In this article we explain what a number of different popular file types are and what they are used for.
.pptx / .ppt
Microsoft PowerPoint, for presentation slides.
.xlsx / .xls
The native format for Microsoft Excel and the most common file format for spreadsheets.
.svg
Scalable vector graphics – for images that need to render at full resolution in a variety of sizes.
Portable Document Format – renders text and images in a format that can be read on any OS, regardless of software or hardware used.
.zip
ZIP isn’t an acronym. It is a way of compressing files in a way that means they don’t lose any data.
.png
Portable network graphic. Allows transparency in images. ‘Portable’ indicates that files can be viewed regardless of OS, software, and hardware.
.jpg / .jpeg
Joint Photographic Experts Group – the most widely used image format worldwide. Compresses images without losing too much picture quality.
.docx / .doc
Microsoft Word, for word processing files.
.psd
The native format for Adobe Photoshop files.
.indd
The native format for Adobe InDesign files.
.gif
Graphics Interchange Format – allows for simple animations.
.ai
The native format for Adobe Illustrator files.
.html / .htm
Hypertext Markup Language – the cornerstone of the web. Displays content on web pages, in use since the earliest days of the Internet.
.otf
OpenType Font, used to display fonts across most platforms.
There are many other popular file types, some of which will be covered in a future article.
