Comparison of graphics file formats
This is a comparison of image file formats (graphics file formats). This comparison primarily features file formats for 2D images.
General
Ownership of the format and related information.
| Format | Full name | Owner | based on | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Adobe Illustrator Document | Adobe Systems | .ai | application/illustrator, application/postscript |
Adobe Illustrator files are editable using programs that support the format, such as Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, CorelDRAW, etc. | Yes | |
| ANI | ANI file format | Microsoft | RIFF | .ani | Used by Microsoft Windows | ||
| ANIM | Electronic Arts and Commodore Amiga | IFF | .iff, .anim | video/x-anim | |||
| APNG | Animated Portable Network Graphics | Mozilla | PNG | .png | image/png | Gecko 1.9 and Opera | No |
| Apple Icon Image | Apple Inc. | .icns | Used by macOS | ||||
| ART | AOL | .art | |||||
| ASCII art | .txt, .ansi, .text | text/vnd.ascii-art | Supported by GIMP | ||||
| AutoCAD DXF | Drawing Interchange Format | Autodesk | .dxf | image/vnd.dxf | |||
| ARW | Sony Alpha RAW | Sony | TIFF | .arw | |||
| AVIF | AV1 Image File Format | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) | AV1 | .avif | image/avif | GIMP, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, WebKit | No |
| BAY | Casio RAW | Casio | .bay | ||||
| BMP | raw-data unencoded or encoded bitmap | simple colour image format, far older than Microsoft; some .bmp encoding formats developed/owned by Microsoft | .bmp, .dib, .rle, .2bp (2bpp) |
image/x-bmp | Used by many 2D applications. | No | |
| BPG | Better Portable Graphics | Fabrice Bellard | HEVC | .bpg | Suggestion to replace JPEG, JavaScript decoder available[1] | Yes | |
| BSAVE | BSAVE Image | .BSV | Used by IBM PC. | ||||
| CAL | CALS raster file format | .cal, .cals, .ras, .dcl | |||||
| CIFF | Camera Image File Format | Canon | .crw, .ciff | ||||
| CR2 | Canon RAW 2 | Canon | TIFF | .cr2 | |||
| CDR | CorelDRAW Document | Corel Corporation | .cdr, .ccx, .cdt, .cmx | application/coreldraw | CorelDRAW files are editable using programs that support the format, such as CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, etc. | Yes | |
| CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile | .cgm | image/cgm | CGM files are editable using programs that support the format, such as IBM Lotus Freelance Graphics, Inkscape, etc. | |||
| CIN | Cineon | .cin | image/cineon | ||||
| CPC | Cartesian Perceptual Compression | Cartesian Products, Inc. | .cpc, .cpi | image/cpi | Highly compressed raster imaging format. | Yes | |
| DCS | Kodak DCS Pro RAW | Kodak | .dcs | ||||
| DCR | Digital Camera Raw | Kodak | TIFF | .dcr | |||
| DDS | DirectDraw Surface | Microsoft | .dds | ||||
| DNG | Digital Negative | Adobe Systems | compatible with ISO 12234-2, TIFF/EP[2] |
.dng | A raw image format suitable as an archival format and as the native raw format of digital cameras[3] | No: no known intellectual property encumbrances or license requirements[4] | |
| DICOM | Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine | National Electrical Manufacturers Association | .dcm, .dicom | application/dicom[5] | Numerous biomedical imaging applications[5] (e.g. OsiriX, XMedCon), some general bitmap graphics applications (e.g. GIMP, Photoshop) | ||
| DjVu | DjVu | AT&T Research | .djvu, .djv | image/vnd.djvu | |||
| DPX | Digital Picture eXchange file format | .dpx | image/dpx | ||||
| DRF | Kodak Pro Back RAW | Kodak | .drf | ||||
| Encapsulated PostScript | page description/scripting language (see PostScript) | Adobe | .epi, .eps, .eps2, .eps3, .epsf, .epsi, .ept |
application/postscript | printing/publishing industry standard format | ||
| ECW | Enhanced Compressed Wavelet | ERDAS | .ecw | Wavelet image format used primarily with geo-referenced aerial and satellite imagery | Yes | ||
