Compression File Formats at FileFormat.com

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Compression is a process of reducing the size of a data file through different encoding techniques. This results in reducing data size for efficient data transmission and storage. Compression techniques have evolved over the passage of time and different file formats have been introduced for storing and manipulating compressed file formats. FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about such compression file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums gives you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussions with file format community.

Compression File Formats

The Compression file format category on FileFormat.com includes file formats that are commonly used for compressing files. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

ZIP

ZIP file extension represents archives that can hold one or more files or directories. The archive can have compression applied to the included files in order to reduce the ZIP file size. ZIP file format was made public back in February 1989 by Phil Katz for achieving archiving of files and folders. The format was made part of PKZIP utility, created by PKWARE, Inc. Right after the availability of available specifications, many companies made ZIP file format part of their software utilities including Microsoft (since Windows 7), Apple (Mac OS X ) and many others.

RAR

Files with RAR extension represent archive files that are created for storing information in compressed or normal form. RAR, Roshal Archive file format, is a proprietary file format created by Eugene Roshal in 1995 who was a Russian software engineer. The format is used to archive files with different methods including various compression techniques. There are several application software available for Windows, Linux and MacOS for extraction of RAR files. WinRAR software, by RARLab, is the shareware file archiving utility (free for 40 days) for Microsoft Windows platform; the software was ported to Linux (only as extractor) by the same Author, Eugene Roshal.

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GIS File Formats at FileFormat.com

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) find their applications in countless areas relevant to our daily life. These include application areas such as planning, surveying, agriculture, land usage, community development, and countless others. GIS applications save geospatial data in well-defined formats for understanding and usage by other applications. Such a file format is a standard of encoding geographical information into a computer file.

GIS File Formats

The GIS file format category on FileFormat.com includes information about geospatial file formats which are common in use by GIS applications. The information in this section gives brief overview of each file format and its specifications. Let us have a look at some of these file format.

SHP

SHP is the file extension for one of the primary file types used for representation of ESRI Shapefile. It represents Geospatial information in the form of vector data to be used by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications. The format has been developed as open specifications in order to facilitate interoperability between ESRI and other software products.

KML

KML, Keyhole Markup Language) contains geospatial information in XML notation. Files saved as KML can be opened in Geographic Information System (GIS) applications provided they support it. Many applications have started providing support for KML file format after it has been adopted as international standard. KML uses a tag-based structure with nested elements and attributes. All the tags are case-sensitive and the order of these tags, as per KML Reference, is important to follow.

KMZ

KMZ (KML Zipped) file is a representation of zipped KML file that contains geospatial information viewable in GIS applications like Google Earth. Information about placemarks is represented in the file as latitude and longitude along with a custom name. The single packaged KMZ file can be shared with other users easily. KMZ files can include 3D model data as well for geo-representation of the model. A KMZ file can be opened in Google Maps by saving the file to an online location and then typing the URL in the Google Maps Search box.

GML

Files with GPX extension represent GPS Exchange format for interchange of GPS data between applications and web services on the internet. It is a light-weight XML file format that contains GPS data i.e. waypoints, routes and tracks to be imported and red by multiple programs. GPX file format is open and is supported by variety of applications and GPS devices. GPS data from such files can be loaded for display on mapping applications for geo-spatial purposes.

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Image File Formats at FileFormat.com

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You must have heard the famous English language-idiom which says “A picture is worth a thousand words”. These pictures in computer world are represented by image file formats that are standardized means of organizing and storing digital images.  Such images can be stored in various formats that are defined by characteristics such as compression, quality, color and  others. The image quality and size is subject to the file format in which it is saved. FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about such image and other file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums gives you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussions with file format community.

Image File Formats

The Image file format category on FileFormat.com includes information about image types which are common in use while storing images. The information in the section gives brief overview of each file format and its specifications. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

BMP

Files having BMP extension represent Image files that are used to store bitmap digital images. These images are independent of graphics adapter and that is why BMP is also known as device independent bitmap (DIB) file format. This independency serves the purpose of opening the file on multiple platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Mac. The BMP file format can store data as two-dimensional digital images  in both monochrome as well as color format with various color depths.

PNG

PNG, Portable Network Graphics, refers to a type of raster image file format that uses lossless compression. This file format was created as a replacement of Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and has no copyright limitations. However, PNG file format does not support animations. PNG file format supports lossless image compression that makes it popular among its users. With the passage of time, PNG has evolved as one of the mostly used image file format. Almost all Operating Systems have support for opening PNG files. For example, Microsoft Windows viewer has the capability to open PNG files as the OS provides support for PNG file format as part of installation.

