An Image file format is a file format for a digital image. There are many formats that can be used, such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Most formats up until 2022 were for storing 2D images, not 3D ones. The data stored in an image file format may be compressed or uncompressed. If the data is compressed, it may be done so using

lossy compression In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...

or lossless compression. For graphic design applications,

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

formats are often used. Some image file formats support transparency. Raster formats are for 2D images. A 3D image can be represented within a 2D format, as in a stereogram or

autostereogram An autostereogram is a two-dimensional (2D) image that can create the optical illusion of a three-dimensional (3D) scene. Autostereograms use only one image to accomplish the effect while normal stereograms require two. The 3D scene in an a ...

, but this 3D image will not be a true

light field The light field is a vector function that describes the amount of light flowing in every direction through every point in space. The space of all possible '' light rays'' is given by the five-dimensional plenoptic function, and the magnitude of e ...

, and thereby may cause the

vergence-accommodation conflict Vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC), also known as accommodation-vergence conflict, is a visual phenomenon that occurs when the brain receives mismatching cues between vergence and accommodation of the eye. This commonly occurs in virtual real ...

. Image files are composed of digital data in one of these formats so that the data can be displayed on a digital (computer) display or printed out using a printer. A common method for displaying digital image information has historically been

rasterization In computer graphics, rasterisation (British English) or rasterization (American English) is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format (shapes) and converting it into a raster image (a series of pixels, dots or lines, whi ...

Image file sizes

The size of raster image files is positively correlated with the number of pixels in the image and the color depth (bits per pixel). Images can be compressed in various ways, however. A compression

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

stores either an exact representation or an approximation of the original image in a smaller number of bytes that can be expanded back to its uncompressed form with a corresponding decompression algorithm. Images with the same number of pixels and color depth can have very different compressed file size. Considering exactly the same compression, number of pixels, and color depth for two images, different graphical complexity of the original images may also result in very different file sizes after compression due to the nature of compression algorithms. With some compression formats, images that are less complex may result in smaller compressed file sizes. This characteristic sometimes results in a smaller file size for some lossless formats than lossy formats. For example, graphically simple images (i.e. images with large continuous regions like line art or animation sequences) may be losslessly compressed into a GIF or PNG format and result in a smaller file size than a lossy JPEG format. For example, a 640480 pixel image with 24-bit color would occupy almost a megabyte of space: :64048024 = 7,372,800 bits = 921,600 bytes = 900

KiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

With vector images the file size increases only with the addition of more vectors.

Image file compression

There are two types of image file compression algorithms:

lossless Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistic ...

and

lossy In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...

. Lossless compression algorithms reduce file size while preserving a perfect copy of the original uncompressed image. Lossless compression generally, but not always, results in larger files than lossy compression. Lossless compression should be used to avoid accumulating stages of re-compression when editing images. Lossy compression algorithms preserve a representation of the original uncompressed image that may appear to be a perfect copy, but is not a perfect copy. Often lossy compression is able to achieve smaller file sizes than lossless compression. Most lossy compression algorithms allow for variable compression that trades image quality for file size.

Major graphic file formats

Including proprietary types, there are hundreds of image file types. The PNG, JPEG, and GIF formats are most often used to display images on the Internet. Some of these graphic formats are listed and briefly described below, separated into the two main families of graphics: raster and vector. Raster images are further divided into formats primarily aimed at (web) delivery (i.e. supporting relatively strong compression) versus formats primarily aimed at authoring or interchange (uncompressed or only relatively weak compression). In addition to straight image formats, Metafile formats are portable formats which can include both raster and vector information. Examples are application-independent formats such as WMF and EMF. The metafile format is an intermediate format. Most applications open metafiles and then save them in their own native format.

Page description language In digital printing, a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap (or generally raster graphics). An overlapping term is printer control la ...

refers to formats used to describe the layout of a printed page containing text, objects and images. Examples are PostScript, PDF and PCL.

Raster formats (2D)

Delivery formats

= JPEG

= JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a

method; JPEG-compressed images are usually stored in the

JFIF The JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) is an image file format standard published as ITU-T Recommendation T.871 and ISO/IEC 10918-5. It defines supplementary specifications for the container format that contains the image data encoded with the JP ...