| EMF | Enhanced Metafile Format | Microsoft | .emf, .emz | Microsoft Office | |||
| EMF+ | Enhanced Metafile Format Plus Extensions | Microsoft | .emf, .emz | ||||
| ERF | EPSON RAW | EPSON | TIFF | .erf | |||
| Exif | Exchangeable Image File Format | .exif | |||||
| EVA | Extended Vector Animation | Sharp Corporation | .eva | application/x-eva | |||
| EXR | OpenEXR | ILM | .exr | image/exr | Used in film effects for 3d rendering and hdr images. | ? | |
| FITS | Flexible Image Transport System | .fit, .fits | Scientific (esp. astronomical) data acquisition | ||||
| FLIC | Autodesk | .fli, .flc, .flx, .flh, .flt | Supported by GIMP | ||||
| FLIF | Free Lossless Image Format | .flif, .flf | General-purpose lossless image compression, superior compression. | No | |||
| FPX | FlashPix (1.0.2) | .fpx | image/vnd.fpx | ||||
| Gerber Format | The Gerber Format Specification | Ucamco | Printable ASCII | .gbr | application/vnd.gerber | Printed Circuit Board or PCB software | No |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format | CompuServe, Unisys (compression algorithm) |
.gif, .gfa, .giff | image/gif | Supported by most web browsers. Supports transparency and animation. | Expired | |
| HEIF | High Efficiency Image Format | Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) | .heif, .heic | image/heif, image/heic, image/heic-sequence, image/heif-sequence |
Yes | ||
| HDRi | TIFF | .tif, .tiff | image/tiff | ||||
| ICER | NASA Mars Rovers | ||||||
| ICO | ICO file format | Microsoft | .ico, .cur | image/vnd.Microsoft.icon, image/x-icon |
Used by Microsoft Windows and web browsers as favicon | ||
| ICS | Image Cytometry Standard | .ics, .ids | |||||
| IGES | Initial Graphics Exchange Specification | .igs | image/iges | CAD/CAM interoperability | No | ||
| ILBM | InterLeaved BitMap | Electronic Arts and Commodore Amiga | IFF | .iff, .ilbm, .lbm | image/x-ilbm | Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware. | No |
| JBIG | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group | .jbig, .bie, .jbg | |||||
| JBIG2 | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group | ||||||
| JNG | JPEG Network Graphics | .jng | image/x-jng | No | |||
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe (containers: .jif, .jfif, .jfi) |
image/jpeg | Photographic images. Supported by most web browsers. | Expired see also Forgent#JPEG | |
| JPEG 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jp2, .j2c, .jpc, .j2k, .jpx |
image/jp2 | Wavelet lossy and lossless format for photographic images. | Yes no licence costs for part 1 | |
| JPEG-LS | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jls | |||||
| JPEG-HDR | Dolby Laboratories/BrightSide Technologies | JPEG | HDR format based on RGBE floating-point encoding and backward-compatible extensions to JFIF format; included in JPEG XT Part 2. | ||||
| JPEG XL | Joint Photographic Experts Group | PIK, FUIF (FLIF) | .jxl | image/jxl | General-purpose raster format with high-performance lossy and lossless compression, including lossless JPEG transcoding. | No | |
| JPEG XT | Joint Photographic Experts Group | Backwards-compatible extension of the JPEG format for high bit depth and floating point HDR encoding of lossy and lossless images | |||||
| JPEG XR / HD Photo | JPEG XR / HD Photo | Microsoft | .wdp, .hdp, .jxr | image/vnd.ms-photo | TIFF-like container format with HDR encoding for photographic images | Yes (royalty-free) | |
| KDC | Kodak DC40/DC50 RAW | Kodak | TIFF | .kdc | |||
| K25 | Kodak DC25 RAW | Kodak | TIFF | .k25 | |||
| Logluv TIFF | Greg Ward | TIFF | Supported by Libtiff | ||||
| MNG | Multiple-image Network Graphics | PNG | .mng | video/x-mng | No | ||
| NEF | Nikon RAW | Nikon | TIFF | .nef | |||
| MIFF | Magick image file format | ImageMagick Studio | .miff | Supported by ImageMagick | |||
