Comparison of graphics file formats

In today's world, Comparison of graphics file formats is a topic that has sparked great interest and debate in society. Whether due to its impact on people's daily lives, its historical relevance or its influence on various cultural aspects, Comparison of graphics file formats continues to be a current topic that captures the attention of millions of people around the world. Through this article, we will explore in depth the multiple facets and dimensions of Comparison of graphics file formats, analyzing its importance, evolution and repercussions in different areas.

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. ?
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. 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 Google .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
Indexed color
Multi-page
Layers
Extendable
 HDR format CMYK
AI Lossy and lossless Both 8 bpc Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes — 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 — Yes — —
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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — No
PICT None, lossy (Quicktime), and lossless (RLE) Both 8 bpc Yes Yes Yes — No No No — No? No
PNG Lossless (Deflate) Raster 16 bpc Yes Yes Yes Yes No No (but see MNG and APNG) No Yes Yes, via chunks No, see discussion 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 — No Yes Yes Yes No? Yes
PSP None Both 16 bpc Yes Yes Yes No — No Yes — — No
SVG None and lossless (gzip) Vector[a] 8 bpc No Yes Yes — Yes (1.2 draft)[7] Yes (SMIL/SVG) Yes Yes[8] Yes, XML based —
TGA None, lossless (RLE), and other Raster 32 bpc Yes Yes Yes No No No No No — 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[9][10] 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

Color depth

Indexed color Trans-parency Meta-

data

Inter-

lacing

Multi-page Anima-tion Layers Color manage-ment Extend-

­able

HDR format CMYK
  1. ^ Supports raster data embedding with the use of Base64.

See also

References

  1. ^ Adobe: DNG Specification
  2. ^ Adobe: Introducing the Digital Negative Specification: Information for manufacturers
  3. ^ Adobe Labs: CinemaDNG Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine (last bullet point)
  4. ^ a b RFC 3240
  5. ^ "License". openexr.com.
  6. ^ "vnd.adobe.photoshop". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  7. ^ "Multiple pages (SVG 1.2)". www.w3.org.
  8. ^ "Removed: Color — SVG 2". www.w3.org.
  9. ^ "Issue 437: allow palette extraction from indexed lossless images". WebP issue tracker. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Lossless Bitstream Specification, section Color Indexing Transform". WebP official reference at Google Developers. Retrieved 1 December 2020.