(JPEG File Interchange Format) or the

Exif Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif, according to JEIDA/JEITA/CIPA specifications) is a standard that specifies formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other syste ...

(Exchangeable image file format) file format. The JPEG

filename extension A filename extension, file name extension or file extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file (e.g., .txt, .docx, .md). The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use. A filename extension is typically ...

is JPG or JPEG. Nearly every digital camera can save images in the JPEG format, which supports eight-bit grayscale images and 24-bit color images (eight bits each for red, green, and blue). JPEG applies lossy compression to images, which can result in a significant reduction of the file size. Applications can determine the degree of compression to apply, and the amount of compression affects the visual quality of the result. When not too great, the compression does not noticeably affect or detract from the image's quality, but JPEG files suffer generational degradation when repeatedly edited and saved. (JPEG also provides lossless image storage, but the lossless version is not widely supported.)

= GIF

= The GIF ( Graphics Interchange Format) is in normal use limited to an 8-bit palette, or 256 colors (while 24-bit color depth is technically possible). GIF is most suitable for storing graphics with few colors, such as simple diagrams, shapes, logos, and cartoon style images, as it uses LZW lossless compression, which is more effective when large areas have a single color, and less effective for photographic or

dither Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is often ...

ed images. Due to GIF's simplicity and age, it achieved almost universal software support. Due to its animation capabilities, it is still widely used to provide image animation effects, despite its low compression ratio compared to modern video formats.

= PNG

= The PNG ( Portable Network Graphics) file format was created as a free, open-source alternative to GIF. The PNG file format supports 8-bit (256 colors) paletted images (with optional transparency for all palette colors) and 24-bit truecolor (16 million colors) or 48-bit truecolor with and without alpha channel – while GIF supports only 8-bit palettes with a single transparent color. Compared to JPEG, PNG excels when the image has large, uniformly colored areas. Even for photographs – where JPEG is often the choice for final distribution since its lossy compression typically yields smaller file sizes – PNG is still well-suited to storing images during the editing process because of its lossless compression. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for GIF (though GIF is itself now patent-free) and can also replace many common uses of TIFF. Indexed-color, grayscale, and truecolor images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel. The

Adam7 Disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 7 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ADAM7 gene. ADAM7 is an 85-kDa enzyme that is a member of the transmembrane ADAM (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease) protein family. Mem ...

interlacing allows an early preview, even when only a small percentage of the image data has been transmitted — useful in online viewing applications like

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

s. PNG can store gamma and chromaticity data, as well as

ICC profile In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes of a ...

s, for accurate color matching on heterogeneous platforms. Animated formats derived from PNG are MNG and

APNG Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) is a file format which extends the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification to permit animated images that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparen ...

, which is backwards compatible with PNG and supported by most browsers.

= JPEG 2000

= JPEG 2000 is a compression standard enabling both lossless and lossy storage. The compression methods used are different from the ones in standard JFIF/JPEG; they improve quality and compression ratios, but also require more computational power to process. JPEG 2000 also adds features that are missing in JPEG. It is not nearly as common as JPEG, but it is used currently in professional movie editing and distribution (some digital cinemas, for example, use JPEG 2000 for individual movie frames).

= WebP

WebP WebP is an image file format developed by Google intended as a replacement for JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as animation and alpha transparency. Google announced the WebP format i ...

is an open image format released in 2010 that uses both lossless and lossy compression. It was designed by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

to reduce image file size to speed up web page loading: its principal purpose is to supersede JPEG as the primary format for photographs on the web. WebP is based on

VP8 VP8 is an open and royalty-free video compression format released by On2 Technologies in 2008. Initially released as a proprietary successor to On2's previous VP7 format, VP8 was released as an open and royalty-free format in May 2010 after Goo ...

's intra-frame coding and uses a container based on

RIFF A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...

