File Formats

PDF

PDF is a file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing documents in a manner that is separate from the original operating system, application or hardware from where it was originally created. A PDF file can be any length, contain any number of fonts and images and is designed to enable the creation and transfer of printer-ready output.

DOC / DOCX

Doc (an abbreviation of document) is a file extension for word processing documents; it is associated mainly with Microsoft and their Microsoft Word application. Historically, it was used for documentation in plain-text format, particularly of programs or computer hardware, on a wide range of operating systems. Almost everyone would have used the doc file format, whenever you write a letter, do some work or generally write on your PC you will use the doc file format. It was in the 1990s that Microsoft chose the doc extension for their proprietary Microsoft Word processing formats. As PC technology has grown the original uses for the extension have become less important and have largely disappeared from the PC world.

XLS / XLSX

Microsoft Excel is a commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Pre-2007 versions of Excel use XLS as the primary format for saving files. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It has been a very widely applied spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has almost completely replaced Lotus 1-2-3 as the industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of Microsoft Office. The current versions are 2010 for Microsoft Windows and 2011 for Mac OS X.

GIF

The GIF file format is a type of bitmap image and has become popular due to the growth of the internet. This file format supports up to 8 bits per pixel therefore giving an image the ability to contain 256 distinct colours chosen from the 24-bit RGB colour space. It also supports animations and whenever you see a logo or other sharp edged line art then you are probably dealing with the GIF format. It uses the lossless data compression technique which reduces the file size without any impact on the quality.

JPG / JPEG / JPE / JFIF

JPEG's are often used for web sites and email as they are generally smaller file sizes as they are lossy meaning that some image quality is lost when the JPG is compressed and saved. The resultant 'lossy' file means that quality can never be recovered. The JPG format is often used in digital camera memory cards. The JPG file is a great format as it often manages to compress files to 1/10 of the size of the original file which is especially good for saving on bandwidth.

TIFF / TIF

Tiff was originally created by a company called Aldus, and is now owned by Adobe systems, it is a file format for storing images, including line art and photographs. It was created due to the popularity of scanners and was thought-up to become the standard scanned image file format. It is a popular format for high-colour-depth images and it has also been adapted to accommodate greyscale images.

BMP

BMP is a standard image file format which was historically used by computers running the Windows operating system. The format is more commonly know as Bitmap files. The term bitmap was originally coined in computer programming to refer to a map of bits. Historically when you saved an image on your home PC you might have saved it as a .bhp file, this is becoming less common with .jpeg the preferred image file format with the advent of digital cameras.

PPT / PPTX

PPT is the binary file format for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 97-2007. Presentations using PowerPoint can include images, text, audio, video, charts, graphs, hyperlinks, and animation to provide presentations created for students and businesses. Most people are aware of PPT and how to create, save, send, and open this type of files. Microsoft Office Suite launched PowerPoint in 1990 despite the program originally being a Mac program. There are controversies as to how useful and effective the program is but most issues with PowerPoint come from the users' end, not the program itself. Many users do not know how to properly utilize the program and PPT file to the best of their advantage, so presentations are often seen as dry and boring.

CSV

CSV (Comma-separated values or character-separated values) files are flat files which store tabular data through numbers and text in a plain-text form. It is used to collect data from tables to be transported as input to other table-oriented applications. Microsoft Excel, for example, can read these files. CSV files are used by various spreadsheet programs though. Its simplicity and high support levels allow consumers, businesses, and scientific applications to utilize this file extension. This style of data entry predates PC's by over 10 years and is capable of increased correctness of data, especially when used alongside the punched cards systems of data entry.

ODF

An ODF file is a document created by Apache OpenOffice Math, a program used for creating math formulas. It contains one or more mathematical equations and may also contain macros. ODF files are based on the OASIS OpenDocument standard.

PAGES

Word documents created by Apple's Pages program (under the Apple iWork Office Suit) have the file extension PAGES. Created in 2005, these documents can contain text and page layout tasks. The goal when developing this file format was to simplify the concepts in Microsoft Office. The Pages program contains over 140 templates for various types of commonly used documents but also allows users to start from scratch. Working well with other Apple programs, users can often drag-and-drop various media elements into their documents with little work. Much like Microsoft Word, users can create tables, columns, headers, footers, spell and grammar check, word count, equation support, auto-save, and more. As of 2007, Pages supported DOCX and related files.

TXT

TXT stands for "textfile" which replaced the old name of "flatfile". This computer file structures series of lines of text. The end of the file is often defined by placing special characters defined as "end-of-file" markers which follow the final line of text. This type container contains plain text but is capable of more. TXT files serve as information storage units to avoid other complications with other file formats. Files affected by data corruption are easier to recover and the user can continue to work on what remains. The downside of using TXT files is the low entropy due to which TXT files take up more space than other text based files.