GIF

A GIF or Graphical Interchange Format is a type of highly compressed image. Owned by Unisys, GIF uses the LZW compression algorithm that does not degrade the image quality. For each image, GIF typically allows up to 8 bits per pixel and up to 256 colors are allowed across the image in contrast to a JPEG image, which can display up to 16 million colors and fairly touches the limits of the human eye. An animated GIF combines numerous images or frames into a single file and displays them in a sequence to generate an animated clip or a short video. The color limitations are up to 256 for each frame and are likely to be the least suitable for reproducing other images and photographs with color gradient.

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CAD File Formats at FileFormat.com

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Computer-aided design (CAD) applications are used by professionals like architects, engineers, drafters, artists and others to create precision drawings or technical illustrations. CAD software can be used to create two-dimensional (2-D) drawings or three-dimensional (3-D) models. These models are represented by a number of CAD file formats for storage and display on computer systems.  FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about such file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums gives you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussions with file format community.

CAD File Formats

The CAD file format category on FileFormat.com includes file formats that can be processed by popular CAD software applications such as AutoCAD. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

DWF

Design Web Format (DWF) represents 2D/3D drawing in compressed format for viewing, reviewing or printing design files. It contains graphics and text as part of design data and reduce the size of the file due to its compressed format. The reduced file size makes the distribution and communication of rich design data efficient. DWF doesn’t require the recipient to know about the usage of CAD software that created the original drawing. The contents of DWF file format can be simple and include just a single sheet or complex enough to have fonts, color, and images.

DWG

Files with DWG extension represent proprietary binary files used for containing 2D and 3D design data. Like DXF, which are ASCII files, DWG represent the binary file format for CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings. It contains vector image and metadata for representation of contents of CAD files. There are free viewers available for viewing DWG files on Windows Operating System such as the Autodesk’s free DWG TrueView. There are other third party applications as well that support reaching DWG files. DWG files contain user created information and includes:
  • Designs
  • Geometric data
  • Maps and photos
This format is widely used by architects, engineers, and designers for various designing purposes.

STL

STL, abbreviation for stereolithrography, is an interchangeable file format that represents 3-dimensional surface geometry. The file format finds its usage in several fields such as rapid prototyping, 3D printing and computer-aided manufacturing. It represents a surface as a series of small triangles, known as facets, where each facet is described by a perpendicular direction and three points representing the vertices of the triangle. Resultant data is used by applications to determine the cross section of the 3D shape to be built by the fabber. There is no information available in the STL file format for representation of colour, texture or other common CAD model attributes.

IFC

Files with IFC extension refer to  Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file format that establishes international standards to import and export building objects and their properties. This file format provides interoperability between different software applications. Specifications for this file format are developed and maintained by buildingSMART International as its Data Standard. The ultimate objective of IFC file format is to improve communication, productivity, delivery time and quality throughout the life cycle of a building. Due to the established standards for common objects in the building industry, it reduces the loss of information during transmission from one application to another. IFC can hold data for geometry, calculation, quantities, facility management, pricing etc. for many different professions (architect, electrical, HVAC, structural, terrain etc.).

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News, Updates and Information about File Formats – FileFormat Newsletter January 2019

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Monthly Newsletter

January 2019

Your File Formats Information Resource
Find all information and news on file formats that businesses need today
 
Your File Formats Information Resource
 

FileFormat.com is your definitive knowledge resource for learning about file formats. Receive all the latest news and updates about most common file formats in daily use. You can also join valuable discussions at FileFormat forums or discuss your file format queries for receiving professional advice from our team of file format experts and online community. This sharing of knowledge and experience can save your time and efforts for getting solutions related to your file format problems.

 
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Word Processing File Formats Guide by FileFormat.com

The Word Processing category includes DOC, DOCX, DOCM, DOT, DOTX, DOTM, ODT, OTT, RTF and TXT file formats that can be processed by word processor applications like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer and others. Explore FileFormat news and wiki sections to receive all the latest updates and technical information related to these word processing file formats. Have any queries? Feel free to post in support forums and get assistance by experts Read more details here.

Spreadsheet File Formats Guide by FileFormat.com

The Spreadsheet File Formats category includes XLS, XLSX, XLSB, XLTM, XLTM, XLM, TSV, ODS and CSV file formats that can be processed by spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Writer and others. Explore FileFormat news and wiki sections to receive all the latest updates and technical information related to these spreadsheet file formats. Have any queries? Feel free to post in support forums and get assistance by experts. Read more details here.

