.gbc)

* GBA — Game Boy Advance (.gba)

• GBA — Game Boy Advance (.gba)

*SAV — Game Boy Advance Saved Data Files (.sav)

*SGM — Visual Boy Advance Save States (.sgm)

• N64,V64 — Nintendo 64 (.n64, .v64)

*PJ — Project 64 Save States (.pj)

• NES — Nintendo Entertainment System (.nes)

*FDS — Famicom Disk System (.fds)

*JST — Jnes Save States (.jst)

• GG — Sega Game Gear (.gg)
• SMS — Sega Master System (.sms)
• SMD,BIN — Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis (.smd or .bin)
• SMC,078 — Super NES (.smc, or .078) (.078 is for split ROMs, which are rare)

*FIG — Super Famicom (Japanese releases are rarely .fig, above extensions are more common)

*SRM — Super NES Saved Data Files (.srm)

*ZST — ZSNES Save States (.zst, .zs1-.zs9)

*FRZ — Snes9X Save States (.frz)

• PCE — TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine (.pce)
• NPC — Neo Geo Pocket (.npc)
• TZX — ZX Spectrum (.tzx) (for exact copies of ZX Spectrum games)

* TAP (for tape images without copy protection)

* Z80,SNA — (for snapshots of the emulator RAM)

* DSK — (for disk images)

• TAP — Commodore 64 (.tap) (for tape images including copy protection)

* T64 — (for tape images without copy protection, considerably smaller than .tap files)

* D64 — (for disk images)

* CRT — (for cartridge images)

• ADF — Amiga (.adf) (for 880K diskette images)

* ADZ - GZip-compressed version of the above.

* DMS - Disk Masher System, previously used as a disk-archiving system native to the Amiga, also supported by emulators.

Virtual Machines

Microsoft Virtual PC/Virtual Server

See [1]

• VFD — Virtual Floppy Disk (.vfd)
• VHD — Virtual Hard Disk (.vhd)
• VUD — Virtual Undo Disk (.vud)
• VMC — Virtual Machine Configuration (.vmc)
• VSV — Virtual Machine Saved State (.vsv)

EMC VMware ESX/GSX/Workstation/Player

See [2]

• LOG — Virtual Machine Logfile (.log)
• VMDK,DSK — Virtual Machine Disk (.vmdk, .dsk)
• NVRAM — Virtual Machine BIOS (.nvram)
• VMEM — Virtual Machine paging file (.vmem)
• VMSD — Virtual Machine snapshot metadata (.vmsd)
• VMSN — Virtual Machine snapshot (.vmsn)
• VMSS,STD — Virtual Machine suspended state (.vmss, .std)
• VMTM — Virtual Machine team data (.vmtm)
• VMX,CFG — Virtual Machine configuration (.vmx, .cfg)
• VMXF — Virtual Machine team configuration (.vmxf)

Parallels Workstation

• HDD — Virtual Machine hard disk (.hdd)
• PVS — Virtual Machine preferences/configuration (.pvs)
• SAV — Virtual Machine saved state (.sav)

Webpage

• Static
• HTML — (.html, .htm) — HyperText Markup Language
• XHTML — (.xhtml, .xht) — eXtensible HyperText Markup Language
• XML — (.xml)
• MHTML — (.mht, .mhtml) — Archived HTML, store all data on one web page (text, images, etc) in one big file
• Dynamically generated
• ASP — (.asp) — Microsoft Active Server Page
• ASPX — (.aspx) — Microsoft Active Server Page. NET
• ADP — AOLserver Dynamic Page
• BML — (.bml) — Better Markup Language (templating)
• CFM — (.cfm) — ColdFusion
• CGI — (.cgi)
• iHTML — (.ihtml) — Inline HTML
• JSP — (.jsp) JavaServer Pages
• Lasso — (.las, .lasso, .lassoapp)
• PL — Perl (.pl)
• PHP — (.php, .php?, .phtml) — ? is version number (previously abbreviated Personal Home Page, later changed to PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
• SSI — (.shtml) — HTML with Server Side Includes

XML, markup language and other web standards-based file formats

• Atom — (.atom, .xml) — Another syndication file format
• EML — (.eml) — File format used by several desktop email clients
• Metalink — (.metalink, .met) — A file format for listing metadata about downloads, such as mirrors, checksums, and other information.
• RSS — (.rss, .xml) — Syndication file format

Other

• AXD — cookie extensions found in temporary internet folder
• CREDX — CredX Dat File
• DUPX - DuupeCheck database management tool project file
• GA3 — Graphical Analysis 3
• GED — file format for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogical systems
• IGC — flight tracks downloaded from GPS devices in the FAI's prescribed format
• INI file - used by many applications to store configuration
• INF — similar file format to INI; used to install device drivers under Windows, inter alia.
• KMC — tests made with KatzReview's MegaCrammer
• LNK — Binary format file, stores shortcuts under MS Windows 95 and later
• MPP — File format for Microsoft Project
• PIF — Used for running MS-DOS programs under Windows
• TOPC — TopicCrunch SEO Project file holding keywords, domain and search engine settings (ASCII);
• TMP — Temporary file
• URL — INI format file, used by Internet Explorer to save Favorites

Financial Records

• TAX — Turbo Tax File

See also

• Alphabetical list of file extensions
• MIME Content-Type, a standard for referring to file formats
• List of motion and gesture file formats

External links

• File formats at the Open Directory Project
• - Thousands of detailed descriptions of file formats