NUMBERS

A NUMBERS file is a spreadsheet created by Apple Numbers, a spreadsheet program bundled with macOS. It contains a spreadsheet with data organized into rows and columns. It may also include tables, graphs, images, formulas, and other types of data. NUMBERS files can be created from scratch or from a template.

CDR

CDR is a file format which was developed by the Corel Corporation and is used mainly for vector graphic images and drawings. The CDR file format is recognized by the majority of image editing programs. The CDR format is the default format for Corel Draw Applications. Corel hired Michel Bouillon and Pat Beirne to develop a vector based illustration program that could be packaged with their desktop publishing system.

CMX

Image file format used by Corel programs, such as CorelDRAW, Corel Presentations, and Paint Shop Pro; also used for storing vector-based image files included with Corel Mega Gallery Clip Art; includes image data as well as metadata that describes the image.

HEIC

High Efficiency Image File Format is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video.

HTML

HTML files are saved web pages. Our system displays these files using the same rendering engine as your browser. Formatting in HTML files is not as specific as other format such as PDF, so results can vary.

KEY

The KEY file extension stands, most commonly, for Keynote Presentation. This is the software that was developed by Apple to allow you to create and playback presentations. The presentation is stored in the format of the Mac OX X package. The file contains all of the data necessary to play the presentation. This data consists of things like the slides for the presentation, as well as the images, transition information and the text that goes along with the presentation. The XML data that is used for the presentation is also stored within the KEY file. This software was first sold in 2003 as a competitor to PowerPoint that was developed by MicroSoft.

ODG / FODG

Files with ODG extension are the image files and graphics documents that are linked with OpenOffice OpenDocument Version 2. The ODG file extension is used by the OpenDocument vector file specification. Basic intention of these files is to have a non-proprietary and free file type that any individual can access. These files can be accessed using various open source programs in Windows such as LibreOffice Draw and OpenOffice.org Draw.

ODP / FODP

The ODP file extension falls under the Open Office Project created by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems goal was to create an open source series of office applications to compete with paid programs like Microsoft Office. ODP documents are used by the Open Document Presentation program (comparable to Microsoft PowerPoint and PPT files). Due to the XML-basis Open Office uses, all files under that service are portable. When created properly, presentations such as PPT or ODP can be fantastic tools for school or business presentations.

ODS / FODS

The OpenDocument Format (ODF) spreadsheets are referred to as ODS files. This free ISO-standardized format is used worldwide due to its high amounts of program support, including free programs like LibreOffice Suite and OpenOffice. Spreadsheets are interactive computer application programs used to store, organize, and analyze various forms of data using tables similar to Microsoft Excel. Programs using the ODS file extension can often save files as XLSX files and use related extensions. One of the biggest issues when converting between ODS and Excel spreadsheets is image support.

ODT / FODT

ODT is XML-based and is used to create and manage spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and word documents. The purpose of this document file extension is to provide an open, XML based format specification for documents. ODT files are part of the Open Office program created by Sun Microsystems. It is used as an alternative to Microsoft Office due to the free download with no licensing fees. When saved correctly, files in Open Office can be opened in Microsoft Word or converted easily into DOC and DOCX files. Open Office can open Microsoft Office documents. Open Office is free to the public, royalty free, and can run on various Operating Systems.

PCT / PICT

PCT files are created using the Apple QuickDraw program. Storing images in a raster as well as vector format is supported by PCT files. However, unless you are using a Windows computer, you may never see Apple QuickDraw images saved in this format. The most commonly used extension for these images when using a Macintosh computer is PICT.

PNG

PNG pronounced ping is a format for storing bitmapped (raster) images on computers. It was created originally to replace the GIF file format when it was announced that the companies who created the GIF format wanted royalties. PNG uses indexed colors and lossless compression (like a .GIF file), but without those copyright limitations; it cannot be animated like a GIF image.

RTF

RTF stands for Rich Text Format and enables the user to write text with the ability to save it and use it between different operating systems. Unlike other text file types, RTF only allows text, no images, video, or audio. The text production can be done with any other word processing program and the file can be saves as an RTF file instead of the default file. This makes it easy to transport text through different programs (like Microsoft Office and Word Perfect, or between different versions of Windows). RTF is not to be confused with enriched text, Rich text, or IBM's RFT-DCA.

VSD / VSDX

The .vsd file extension is the default file type associated with Microsoft Visio, a graphic drawing application which forms part of the Microsoft Office product set. As with several other Microsoft file formats, the .vsd extension cannot be read by many other applications. Examples of drawings typically created using Visio are flowcharts, process diagrams and topology diagrams.

WPD

A WPD file is a text document created by Corel WordPerfect, a word processor for Windows included with the WordPerfect Office suite. It may contain formatted text, tables, charts, drawn objects, and images.

WPS

Microsoft Works document format. This is the precursor to Microsoft Word format and is a rarely seen format these days.

WRI

A WRI file is a text document created with Microsoft Write, a basic word processor that came with early versions of Windows through Windows 3.1. It may contain styled text and page formatting information.