Presentation File Formats Guide by FileFormat.com

The Presentation File Formats category includes PPT, PPTX, PPTM, ODP, POT, POTM, POTX, PPS, PPSM and PPSX file formats that can be processed by slides and presentation applications like Microsoft PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Google Drive and others. Explore FileFormat news and wiki sections to receive all the latest updates and technical information related to these presentation file formats. Have any queries? Feel free to post in support forums and get assistance by experts. Read more details here.

 
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Email File Formats at FileFormat.com

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FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums give you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussions with file format community.

Email File Formats

The Email file format category includes file formats that can be processed by mailing applications like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail and others. Let us have a look at some of these file formats. 

MSG

MSG is a file format used by Microsoft Outlook and Exchange to store email messages, contacts, appointments, or other tasks. Such messages may contain one or more email fields, with the sender, recipient, subject, date, and message body, or contact information, appointment particulars, and one or more task specifications. The properties that constitute the Message object, are also a part of the MSG file.  MSG file has headers, main message body, and hyperlinks as plain ASCII text. MSG files are also suitable with the programs that need Microsoft’s Messaging Applications Programming Interface (MAPI).

PST

Files with PST extension represent Outlook Personal Storage Files (also called Personal Storage Table) that store a variety of user information. User information is stored in folders of different types which include emails, calendar items, notes, contacts, and several other file formats. PST files are used for archiving emailing data offline that can be later loaded and viewed in various applications.

ICS

The Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) is an internet standard(RFC 2445) for exchanging and deploying the calendaring events and scheduling.  The iCalendar format is interoperable, thereby ensuring the exchange of calendar information among the users having different email applications. iCalendar formats the input data as a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and facilitates the object exchanged via different transport protocols. These transport protocols can be SMTP, HTTP, point-to-point asynchronous communication, and physical media based-network transport. iCalendar allows users to share events, date/time dependent tasks, and free/busy information via emails to other users who can respond back. iCalendar files store using suffixes  “.ics” “.icalendar” or “.ifb” with a MIME type of “text/calendar”. iCalendar is kept to be self-reliant without any transport protocol dependency. Web servers (with HTTP protocol) can transport iCalendar information and web pages can contain iCalendar data in embedded form using hCalendar.

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3D File Formats at FileFormat.com

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FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums give you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussion with file format community.

3D File Formats

The 3D file format category includes file formats that can be processed by 3D applications like 3D Studio Max, Blender, Maya and others. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

3DS

A file with 3DS extension represents 3D Sudio (DOS) mesh file format used by Autodesk 3D Studio. Autodesk 3D Studio has been in 3D file format market since 1990s and has now evolved to 3D Studio MAX for working with 3D modeling, animation and rendering. A 3DS file contains data for 3D representation of scenes and images and is one of the popular file formats for 3D data import and export. It considers information like camera locations, Mesh data, lighting information, viewport configurations, smoothing group data, bitmap references and attributes to create vertices and polygons for rendering a scene.

3MF

3MF, 3D Manufacturing Format, is used by applications to render 3D object models to a variety of other applications, platforms, services and printers. It was built to avoid the limitations and issues in other 3D file formats, like STL, for working with the latest versions of 3D printers. 3MF is relatively a new file format that has been developed and published by the 3MF consortium. It is rich enough to fully describe a model, retaining internal information, colour, and other characteristics that makes it extensible for supporting new innovations in 3D printing. The format is extensible, able to be broadly adopted and free of issues besetting other widely used file formats.

GLTF

glTF (GL Transmission Format) is a 3D file format that stores 3D model information in JSON format. The use of JSON minimizes both the size of 3D assets and the runtime processing needed to unpack and use those assets. It was adopted for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models by applications. glTF was developed by the Khronos Group 3D Formats Working Group and is also described as JPEG of 3D by its creators. The format defines an extensible, common publishing format for 3D content tools and services that streamlines authoring workflows and enables interoperable use of content across the industry. The intention behind the creation of glTF file format was to define an extensible, common publishing format for 3D content tools and services that should streamline authoring workflows and enable interoperable use of content across the industry. It minimizes runtime processing by applications using WebGL and other APIs.

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Presentation File Formats at FileFormat.com

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When it comes to working with applications development for manipulating different file types, the job is not easy. It requires detailed information about the file format specifications and structures to overcome the issues in developing such applications. FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums gives you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussions with file format community.

