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 Format File extension MIME type Application Patent-free AI Adobe Illustrator Document Adobe Systems .ai application/illustrator,application/postscript Adobe Illustrator 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 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 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. BPG Better Portable Graphics Fabrice Bellard HEVC .bpg General purpose 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 CD5 Chasys Draw IES Image John Paul Chacha .cd5 Native format for Chasys Draw IES for storing layered images and animations 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. 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 withISO 12234-2,TIFF/EPAdobe: DNG Specification .dng A raw image format suitable as an archival format and as the native raw format of digital camerasAdobe: Introducing the Digital Negative Specification: Information for manufacturers Adobe Labs: CinemaDNG (last bullet point) DICOM Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine National Electrical Manufacturers Association .dcm, .dicom application/dicomRFC 3240 Numerous biomedical imaging applications (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 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, superseded by Jpeg XL FPX FlashPix (1.0.2) .fpx image/vnd.fpx Gerber Format The Gerber Format SpecificationUcamcoPrintable ASCII.gbr application/vnd.gerber Printed Circuit Board or PCB software GIF Graphics Interchange Format CompuServe,Unisys (compression algorithm) .gif, .gfa, .giff image/gif General purpose, popular for small animated images HEIF High Efficiency Image Format Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) .heif, .heic image/heif, image/heic,image/heic-sequence,image/heif-sequenceGeneral purpose 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 ILBM InterLeaved BitMap Electronic Arts and Commodore IFF .iff, .ilbm, .lbm image/x-ilbm Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware. 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 JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group Joint Photographic Experts Group .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe(containers:.jif, .jfif, .jfi) image/jpeg General purpose JPEG 2000 Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000 Joint Photographic Experts Group .jp2, .j2c, .jpc,.j2k, .jpx image/jp2 General purpose 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. 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 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 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 PBM Portable Bitmap File FormatASCII .pbm image/x-portable-bitmap 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. PDF 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. PGM Portable Graymap File Format ASCII .pgm image/x-portable-graymap PGML Precision Graphics Markup Language Adobe Systems, IBM,Netscape, Sun Microsystems PICT Macintosh PICT Format Apple Inc. .pict, .pic, .pct,.pct1, .pct2 image/pict Metafile for Classic Mac OS, not meant for print publishing. Likelyexpired PICtor John Bridges, Doug Wolfgram .pic Supported by PCPaint PNG Portable Network Graphics World Wide Web Consortium .png image/png General purpose PNM Portable Anymap File Format ASCII .pnm image/x-portable-anymap 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. PSD Photoshop Document Adobe Systems .psd, .psb, .pdb,.pdd image/vnd.adobe.photoshop Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data. PSP Paint Shop Pro Document Corel Corporation .psp, .tub,.pspimage image/x-psp Paint Shop Pro QOI Quite OK Image Format Dominic Szablewski .qoi 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 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. TIFF Tag Image File Format Adobe Systems .tiff, .tif image/tiff Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container. 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 WBMP Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum) .wbmp, .wbm, .wbp image/vnd.wap.wbmp Used in WAP-pages WebP WebP image format Google .webp image/webp General purpose WMF Windows Metafile Format Microsoft .wmf, .wmz XAR Xar Xara Xar (graphics) .xar application/vnd.xara Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 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 MaximumColor depth HDR format CMYK AI Lossy and lossless 8 bpc AVIF Lossy and lossless (AV1) 12 bpc BMP None, lossy (JPEG), and lossless (RLE, PNG) 16 bpc BPG Lossy and lossless (HEVC) 14 bpc CD5 Lossless (ACSC) 16 bpc CDR Lossy and lossless 8 bpc CPC Lossy (CPC) 1 , via embedded dictionary EPS None and lossless (LZW, Deflate, RLE, DCT) Device specific EXR None and lossless (RLE, ZIP, Piz, PXR24, and B44, B44A, DWAA, DWAB) 32 bpc FLIF Lossless (MANIAC entropy coding) 16 bpc , via chunks GIF Lossless (LZW) 255 colors (GIF89a) HD Photo / JPEG XR Lossy and lossless (bi-orthogonal transform) 32 bpc ILBM None and lossless (RLE) 8 bpc ,Palette-shifting JPEG Lossy (DCT, RLE, and Huffman predictive nearest neighbor) 8 bpc (see unofficial JPEG-HDR) JPEG 2000 Lossy and lossless (DWT) 38 bpc Yes JPEG XL Lossy and lossless (VarDCT mode, Modular mode) 32 bpc KRA None 32 bpc ORA Lossless 16 bpc PAM None Up to 16 PCX None and lossless (RLE) 8 bpc PGF Lossy and lossless (DWT) 16 bpc PICT None, lossy (Quicktime), and lossless (RLE) 8 bpc ? PNG Lossless (Deflate) 16 bpc (since the third edition) , via chunks PPM None 8 ppc PSD and PSB None and lossless (RLE) 32 bpc ? PSP None 16 bpc SVG None and lossless (gzip) 8 bpc (1.2 draft) (SMIL/SVG) , XML based TGA None, lossless (RLE), and other 32 bpc TIFF None, lossless (LZW, RLE, ZIP), and other 16 bpc , via tags , TIFF float WebP Lossy and lossless 8 bpc XCF None and lossless (gzip, bzip2 and xz) 32 bpc Format Compression algorithm Raster/vector Maximum Color depth Indexed color Trans-parency Meta- data Inter- lacing Multi-page Anima-tion Layers Color manage-ment Extend- ­able HDR format CMYK

See also List of codecs

References