| MRW | Minolta RAW | Minolta | .mrw | ||||
| ORF | Olympus RAW | Olympus | TIFF | .orf | |||
| PAM | portable arbitrary map file format | .pam | image/x-portable-arbitrarymap | No | |||
| PBM | Portable Bitmap File Format | ASCII | .pbm | image/x-portable-bitmap | No | ||
| PCX | ZSoft PC Paintbrush File | ZSoft Corporation | .pcx, .pcc, .dcx | image/x-pcx | Dated rle packed indexed image format, used in some early 3d shooting games like Unreal Tournament as it takes up very little space and is easy to decode. | ? | |
| Portable Document Format | Adobe Systems | .pdf, .epdf | application/pdf | ||||
| PEF | PENTAX RAW | PENTAX | TIFF | .pef | |||
| PGF | Progressive Graphics File | xeraina GmbH | .pgf | Photographic images, eventual replacement for JPEG. | No | ||
| PGM | Portable Graymap File Format | ASCII | .pgm | image/x-portable-graymap | No | ||
| PGML | Precision Graphics Markup Language | Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape, Sun Microsystems |
No | ||||
| PNM | Portable Anymap File Format | ASCII | .pnm | image/x-portable-anymap | No | ||
| PICT | Macintosh PICT Format | Apple Inc. | .pict, .pic, .pct, .pct1, .pct2 |
image/pict | Metafile for Classic Mac OS, not meant for print publishing. | Likely expired | |
| PICtor | John Bridges, Doug Wolfgram | .pic | Supported by PCPaint | ||||
| PNG | Portable Network Graphics | World Wide Web Consortium | .png | image/png | W3C endorsed replacement for GIF. Supported by most web browsers. | No | |
| PostScript | page description/scripting language, levels 1–3 | Adobe | .ps, .ps2, .ps3 | printing/publishing industry standard format | |||
| PPM | Portable Pixmap File Format | ASCII | .ppm | image/x-portable-pixmap | Very easy to understand. Programs to analyze and write to this format are easily written. | No | |
| PSD | Photoshop Document | Adobe Systems | .psd, .psb, .pdb, .pdd |
image/vnd.adobe.photoshop[6] | Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data. | Yes | |
| PSP | Paint Shop Pro Document | Corel Corporation | .psp, .tub, .pspimage |
image/x-psp | Supported by Paint Shop Pro, GIMP | ? | |
| QOI | Quite OK Image Format | Dominic Szablewski | .qoi | No | |||
| RAD | Gregory Ward Larson | .rad | Radiance | ||||
| RAF | Fujifilm RAW | Fujifilm | .raf | ||||
| RGBE | Gregory Ward Larson | .hdr | image/vnd.radiance | Radiance, most HDR imaging software | |||
| SGI | Silicon Graphics Image | .sgi, .rgb, .rgba, .bw, .int, .inta, .icon |
|||||
| SRF | Sony RAW File | Sony | TIFF | .srf, .sr2 | |||
| SVG | Scalable Vector Graphics | World Wide Web Consortium | XML | .svg, .svgz (compressed) |
image/svg+xml | Scriptable vector image format; supported by major web browsers, occasionally via plug-in. | No |
| SWF | Shockwave Flash | Adobe Systems | .swf | application/x-shockwave-flash | Supported by many web browsers via plug-in. | ||
| TGA | Truevision Targa | Truevision Inc. | .tga, .tpic | image/tga | Used by many 3D rendering applications and 3d videogames for storing textures. | Yes? | |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format | Adobe Systems | .tiff, .tif | image/tiff | Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container. | No | |
| TIFF/EP | Tag Image File Format / Electronic Photography | International Organization for Standardization | TIFF | .tiff, .tif | |||
| UFO | Ulead File for Objects | .ufo | |||||
| VML | Vector Markup Language | Microsoft | XML | .htm, .html | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.vmlDrawing | Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office | No |
| WBMP | Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format | Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum) | .wbmp, .wbm, .wbp | image/vnd.wap.wbmp | Used in WAP-pages | No | |