. In 2011, Google added an "Extended File Format" allowing WebP support for animation,

, XMP and

metadata, and tiling. The support for animation allowed for converting older animated GIF to animated WebP. The WebP container (i.e., RIFF container for WebP) allows feature support over and above the basic use case of WebP (i.e., a file containing a single image encoded as a VP8 key frame). The WebP container provides additional support for: * Lossless compression – An image can be losslessly compressed, using the WebP Lossless Format. * Metadata – An image may have metadata stored in EXIF or XMP formats. * Transparency – An image may have transparency, i.e., an alpha channel. * Color Profile – An image may have an embedded ICC profile as described by the International Color Consortium. * Animation – An image may have multiple frames with pauses between them, making it an animation. CC-BY icon

Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

= HDR raster formats

= Most typical raster formats cannot store HDR data (32 bit floating point values per pixel component), which is why some relatively old or complex formats are still predominant here, and worth mentioning separately. Newer alternatives are showing up, though. RGBE is the format for HDR images originating from

Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiati ...

and also supported by Adobe Photoshop.

JPEG-HDR JPEG XT (ISO/IEC 18477) is an image compression standard which specifies backward-compatible extensions of the base JPEG standard (ISO/IEC 10918-1 and ITU Rec. T.81). JPEG XT extends JPEG with support for higher integer bit depths, high dynami ...

is a file format from Dolby Labs similar to RGBE encoding, standardized as JPEG XT Part 2.

JPEG XT JPEG XT (ISO/IEC 18477) is an image compression standard which specifies backward-compatible extensions of the base JPEG standard (ISO/IEC 10918-1 and ITU Rec. T.81). JPEG XT extends JPEG with support for higher integer bit depths, high dynami ...

Part 7 includes support for encoding floating point HDR images in the base 8-bit JPEG file using enhancement layers encoded with four profiles (A-D); Profile A is based on the RGBE format and Profile B on the XDepth format from Trellis Management.

= HEIF

= The

High Efficiency Image File Format High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) 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. HEI ...

(HEIF) is an image container format that was standardized by

MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC that sets standards for media coding, including compression coding of audio, video, graphics, and genomic data; and transmission and f ...

on the basis of the

ISO base media file format The ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) is a container file format that defines a general structure for files that contain time-based multimedia data such as video and audio. It is standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-12, a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 12, and wa ...

. While HEIF can be used with any image compression format, the HEIF standard specifies the storage of

HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compar ...

intra-coded images and HEVC-coded image sequences taking advantage of inter-picture prediction.

= AVIF

= AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) standardized by the video consortium Alliance for open media (AOMedia) creator of the video format

Av1 AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 th ...

, to take advantage of modern compression algorithms and a completely royalty-free image format. It uses the image format with

AVIF AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an image file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1 in the HEIF container format. It competes with HEIC, which uses the same container format built upon ISOBMFF, but HEVC ...

coding and recommends using the

HEIF High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) 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. HEIF ...

container, see AV1 in HEIF.

= JPEG XL

JPEG XL JPEG XL is a royalty-free raster-graphics file format that supports both lossy and lossless compression. It is designed to outperform existing raster formats and thus become their universal replacement. Name The name consists of ''JPEG'' (fo ...

is a royalty-free raster-graphics file format that supports both lossy and lossless compression. It supports reversible recompression of existing JPEG files, as well as high-precision HDR (up to 32-bit floating point values per pixel component). It is designed to be usable for both delivery and authoring use cases.

Authoring / Interchange formats

=TIFF

= The TIFF (

Tagged Image File Format Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...

) format is a flexible format usually using either the TIFF or TIF filename extension. The tagged structure was designed to be easily extendible, and many vendors have introduced proprietary special-purpose tags – with the result that no one reader handles every flavor of TIFF file. TIFFs can be lossy or lossless, depending on the technique chosen for storing the pixel data. Some offer relatively good lossless compression for bi-level (black&white) images. Some digital cameras can save images in TIFF format, using the LZW compression algorithm for lossless storage. TIFF image format is not widely supported by web browsers. TIFF remains widely accepted as a photograph file standard in the printing business. TIFF can handle device-specific color spaces, such as the

CMYK The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

defined by a particular set of printing press inks. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software packages commonly generate some form of TIFF image (often monochromatic) for scanned text pages.

