| Item Type | Recommended Formats |
|---|---|
| Text: formatted | PDF/A (*.pdf), rich text format (*.rtf), MS Word (*.doc/*.docx), Open Office (*.sxw/*.odt) |
| Text: plain | Plain Text (*.txt) UTF-8 encoding or plain text (*.txt) ASCII encoding |
| Audio | MPEG (*.mp3), Wave (*.wav), FLAC (*.flac), Ogg Vorbus (.ogg) |
| Raster Image | JPEG (*.jpg), PNG (*.png), GIF (*.gif), TIFF (uncompressed) (*.tiff/*.tif), JPEG2000 (lossless) (*.jp2) |
| Vector Image | Scalable Vector Graphics (*.svg), Computer Graphic Metafile (CGM, WebCGM) (*.cgm), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) (*.eps) |
| Spreadsheet/Database | Comma Separated Values (*.csv) or Tab Separated Values (*.tsv), UTF-8 encoding preferred, SQL Data Definition Language (*sql), MS Excel (*.xls/*.xlsx), Open Office (*.ods), structured plain text files (*.txt) |
| Structural: Markup | HTML (*.html, *.htm), XML w/ valid DTD (*.xml), Markdown (*.md), SGML w/ valid DTD (*.smg, *.sgml), KML (*.kml), JSON (*.json) |
| Video | MPEG-4 (*.mp4), AVI (.avi) |
| Computer Programs | Uncompiled computer program source code (*.c, *.cpp, *.java, *.js, *.jsp, *.php, *.pl, *.py, etc.), Compiled / Executable files (EXE, *.class, COM, DLL, BIN, DRV, OVL, SYS, PIF) |
| Presentations | PDF/A (*.pdf), OpenOffice (*.sxi/*.odp), MS PowerPoint (*.ppt/*.pptx) |
| Virtual Reality | X3D (*.x3d) |
Files that are .exe and other executables are discouraged. For additional information, contact hello@hcommons.org.
We’ve built our recommended formats list in part using the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement. See their list for more information on uncommon types.