Functions of different file format explained

By Gizbot Bureau

| Updated: Wednesday, July 5, 2017, 20:05 [IST]

As per the Internet definition, File Format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium.

Functions of different file format explained

To make it simpler, File Format is a layout of a file in regards with how data are organized within the file. And the software we use must be able to recognize and access data within the file. There are different types of file format and the commonly used ones are .doc, .mp3, .pdf and much more. Today, we are going to see about the common file format we use in our day to day life.

JPG

It is the most common format used for storing and transmitting photos in computer and online. This file format allows the images to have more than 16 million different hues and compresses the photos better. This format allows the photos to have smooth variations of tone and color. Saying that the degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality.

GIF

This format is mostly used in web graphics and it is file size depends on the colors. GIF format can contain a sequence of gifs called gif animation. Moreover, it also uses the pixel based format to support animation.

PNG

This is an alternative to both JPG/GIF. In fact, this format was created for images, that does not require a patent license to use. It also uses a lossless data compression method known as deflation. PNG will be helpful fo storing and better compared to JPEG if the image has text, line art or sharp transition.

RAW

This format has contains minimally processed data from the image sensors of DSLR or other such devices. Basically, it is unprocessed and therefore is not ready to be printed or edited, that's why it is called as RAW.

MP3

MP3(MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard file format for compressing sounds into a small file at the same time preserving the original level of sound quality. The name MPEG is derived from the Moving Picture Experts Group and it is one of the common file formats.

MP4

MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is a format that is used to store audio and/or video data, rather than to code the information. As this is a container format, it does not have a standard method of coding, instead, codecs dictate how the audio or video will be coded and possibly compressed.

Flac

Free Lossless Audio Codec file is an open source audio compression format that can be used to compress an audio file down to its original size. The audio compressed through this format will have very minimal amount of loss when compared to others.

PDF

Portable Document Format or PDF is a file format that has all the elements of a printed document as an image which you can view, print, and do much more stuff. This format can be used for documents such as magazine articles, product brochures, and more.

Doc

Doc is a document file format used by Microsoft Word. This format can contain formatted text, images, tables, graphs, charts, page formatting, and print settings.