= BMP

= The BMP file format (Windows bitmap) is a raster-based device-independent file type designed in the early days of computer graphics. It handles graphic files within the Microsoft Windows OS. Typically, BMP files are uncompressed, and therefore large and lossless; their advantage is their simple structure and wide acceptance in Windows programs.

= PPM, PGM, PBM, and PNM

Netpbm format Netpbm (formerly Pbmplus) is an open-source package of graphics programs and a programming library. It is used mainly in the Unix world, where one can find it included in all major open-source operating system distributions, but also works on Micr ...

is a family including the portable pixmap file format (PPM), the portable graymap file format (PGM) and the portable bitmap file format (PBM). These are either pure

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

files or raw binary files with an ASCII header that provide very basic functionality and serve as a lowest common denominator for converting pixmap, graymap, or bitmap files between different platforms. Several applications refer to them collectively as PNM ("Portable aNy Map").

=Container formats of
raster graphics editors A raster graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to create and edit images interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many raster graphics file formats (also known as bitmap images) such as JPEG, PNG, and GI ...

= These image formats contain various images, layers and objects, out of which the final image is to be composed * AFPhoto (

Affinity Photo Affinity Photo is a raster graphics editor developed by Serif Ltd. for iOS, macOS, and Windows, alongside Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. Development of Affinity Photo started in 2009 as a raster graphics editor for macOS. Its first ve ...

Document) * CD5 ( Chasys Draw Image) * CLIP (Clip Studio Paint) * CPT (Corel Photo Paint) * KRA (Krita) * MDP (Medibang and FireAlpaca) * PDN (Paint Dot Net) *

PSD PSD may refer to: Educational bodies * Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, a Pre-K to 12th grade school for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Philippine School Doha, a Filipino scho ...

(Adobe PhotoShop Document) * PSP (Corel Paint Shop Pro) * SAI (Paint Tool SAI) * XCF (eXperimental Computing Facility format) — native GIMP format

Other raster formats

* BPG (

Better Portable Graphics Better Portable Graphics (BPG) is a file format for coding digital images, which was created by programmer Fabrice Bellard in 2014. He has proposed it as a replacement for the JPEG image format as the more compression-efficient alternative in ...

) — an image format from 2014. Its purpose is to replace JPEG when quality or file size is an issue. To that end, it features a high

data compression ratio Data compression ratio, also known as compression power, is a measurement of the relative reduction in size of data representation produced by a data compression algorithm. It is typically expressed as the division of uncompressed size by compresse ...

, based on a subset of the

video compression standard, including lossless compression. In addition, it supports various meta data (such as EXIF). * DEEP —

IFF In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false. The connective is bicon ...

-style format used by TVPaint * DRW (Drawn File) * ECW (Enhanced Compression Wavelet) * FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) *

FLIF Free Lossless Image Format (FLIF) is a lossless image format claiming to outperform PNG, lossless WebP, lossless BPG and lossless JPEG 2000 in terms of compression ratio on a variety of inputs. FLIF supports a form of progressive interlac ...

(Free Lossless Image Format) — a discontinued lossless image format which claims to outperform PNG, lossless WebP, lossless BPG and lossless JPEG 2000 in terms of compression ratio. It uses the MANIAC (Meta-Adaptive Near-zero Integer Arithmetic Coding) entropy encoding algorithm, a variant of the

CABAC Context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) is a form of entropy encoding used in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standards. It is a lossless compression technique, although the video coding standards in which it ...

(context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding) entropy encoding algorithm. *

ICO is an action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released for the PlayStation 2 video game console in 2001 and 2002 in various regions. It was designed and directed by Fumito U ...

— container for one or more icons (subsets of BMP and/or PNG) *

ILBM Interleaved Bitmap (ILBM) is an image file format conforming to the Interchange File Format (IFF) standard. The format originated on the Amiga platform, and on IBM-compatible systems, files in this format or the related PBM (Planar Bitmap) form ...

—

-style format for up to 32 bit in planar representation, plus optional 64 bit extensions *

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...

(ERDAS IMAGINE Image) * IMG (

Graphics Environment Manager GEM (for Graphics Environment Manager) is an operating environment released by Digital Research (DRI) in 1985 for use with the DOS operating system on Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors. GEM is known primarily as the graphical ...

