Computer File Format Encyclopedia

The definitive technical database of computer file formats. Explore byte-level header signatures (magic bytes), color spaces, compression algorithms, inventors, RFC standards, and interactive conversion & compression tools.

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Core Format Technical Dossiers

Portable Document Format
.pdf
Magic: 25 50 44 46

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a ubiquitous digital paper standard designed to present documents consistently independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems.

Inventor: Dr. John Warnock & Adobe Camelot Project (1993)
Read Full PDF Technical Dossier →
Portable Network Graphics
.png
Magic: 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is an unencumbered raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression, indexed colors, and variable alpha channel transparency.

Inventor: PNG Development Group (Thomas Boutell, Glenn Randers-Pehrson) (1995)
Read Full PNG Technical Dossier →
Joint Photographic Experts Group
.jpg
Magic: FF D8 FF

JPEG is the most widely adopted lossy compression standard for digital photography and web imagery, exploiting the human eye's higher sensitivity to luminance over chrominance.

Inventor: Joint Photographic Experts Group (1992)
Read Full JPG Technical Dossier →
Google Web Picture Format
.webp
Magic: 52 49 46 46

WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for web images, supporting both alpha transparency and animated frames.

Inventor: Google (based on On2 Technologies VP8 video codec) (2010)
Read Full WebP Technical Dossier →
AV1 Image File Format
.avif
Magic: 66 74 79 70 61 76 69 66

AVIF is a next-generation open image format derived from the AV1 video codec, delivering cutting-edge compression efficiency, high dynamic range (HDR), and wide color gamuts.

Inventor: Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) (2019)
Read Full AVIF Technical Dossier →
Scalable Vector Graphics
.svg
Magic: 3C 73 76 67

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with support for interactivity, CSS styling, and animation.

Inventor: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2001)
Read Full SVG Technical Dossier →
Office Open XML Document
.docx
Magic: 50 4B 03 04

DOCX is a zipped, XML-based file format developed by Microsoft for word processing documents, standardizing Word documents under the Office Open XML specification.

Inventor: Microsoft (2006)
Read Full DOCX Technical Dossier →
ZIP Compressed Archive
.zip
Magic: 50 4B 03 04

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression, allowing multiple files and directories to be packaged into a single transportable container.

Inventor: Phil Katz (PKWARE) (1989)
Read Full ZIP Technical Dossier →
Graphics Interchange Format
.gif
Magic: 47 49 46 38

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is an 8-bit palette-based raster image format developed by CompuServe, celebrated worldwide for popularizing short looping animations on the early web.

Inventor: Steve Wilhite (CompuServe) (1987)
Read Full GIF Technical Dossier →
JavaScript Object Notation
.json
Magic: 7B or 5B

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight, human-readable text format for data interchange, completely language-independent and universally used for web APIs.

Inventor: Douglas Crockford (2001)
Read Full JSON Technical Dossier →
Comma-Separated Values
.csv
Magic: Plain Text

Comma-Separated Values (CSV) is a ubiquitous plain-text format for tabular data, where each line represents a data record and fields are separated by delimiter characters.

Inventor: IBM / Early Computing Pioneers (1972)
Read Full CSV Technical Dossier →
Extensible Markup Language
.xml
Magic: 3C 3F 78 6D

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a versatile markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

Inventor: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C Working Group) (1998)
Read Full XML Technical Dossier →

Multi-Tool Ecosystem

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