Comparison of graphics file formats
From HandWiki
Short description: None
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 Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent- free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Adobe Illustrator Document | Adobe Systems | .ai | application/illustrator, application/postscript |
Adobe Illustrator | No | |
| ANI | ANI file format | Microsoft | RIFF | .ani | Microsoft Windows | ||
| ANIM | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .anim | video/x-anim | |||
| APNG | Animated Portable Network Graphics | Mozilla | PNG | .png | image/png | Gecko 1.9 and Opera | Yes |
| Apple Icon Image | Apple Inc. | .icns | 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 | General purpose | royalty-free |
| 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. | Yes | |
| BPG | Better Portable Graphics | Fabrice Bellard | HEVC | .bpg | General purpose | No | |
| 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 | No | |
| CD5 | Chasys Draw IES Image | John Paul Chacha | .cd5 | Native format for Chasys Draw IES for storing layered images and animations | No | ||
| 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. | No | |
| 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[1] |
.dng | A raw image format suitable as an archival format and as the native raw format of digital cameras[2] | Yes[3] | |
| DICOM | Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine | National Electrical Manufacturers Association | .dcm, .dicom | application/dicom[4] | Numerous biomedical imaging applications[4] (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 | No | ||
| 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. | Yes[5] | |
| 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,
superseded by Jpeg XL |
Yes | |||
| 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 | Yes |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format | CompuServe, Unisys (compression algorithm) |
.gif, .gfa, .giff | image/gif | General purpose, popular for small animated images | Yes | |
| HEIF | High Efficiency Image Format | Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) | .heif, .heic | image/heif, image/heic, image/heic-sequence, image/heif-sequence |
General purpose | No | |
| HDRi | TIFF | .tif, .tiff | image/tiff | ||||
| ICER | NASA Mars Rovers | ||||||
| ICO | ICO file format | Microsoft | .ico, .cur | image/vnd.Microsoft.icon, image/x-icon |
Microsoft Windows and web browsers as favicon | ||
| ICS | Image Cytometry Standard | .ics, .ids | |||||
| IGES | Initial Graphics Exchange Specification | .igs | image/iges | CAD/CAM interoperability | Yes | ||
| ILBM | InterLeaved BitMap | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .ilbm, .lbm | image/x-ilbm | Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware. | Yes |
| 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 | Yes | |||
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe (containers: .jif, .jfif, .jfi) |
image/jpeg | General purpose | Yes | |
| JPEG 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jp2, .j2c, .jpc, .j2k, .jpx |
image/jp2 | General purpose | royalty-free | |
| JPEG-LS | Joint Photographic Experts Group | .jls | |||||
| JPEG-HDR | Dolby Laboratories/BrightSide Technologies | JPEG | General purpose | ||||
| JPEG XL | Joint Photographic Experts Group | PIK, FUIF (FLIF) | .jxl | image/jxl | General-purpose, lossless JPEG transcoding. | Yes | |
| JPEG XT | Joint Photographic Experts Group | General purpose | |||||
| JPEG XR / HD Photo | JPEG XR / HD Photo | Microsoft | .wdp, .hdp, .jxr | image/vnd.ms-photo | General purpose | 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 | Yes | ||
| NEF | Nikon RAW | Nikon | TIFF | .nef | |||
| MIFF | Magick image file format | ImageMagick Studio | .miff | ImageMagick | |||
| MRW | Minolta RAW | Minolta | .mrw | ||||
| ORF | Olympus RAW | Olympus | TIFF | .orf | |||
| PAM | portable arbitrary map file format | .pam | image/x-portable-arbitrarymap | Yes | |||
| PBM | Portable Bitmap File Format | ASCII | .pbm | image/x-portable-bitmap | Yes | ||
| 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. | Yes | ||
| PGM | Portable Graymap File Format | ASCII | .pgm | image/x-portable-graymap | Yes | ||
| PGML | Precision Graphics Markup Language | Adobe Systems, IBM, Netscape, Sun Microsystems |
Yes | ||||
| 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 | General purpose | Yes | |
| PNM | Portable Anymap File Format | ASCII | .pnm | image/x-portable-anymap | Yes | ||
| 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. | Yes | |
| PSD | Photoshop Document | Adobe Systems | .psd, .psb, .pdb, .pdd |
image/vnd.adobe.photoshop[6] | Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data. | No | |
| PSP | Paint Shop Pro Document | Corel Corporation | .psp, .tub, .pspimage |
image/x-psp | Paint Shop Pro | ? | |
| QOI | Quite OK Image Format | Dominic Szablewski | .qoi | Yes | |||
| 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 | Vector graphics | Yes |
| SWF | Shockwave Flash | Adobe Systems | .swf | application/x-shockwave-flash | Adobe Flash Player | ||
| TGA | Truevision Targa | Truevision Inc. | .tga, .tpic | image/tga | Texture format used by many 3d application. | Yes | |
| TIFF | Tag Image File Format | Adobe Systems | .tiff, .tif | image/tiff | Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container. | Yes | |
| 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 | Yes |
| WBMP | Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format | Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum) | .wbmp, .wbm, .wbp | image/vnd.wap.wbmp | Used in WAP-pages | Yes | |
| WebP | WebP image format | .webp | image/webp | General purpose | royalty-free | ||