(GEM) image file) — planar, run-length encoded *

JPEG XR JPEG XR (JPEG extended range) is an image compression standard for continuous tone photographic images, based on the HD Photo (formerly Windows Media Photo) specifications that Microsoft originally developed and patented. It supports both lossy a ...

— JPEG standard based on Microsoft HD Photo * Layered Image File Format — for

microscope image processing Microscope image processing is a broad term that covers the use of digital image processing techniques to process, analyze and present images obtained from a microscope. Such processing is now commonplace in a number of diverse fields such as medi ...

* Nrrd (Nearly raw raster data) * PAM (Portable Arbitrary Map) — late addition to the Netpbm family *

PCX PCX, standing for ''PiCture eXchange'', was an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia, United States. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS ...

(PiCture eXchange) — obsolete * PGF (Progressive Graphics File) * PLBM (Planar Bitmap) — proprietary Amiga format *

SGI SGI may refer to: Companies *Saskatchewan Government Insurance *Scientific Games International, a gambling company *Silicon Graphics, Inc., a former manufacturer of high-performance computing products *Silicon Graphics International, formerly Rac ...

(Silicon Graphics Image) — native raster graphics file format for Silicon Graphics workstations * SID (multiresolution seamless image database, MrSID) * Sun Raster — obsolete * TGA (TARGA) — obsolete *

VICAR file format VICAR is an image file format developed by the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has been used to transport images from a variety of space missions including Cassini–Huygens and the Viking Orbiter The ''Viking'' program consisted of a p ...

—

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

/ JPL image transport format * XISF (Extensible Image Serialization Format)

Vector formats

As opposed to the raster image formats above (where the data describes the characteristics of each individual pixel), vector image formats contain a geometric description which can be rendered smoothly at any desired display size. At some point, all vector graphics must be rasterized in order to be displayed on digital monitors. Vector images may also be displayed with analog CRT technology such as that used in some

electronic test equipment Electronic test equipment is used to create signals and capture responses from electronic devices under test (DUTs). In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced. Use of electronic test equipmen ...

, medical monitors,

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

displays, laser shows and early video games. Plotters are printers that use vector data rather than pixel data to draw graphics.

CGM

CGM (

Computer Graphics Metafile Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is a free and open international standard file format for 2D vector graphics, raster graphics, and text, and is defined by ISO/ IEC 8632. Overview All graphical elements can be specified in a textual source ...

) is a file format for 2D vector graphics, raster graphics, and

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

, and is defined by

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

IEC The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...

8632. All

graphical Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

elements can be specified in a textual

source file In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

that can be compiled into a

binary file A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document fil ...

or one of two text representations. CGM provides a means of graphics data interchange for computer representation of 2D graphical information independent from any particular application, system, platform, or device. It has been adopted to some extent in the areas of

technical illustration Technical Illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive ...

and professional

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

, but has largely been superseded by formats such as SVG and

DXF AutoCAD DXF (Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. DXF was introduced in December 1982 as part of AutoCA ...

Gerber format (RS-274X)

The

Gerber format The Gerber format is an open ASCII vector format for printed circuit board (PCB) designs. It is the de facto standard used by PCB industry software to describe the printed circuit board images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, drill data, et ...

(aka Extended Gerber, RS-274X) is a 2D bi-level image description format developed by Ucamco. It is the de facto standard format for printed circuit board or PCB software.

SVG

SVG (

Scalable Vector Graphics Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium sinc ...

) is an open standard created and developed by the

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working ...

to address the need (and attempts of several corporations) for a versatile, scriptable and all-purpose vector format for the web and otherwise. The SVG format does not have a compression scheme of its own, but due to the textual nature of

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

, an SVG graphic can be compressed using a program such as

gzip gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and i ...

. Because of its scripting potential, SVG is a key component in

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serv ...

s: interactive web pages that look and act like applications.

