Common File Extensions
Adobe Acrobat Portable Document File (The Portable Document Format is a universal document format developed by Adobe. It is a cross-platform standard, which allows documents to be displayed and printed the same way on multiple computers, regardless of the platform.)
.PSD
Adobe Photoshop Document (An image file that may contain multiple layers and may be saved in one of several different color modes. PSDs also contain metadata and other information recognized by Photoshop.)
.AVI
Audio Video Interleave File (Developed by Microsoft, AVI is a common video format supported by most video players. It is a media container format, meaning the audio and video data are stored separately. While most video players will open AVI files, they will only play the media if the right codecs are installed.)
.GIF
Graphical Interchange Format (GIF files are saved in a compressed, indexed-color format and are commonly used for Web graphics. They use lossless compression, which means they do not lose any quality when compressed. The GIF format supports up to 256 colors (including transparent pixels), which may be predefined or selected by the user. GIFs can also be animated, making them popular choices for buttons and other small Web graphics. However, since GIF images can only contain 256 colors, they are not ideal for digital photographs. This is why most digital photos are saved as .JPG files.)
.JPG
JPEG Graphic (Most Common - JPEG image files are commonly used for Web graphics and are produced by nearly all digital cameras. They are saved in a compressed format that supports millions of colors, making them ideal for digital photographs. The JPEG format uses lossy compression, which means the quality of the image is reduced as the compression is increased. However, unless high amounts of compression are used, the quality loss is typically not noticeable. Since JPEG is a ubiquitous file format, JPG images can be viewed in all Web browsers and in most image-editing programs.)
.MP3
MP3 Audio File (Very common compressed audio file format - losing ground in popularity to ACC Format)
.MP4
MPEG-4 Video Files (Common - An MP4 file is a video file that is compressed with MPEG-4 compression. Most MP4 files typically contain both audio and video tracks. The MP4 format was developed by the developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).)
.ACCDB
Microsoft Access (Information Database)
.XLSX
Microsoft Excel (Data Spreadsheet)
.PPTX
Microsoft PowerPoint (Presentation Slides)
.DOCX
Microsoft Word (Word Processing)
.EXE
PC Application (EXE is short for "executable" and is the standard file extension used by Windows programs. Therefore, whenever you double-click or open an EXE file in Windows, it will run a program. Windows programs are typically named "program.exe" where "program" is the name of the program. You can directly run EXE files by selecting "Run..." from the Windows Start Menu and typing the name of the program.)
.TXT
Plain Text File (Plain text files can be saved with a variety of extensions, such as .LOG, .README, and .ASC, but they usually have a ".txt" file extension. They contain unformatted text and can be opened by any text editor or word processor. Text files are commonly used for basic text documents, but they may also serve as input and output files for various programs. The unformatted text allows the documents to take up the smallest space possible.)
.PNG
Portable Network Graphic (Image format that uses indexed colors and lossless compression (like a .GIF file), but without copyright limitations; cannot be animated like a GIF image. PNG images may also include an 8-bit transparency channel, which allows the colors in the image to fade from opaque to transparent.)
.MOV
QuickTime Video (Common - Apple QuickTime Movie, a media format developed by Apple. QuickTime video files may be compressed using one of several standard codecs, but they are saved in a proprietary format. MOV files can be viewed with Apple's free QuickTime Player or another QuickTime-compatible program.)
.RTF
Rich Text Format (An RTF file is a text file saved in the rich text format. Unlike plain text files, rich text files support text formatting, including bold text, italics, and underlining. They also support different fonts and font sizes. RTF is a standard text file format that can be opened by most word processing programs. Therefore, it is a common export option that can be used for transferring formatted files between different programs.)
.TIF
TIFF Graphic (Stands for "Tagged Image File Format." It is graphics file format created in the 1980's to be the standard image format across multiple computer platforms. The TIFF format can handle color depths ranging from 1-bit to 24-bit.)
.WAV
WAVE Audio File (Developed by Microsoft - Standard digital audio file format for storing waveform data.)
.WMV
Windows Media Video File (Common PC Video Format developed by Microsoft)
.ZIP
Zipped Compressed Archive (A ZIP file is a compressed file archive that may contain one or more files. The files are "zipped" into a single archive that takes up minimal space using a file compression algorithm. In order to open the file(s) in the archive, they must be decompressed or "unzipped" with a file decompression utility. Both Macintosh and Windows computers have built-in zip utilities that can zip and unzip files, but several third-party options are also available.)
.AAC
iTunes Advanced Audio Coding File (Songs downloaded from iTunes are usually in this format - known for better sound quality than MP3s at similar bitrate compression)