| WMF | Windows Metafile Format | Microsoft | .wmf, .wmz | ||||
| XAR | Xar | Xara | Xar (graphics) | .xar | application/vnd.xara | Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | Yes |
| 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 | GIMP | ||
| XPM | X-Pixmap | .xpm, .pm | image/x-xpm | Legacy Unix applications | |||
| X3F | SIGMA RAW | SIGMA | .x3f | ||||
| Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent- free |
Technical details
| Format | Compression algorithm |
Raster/ vector |
Maximum Color depth |
Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | Script error: No such module "Vertical header". | HDR format | CMYK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Lossy and lossless | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | No | |
| AVIF | Lossy and lossless (AV1) | Raster | 12 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| BMP | None, lossy (JPEG), and lossless (RLE, PNG) | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| BPG | Lossy and lossless (HEVC) | Raster | 14 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A | |
| CD5 | Lossless (ACSC) | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | |
| CDR | Lossy and lossless | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | No | |
| CPC | Lossy (CPC) | Raster | 1 | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes, via embedded dictionary | No | |
| EPS | None and lossless (LZW, Deflate, RLE, DCT) | Both | Device specific | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| EXR | None and lossless (RLE, ZIP, Piz, PXR24, and B44, B44A, DWAA, DWAB) | Raster | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FLIF | Lossless (MANIAC entropy coding) | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | Yes | |
| GIF | Lossless (LZW) | Raster | 255 colors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (GIF89a) | No | No |
| HD Photo / JPEG XR | Lossy and lossless (bi-orthogonal transform) | Raster | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| ILBM | None and lossless (RLE) | Raster | 8 bpc | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, Palette-shifting |
No | No | Yes | No | |
| JPEG | Lossy (DCT, RLE, and Huffman predictive nearest neighbor) | Raster | 8 bpc | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No (see unofficial JPEG-HDR) | Yes |
| JPEG 2000 | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | 38 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | N/A | No | Yes |
| JPEG XL | Lossy and lossless (VarDCT mode, Modular mode) | Raster | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| KRA | None | Both | 32 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| ORA | Lossless | Both | 16 bpc | 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 and lossless (RLE) | Raster | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| PGF | Lossy and lossless (DWT) | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | N/A | No | |
| PICT | None, lossy (Quicktime), and lossless (RLE) | Both | 8 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | No | No | No | N/A | No? | No | |
| PNG | Lossless (Deflate) | Raster | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (since the third edition)[7] | No | Yes | Yes, via chunks | Yes | No |
| PPM | None | Raster | 8 ppc | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| PSD and PSB | None and lossless (RLE) | Both | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | |
| PSP | None | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | N/A | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | No | |
| SVG | None and lossless (gzip) | Vector[lower-alpha 1] | 8 bpc | No | Yes | Yes | N/A | Yes (1.2 draft)[8] | Yes (SMIL/SVG) | Yes | Yes[9] | Yes, XML based | N/A | |
| TGA | None, lossless (RLE), and other | Raster | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | N/A | No | |
| TIFF | None, lossless (LZW, RLE, ZIP), and other | Both | 16 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, via tags | Yes, TIFF float | Yes |
| WebP | Lossy and lossless | Raster | 8 bpc | No[10][11] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| XCF | None and lossless (gzip, bzip2 and xz) | Both | 32 bpc | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Format | Compression algorithm | Raster/ vector |
Maximum | Indexed color | Trans-parency | Meta- | Inter-
lacing |
Multi-page | Anima-tion | Layers | Color manage-ment | Extend-
able |
HDR format | CMYK |
See also
References
- ↑ Adobe: DNG Specification
- ↑ Adobe: Introducing the Digital Negative Specification: Information for manufacturers
- ↑ Adobe Labs: CinemaDNG (last bullet point)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 RFC 3240
- ↑ "License". http://www.openexr.com/license.html.
- ↑ "vnd.adobe.photoshop". https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/image/vnd.adobe.photoshop.
- ↑ "Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Third Edition) is now a W3C Recommendation". World Wide Web Consortium. 24 June 2025. https://www.w3.org/news/2025/portable-network-graphics-png-specification-third-edition-is-now-a-w3c-recommendation/.
- ↑ "Multiple pages (SVG 1.2)". http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/multipage.html.
- ↑ "Removed: Color — SVG 2". http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/color.html#ColorProfileDescriptions.
- ↑ "Issue 437: allow palette extraction from indexed lossless images". https://bugs.chromium.org/p/webp/issues/detail?id=437.
- ↑ "Lossless Bitstream Specification, section Color Indexing Transform". https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webp_lossless_bitstream_specification#44_color_indexing_transform.
 |  |