Other 2D vector formats

* AFDesign (

Affinity Designer Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor developed by Serif for macOS, iPadOS, and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the "Affinity trinity" alongside Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. Affinity Designer is available for purchase direc ...

document) * AI ( Adobe Illustrator Artwork) — proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems * CDR — proprietary format for CorelDRAW vector graphics editor * !DRAW — a native vector graphic format (in several backward compatible versions) for the RISC-OS computer system begun by Acorn in the mid-1980s and still present on that platform today * DrawingML — used in Office Open XML documents * GEM — metafiles interpreted and written by the

VDI subsystem * GLE (

Graphics Layout Engine Graphics Layout Engine (GLE) is a graphics scripting language designed for creating publication quality graphs, plots, diagrams, figures and slides. GLE supports various graph types such as function plots, histograms, bar graphs, scatter p ...

) — graphics scripting language *

HP-GL HP-GL, short for Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language and often written as HPGL, is a printer control language created by Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP-GL was the primary printer control language used by HP plotters. It was introduced with the plotteHP ...

(Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) — introduced on Hewlett-Packard plotters, but generalized into a printer language * HVIF ( Haiku Vector Icon Format) * Lottie — format for vector graphics animation *

MathML Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is a mathematical markup language, an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide W ...

(Mathematical Markup Language) — an application of XML for describing mathematical notations * NAPLPS (North American Presentation Layer Protocol Syntax) * ODG ( OpenDocument Graphics) * PGML (

Precision Graphics Markup Language Precision Graphics Markup Language (PGML) is an XML-based language for representing vector graphics. It was a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) submission by Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems, that was not adopted as a recommen ...

) — a

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...

submission that was not adopted as a recommendation * PSTricks and

PGF/TikZ PGF/Ti''k''Z is a pair of languages for producing vector graphics (e.g., technical illustrations and drawings) from a geometric/algebraic description, with standard features including the drawing of points, lines, arrows, paths, circles, ellipse ...

are languages for creating graphics in

TeX Tex may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr. Entertainment * ''Tex'', the Italian ...

documents * QCC — used by Quilt Manager (by Quilt EZ) for designing quilts *

ReGIS Regis or Régis may refer to: People * Regis (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (musician), full name Karl O'Connor, an Englis ...

(Remote Graphic Instruction Set) — used by DEC

computer terminal A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...

s * Remote imaging protocol — system for sending vector graphics over low-bandwidth links * VML (

Vector Markup Language Vector Markup Language (VML) is an obsolete XML-based file format for two-dimensional vector graphics. It was specified in Part 4 of the Office Open XML standards ISO/IEC 29500 and ECMA-376. According to the specification, VML is a deprecated ...

) — obsolete XML-based format * Xar — format used in vector applications from

Xara Xara is an international software company founded in 1981, with an HQ in Berlin and development office in Hemel Hempstead, UK. It has developed software for a variety of computer platforms, in chronological order: the Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z ...

* XPS (

XML Paper Specification Open XML Paper Specification (also referred to as OpenXPS) is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). In June 2009, Ecma International adopte ...

) — page description language and a fixed-document format

3D vector formats

* AMF – Additive Manufacturing File Format *

Asymptote In analytic geometry, an asymptote () of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the ''x'' or ''y'' coordinates tends to infinity. In projective geometry and related context ...

– A language that lifts TeX to 3D. * .blend – Blender *

COLLADA COLLADA (for ''COLLA''borative ''D''esign ''A''ctivity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available ...

*.dgn *

.dwf Design Web Format (DWF) is a file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of rich design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files. Because DWF files are highly compressed, they are sma ...

.dwg DWG (from ''drawing'') is a proprietary binary file format used for storing two- and three- dimensional design data and metadata. It is the native format for several CAD packages including DraftSight, AutoCAD, BricsCAD, IntelliCAD (and i ...

.dxf AutoCAD DXF (Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. DXF was introduced in December 1982 as part of AutoCA ...

*eDrawings * .flt –

OpenFlight OpenFlight (or .flt) is a 3d geometry model file format originally developed by Software Systems Inc. for its MultiGen real-time 3d modeling package in 1988. Originally called Flight, the format was designed as a nonproprietary 3d model format for ...

* FVRML – and FX3D, function-based extensions of VRML and X3D *

glTF glTF is a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models. A glTF file uses one of two possible file extensions: .gltf (JSON/ASCII) or .glb ( binary). Both .gltf and .glb files may reference external binary and texture resources. A ...