| WebP | WebP image format | .webp | image/webp | Provides an alternative to JPEG, PNG and GIF with superior compression | Yes (royalty-free) | ||
| WMF | Windows Metafile Format | Microsoft | .wmf, .wmz | ||||
| XAML | Extensible Application Markup Language | Microsoft | XML | .xaml | application/xaml+xml | Used by Windows Presentation Foundation and Microsoft Silverlight. | ? |
| XAR | Xar | Xara | Xar (graphics) | .xar | application/vnd.xara | Used by Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | No |
| XBM | X BitMap, colour variant of original black-and-white bitmap (bmp) format | .xbm, .bm, .icon, .bitmap |
image/x-xbitmap | Used by many legacy Unix applications. | |||
| XCF | XCF, name derived from eXperimental Computing Facility | The GIMP Team | .xcf, .xcfbz2 (compressed), .xcfgz (compressed) |
application/x-gimp-image | Used by GIMP | ||
| XPM | X-Pixmap | .xpm, .pm | image/x-xpm | Used by many legacy Unix applications. | |||
| X3F | SIGMA RAW | SIGMA | .x3f | ||||
| Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patented |
Technical details
| Format | Compression algorithm |
Raster/ vector |
Color depth | Indexed color | Transparency | Metadata | Interlacing | Multi-page | Animation[7] | Layers | Color management | Extendable | HDR format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Lossy and lossless | Both | 1, 8, 24, and 32 (possibly with multiple palettes) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No |
| AVIF | AV1 Lossy and lossless | Raster | 1, 8, 10, and 12-bit color depths per channel/alpha. 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 chroma subsampling and RGB | Unknown | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BMP | None, RLE, JPEG, and PNG | Raster | 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, and 64 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| BPG | HEVC, Lossy and lossless | Raster | 8 to 14 bits per channel | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| CD5 | Lossless, ACSC | Both | 1, 8, 24, 32 and 64 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
| CDR | Lossy and lossless | Both | 1, 8, 24,and 32 (multiple palettes) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No |
| CPC | CPC | Raster | 1 | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes, via embedded dictionary | No |
| EPS | None, LZW, Deflate, RLE, DCT | Both | Device specific | No | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EXR | None, RLE, ZIP, Piz, PXR24, and B44, B44A, DWAA, DWAB | Raster | 16–128 (floating-point) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FLIF | Lossless, MANIAC entropy coding | Raster | 1 to 16 bits per channel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, Adam∞ | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | Yes, with suitable color profile |
| GIF | LZW | Raster | Indexed (1bpc to 8bpc) and grayscale (8bpc) | Yes | Yes; 1bpp plane-only mask using color index | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (GIF89a) | No |
| HD Photo / JPEG XR | Lossy and lossless bi-orthogonal transform | Raster | 1, 2, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, and 128 (floating-point) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ILBM | Optional run-length encoding | Raster | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 64 EHB, 128, 256 (8-bit), 4,096 (HAM6 pseudo 12-bit), 4,096 pure 12-bit, 262, 144 (HAM8 pseudo 18-bit), and 24-bit | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, Palette-shifting |
No | No | Yes | No |
| JPEG | Lossy (and partly lossless), DCT, RLE, and Huffman predictive nearest neighbor | Raster | 8-bit (greyscale), 12-bit, and 24-bit | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No (see unofficial JPEG-HDR) |
| JPEG 2000 | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | 8- and 16-bit (greyscale) with possibly color up to 48-bit | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Unknown | No |