Presentation File Formats

The Presentation file format category on FileFormat.com includes file formats that can be processed by Slides applications like Microsoft PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Google Drive, and others. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

PPT

A file with PPT extension represents PowerPoint file that consists of a collection of slides for displaying as SlideShow. It specifies the Binary File Format used by Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2003. A PPT file can contain several different types of information such as text, bulleted points, images, multimedia and other embedded OLE objects. Microsoft came up with newer file format for PowerPoint, known as PPTX, from 2007 onwards that is based on Office OpenXML and is different from this binary file format. Several other application programs such as OpenOffice Impress and Apple Keynote can also create PPT files.

PPTX

Files with PPTX extension are presentation files created with popular Microsoft PowerPoint application. Unlike the previous version of presentation file format PPT which was binary, the PPTX format is based on the Microsoft PowerPoint open XML presentation file format. A presentation file is a collection of slides where each slide can comprise of text, images, formatting, animations, and other media. These slides are presented to audience in the form of slideshows with custom presentation settings.

ODP

Files with ODP extension represent presentation file format used by OpenOffice.org in the OASISOpen standard. A presentation file is a collection of slides where each slide can comprise of text, images, formatting, animations, and other media. These slides are presented to audience in the form of slideshows with custom presentation settings. ODP files can be opened by applications that conform to the OpenDocument format (such as OpenOffice or StarOffice).

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Spreadsheet File Formats at FileFormat.com

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FileFormat.com is your one stop for guidance about file formats. Its unique combination of file format wiki, news and support forums give you the opportunity to get knowledge about file types and engage in fruitful discussion with file format community.

Spreadsheet File Formats

The Spreadsheet file format category includes file formats that can be processed by spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Writer and others. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

XLS

Files with XLS extension represent Excel Binary File Format. Such files can be created by Microsoft Excel as well as other similar spreadsheet programs such as OpenOffice Calc or Apple Numbers. File saved by Excel are known as Workbook where each workbook can have one or more worksheets. Data is stored and displayed to users in table format in worksheet and can span numeric values, text data, formulas, external data connections, images and charts. Applications like Microsoft Excel lets you export workbook data to several different formats including PDF, CSV, XLSX, TXT, HTML, XPS and several others.

XLSX

Xlsx is well-known format for Microsoft Excel documents that was introduced by Microsoft with the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Based on structure organized according to the Open Packaging Conventions as outlined in OOXML standard ECMA-376, the new format is a zip package that contains a number of XML files. The underlying structure and files can be examined by simply unzipping the .xlsx file using any supporting utility.

ODS

Files with ODS extension stand for OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document format that are editable by user. Data is stored inside ODF file into rows and columns. It is XML-based format and is one of the several subtypes in the Open Document Formats (ODF) family. The format is specified as part of the ODF 1.2 specifications published and maintained by OASIS. A number of applications on Windows as well as other operating systems can open ODS files for editing and manipulation including Microsoft Excel, NeoOffice and LibreOffice. ODS files can also be converted into other spreadsheet formats as well like XLS, XLSX and others by different applications.

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Word Processing File Formats at FileFormat.com

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We have recently launched fileformat.com that is your one stop for guidance about file formats. Besides updating you with latest news from file format domain, its wiki section is continuously getting enriched with contents about different file formats.

Word Processing File Formats

The Word Processing category includes file formats that can be processed by word processor applications like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer and others. Let us have a look at some of these file formats.

DOC

Files with Doc extension represent documents generated by Microsoft Word in binary file format. The format was initially used for plain text documentation on several different operating systems. It can contain several different type of data such as images, formatted as well as plain text, graphs, charts, embedded objects, links, pages, page formatting, print settings and a lot others. The format was popular for all sort of documentation due to the variety of options it offers to users for writing manuals, proposals, specifications, resumes, articles or any similar documents. The File Format wiki article about DOC file format contains useful information about the brief history, short file format specifications and references for this file format.

DOCX

Docx is well-known format for Microsoft Word documents. Introduced from 2007 with the release of Microsoft Office 2007, the structure of this new Document format was changed from plain binary to a combination of XML and binary files. Docx files can be opened with Word 2007 and lateral versions but not with the earlier versions of MS Word which support DOC file format. For further information about the Docx file format, short details about its file format specifications and references, visit the DOCX file format article on file format wiki.

RTF

Introduced and documented by Microsoft, the Rich Text Format (RTF) represents a method of encoding formatted text and graphics for use within applications. The format facilitates cross-platform document exchange with other Microsoft Products, thus serving the purpose of interoperability. This capability makes it a standard of data transfer between word processing software and, hence, contents can be transferred from one operating system to another without losing document formatting. Head over to the RTF file format wiki article to get useful information about this format.

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