Formáty

Formáty is the plural form of formát, a term used in Hungarian, Slovak, and other Central European languages to mean formats. In English, the closest equivalent is formats. The word is used across various domains to describe the organisation, encoding, and rules that govern how data is stored, transmitted, or rendered.

In computing, formats refer to how data is packaged and interpreted. File formats define the structure of stored data and how software should read it. Common examples include PDF for documents, DOCX and ODT for editable text, JPEG, PNG and GIF for images, MP3 and FLAC for audio, and MP4, AVI, or MKV for video. Some formats are containers that can hold multiple streams (for example, MP4), while others are codecs or encodings (such as JPEG’s compression). Formats can be lossless or lossy, affecting quality and file size.

Web and data formats describe how information is organized for transmission and processing on the internet or in data exchanges. HTML and CSS govern web pages, while JSON, XML, and CSV are used for data interchange and storage. Markup and serialization formats often rely on schemas or definitions to enable interoperability, and MIME types help software recognize formats during transmission.

In publishing and printing, formats cover physical and digital media, including page sizes (A4, Letter), and the choice of fonts and layout. Electronic formats extend to e-books and magazines (EPUB, MOBI, PDF), where accessibility and reflowable text are important considerations.

Open formats and standards, such as ODF for documents or PNG for images, are promoted to improve long-term accessibility and interoperability across platforms and applications.