| JPEG XL | Lossy and lossless (VarDCT mode, Modular mode) | Raster | up to 32 bits per channel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| KRA | None | Both | grayscale, RGB, XYZ (8bpc, 16bpc, float16bpc, float32bpc), CMYK, L*a*b* and YCbCr (8bpc, 16bpc, float32bpc) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ORA | Lossless | Both | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, and 64 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PAM | None | Raster | Up to 16 | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| PCX | None, RLE | Raster | 1, 2, 4, 8, 24 and 32 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| PGF | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | grayscale: 1, 8, 16, 31; RGB: 12, 16, 24, 32, and 48 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Unknown | No |
| PICT | None, RLE, and QuickTime | Both | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No | No | No | Unknown | No? | No |
| PNG | Lossless and deflate | Raster | bitmap (1bpc), indexed (8bpc), grayscale and RGB (8bpc, 16bpc) | Yes | Yes; indexed, grayscale and RGB | Yes | Yes, Adam7 algorithm | No | No (but see MNG and APNG) | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | No, see discussion |
| PPM | None | Raster | Up to 16 | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| PSD and PSB | None and RLE | Both | bitmap (1bpc), duotone, indexed (8bpc), grayscale, RGB, CMYK, Lab and multichannel (8bpc, 16bpc, 32bpc) | Yes | Yes; indexed, grayscale, RGB, CMYK and Lab | Yes | — | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes |
| PSP | None | Both | 1, 2, 8, 16, 24, 32, and 48 | Yes | Yes; 8b and 16b per-pixel alpha channel | Yes | No | Unknown | No | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | No |
| SVG | None and lossless gzip | Vector[8] | RGB (8bpc) | No | Yes | Yes | — | Yes (1.2 draft)[9] | Yes (SMIL/SVG) | Yes | Yes[10] | Yes, XML based | — |
| TGA | None, RLE, and other | Raster | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Unknown | No |
| TIFF | None, LZW, RLE, ZIP, and other | Both | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32 | Yes (1–8 bit modes) | Yes | Yes | Yes, for JPEG compression | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, via tags | Yes, TIFF float |
| WebP | Lossy and lossless | Raster | YUV420P (12bpp), YUVA420P (20bpp) and RGB (8bpc) | Internally in lossless mode, but not user-accessible[11][12] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| XAML | None | Vector | 32 and 64 | No | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| XCF | None and lossless (gzip, bzip2 and xz) | Both | indexed (8bpc), grayscale and RGB (8bpc, 16bpc, float16bpc, 32bpc, float32bpc, float64bpc) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Format | Compression algorithm | Raster/ vector |
Color depth | Indexed color | Transparency | Metadata | Interlacing | Multi-page | Animation | Layers | Color management | Extendable | HDR format |
See also
References
- ^ "BPG Image format". bellard.org.
- ^ Adobe: DNG Specification
- ^ Adobe: Introducing the Digital Negative Specification: Information for manufacturers
- ^ Adobe Labs: CinemaDNG (last bullet point)
- ^ a b RFC 3240
- ^ "vnd.adobe.photoshop". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
- ^ Animations are often encoded as video.
- ^ Supports raster data embedding with the use of Base64
- ^ "Multiple pages (SVG 1.2)". www.w3.org.
- ^ "Removed: Color — SVG 2". www.w3.org.
- ^ "Issue 437: allow palette extraction from indexed lossless images". WebP issue tracker. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- ^ "Lossless Bitstream Specification, section Color Indexing Transform". WebP official reference at Google Developers. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
