Format

This page is for the definition of file format

If you would like to create pages on other kinds of format, e.g. grammatical format, please link to them right here

Grammatical Format[?] How to Format a Letter[?]

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A file format is a way that computers store data on hard drives. Since hard drives store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting data to 0s and 1s. There are different kinds of formats for different kinds of data. However, within any kind of format, there will be some number of competing formats.

Formats are typically respresented by 2 to 4 letters. On Windows computers, every file has an ending, called an extension, which comprises a dot followed by the format name. For example, if a picture is stored using the JPEG format, the file would be mypicture.jpeg or the like.

Table of contents 1 Categories of Formats 1.1 Pictures 1.2 Movies 1.3 Audio 1.4 Text

Categories of Formats

Pictures

• JPEG
• PNG
• TIFF
• GIF
• MNG
• BMP
• EPS (rare)

Movies

• AVI
• WMV
• MPG
• RV
• ASF
• MOV

Audio

• OGG
• WMA
• RA
• RMA
• AU
• AIFF
• WAV
• MP3
• MID
• MUS
• XM
• MOD
• IT
• S3M

Text

• DOC
• TXT
• RTF
• PDF
• PS
• DVI

If a format is missing, feel free to add it.