- OpenGL Transfer Format *HSF *

IGES The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) is a vendor-neutral file format that allows the digital exchange of information among computer-aided design (CAD) systems. It's an ASCII-based textual format. The official title of IGES is ''D ...

*IMML – Immersive Media Markup Language *IPA * JT *.MA (Maya ASCII format) *.MB (Maya Binary format) *.OBJ

Wavefront In physics, the wavefront of a time-varying '' wave field'' is the set ( locus) of all points having the same '' phase''. The term is generally meaningful only for fields that, at each point, vary sinusoidally in time with a single temporal fr ...

* OpenGEX – Open Game Engine Exchange *

PLY Ply, Pli, Plies or Plying may refer to: Common uses * Ply (layer), typically of paper or wood ** Plywood, made of layers of wood ** Tire ply, a layer of cords embedded in the rubber of a tire Places * Plymouth railway station, England, station ...

POV-Ray The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, most commonly acronymed as POV-Ray, is a cross-platform ray-tracing program that generates images from a text-based scene description. It was originally based on DKBTrace, written by David Kirk Buck and Aaro ...

scene description language *

PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

STEP Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Stairs#Step, Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * Steps (TV series), ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * Step (film), ' ...

* SKP * STL – A stereolithography format *

U3D Universal 3D (U3D) is a compressed file format standard for 3D computer graphics data. The format was defined by a special consortium called ''3D Industry Forum'' that brought together a diverse group of companies and organizations, including ...

– Universal 3D file format *

VRML VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced ''vermal'' or by its initials, originally—before 1995—known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graph ...

– Virtual Reality Modeling Language *

XAML Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML ) is a declarative XML-based language that Microsoft developed for initializing structured values and objects. It is available under Microsoft's Open Specification Promise. XAML is used extensively ...

*XGL *

XVL XVL is a lightweight 3D file format for 3D computer graphics data. XVL is developed by Lattice Technology Inc. Like U3D and other open and standard 3D formats, XVL supports compression of 3D data. The company claims compression rates of between 1:5 ...

* xVRML *

X3D X3D is a royalty-free ISO/IEC standard for declaratively representing 3D computer graphics. File format support includes XML, ClassicVRML, Compressed Binary Encoding (CBE) and a draft JSON encoding. X3D became the successor to the Virtual Re ...

*.3D *3DF *.3DM *

.3ds 3DS is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and rendering software. It was the native file format of the old Autodesk 3D Studio DOS (releases 1 to 4), which was popular until its successor (3D Studio MAX ...

– Autodesk 3D Studio *

3DXML 3DXML is a proprietary 3D file format developed by Dassault Systemes under its 3DVIA Brand. It uses an XML container whose specifications were published. It should not be confused with X3D, the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing ...

*X3D – Vector format used in 3D applications from

Compound formats

These are formats containing both pixel and vector data, possible other data, e.g. the interactive features of PDF. *EPS ( Encapsulated PostScript) *PDF (

Portable Document Format Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating syste ...

) * PostScript, a

page description language In digital printing, a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap (or generally raster graphics). An overlapping term is printer control la ...

with strong graphics capabilities *

PICT The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...

(Classic Macintosh QuickDraw file) * WMF / EMF (

Windows Metafile Windows Metafile (WMF) is an image file format originally designed for Microsoft Windows in the 1990s. The original Windows Metafile format was not device-independent (though could be made more so with placement headers) and may contain both vect ...

/ Enhanced Metafile) * SWF (Shockwave Flash) *

User interface language using vector graphics for images.

Stereo formats

* MPO The Multi Picture Object (.mpo) format consists of multiple JPEG images (

Camera & Imaging Products Association is a Japan-based organization set up in July 2002 to deal with technologies related to photography. Its members are engaged with the production of film-based and digital cameras, and other related equipment. This organization succeeds the Japan ...

) (CIPA). * PNS The PNG Stereo (.pns) format consists of a side-by-side image based on PNG ( Portable Network Graphics). * JPS The

JPEG Stereo JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image ...

(.jps) format consists of a side-by-side image format based on JPEG.

References

{{Graphics file formats * Lists of file formats Vector graphics markup languages