Failiformaatide

Failiformaatide, or file formats, are standardized ways of encoding and storing digital data. A file format prescribes how information is organized within a file, how data elements are represented, and how software should read, interpret, and sometimes render or convert the content. File formats can be broadly categorized by the type of data they contain or by their container and encoding methods.

Common data-type categories include text-based formats such as TXT, CSV, JSON, and XML; binary formats such as PDF, DOCX, and XLSX; image formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF; audio formats such as MP3, WAV, FLAC, and AAC; video formats such as MP4, AVI, MKV, and MOV; and 3D and scientific formats such as STL and NetCDF. Archive formats like ZIP, RAR, and 7z bundle multiple files and metadata. Some formats are containers (for example, MP4, MKV) that can hold audio, video, subtitles, and metadata, while others are codecs that specify how the data is compressed (for example, H.264 for video, AAC for audio).

Standardization bodies such as ISO/IEC and the W3C maintain specifications for many formats, but there is also a significant share of proprietary formats. Open formats are generally preferred for long-term interoperability; file extensions and MIME types assist software in identifying formats, though they are not foolproof. Formats can be lossless or lossy, and some aim for archival stability.

Interoperability, preservation, accessibility, and security considerations drive ongoing format migration and conversion strategies in libraries, media industries, science, and technology.