A+ Certification / Beginners

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Graphic files Extensions

Graphics have been an important part of computers since computers were invented and were able to print. Early graphics were generated using the standard ASCII character set and used to create simple graphs or rudimentary graphics. A number of different formats have become popular, and with the popularity of the Internet, the number of major graphic formats has greatly increased. For a listing of graphics formats, see Table below.

Extension	Type	Description
.bmp	Bitmap	Used by MS Paint.
.eps	Adobe Encapsulated PostScript	Used by several major graphics applications.
.gif	Graphic Interchange Format	Originally owned by CompuServe, but now by AOL. It was designed to minimize download times.
.jpg, .jpeg	Joint Photographic Expert Group file format	A compression format that discards data that is thought to be invisible to the human eye. Discarding data to compress files is referred to as "lossy."
.pcd	Kodak Photo CD format	A special format of image to be displayed on devices that support Kodak Photo CD
.pcx	PC Paintbrush file	An early Windows graphic format.
.pdf	Adobe's Portable Document Format	Readable by Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
.png	Portable Network Graphics	A fairly new and open (free to use) photo standard. It is planned as a replacement for .gif and .jpeg formats; it supports all the benefits of both formats. It uses a zip type algorithm for compression.
.tif, .tiff	Aldus Tagged-Image file format	This was used as a common interchange format between most graphics applications. It is very popular with photographic manipulators. It supports LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression format to reduce file sizes. LZW compression is "lossless" - it doesn't discard any data.

Other file extensions

While some of the file extensions have been categorized in this tutorial, Table below has some other extensions that are worth noting.

Extension	Type	Description
.asp, .aspx	Active Server Page files	Used by MS Paint.
.cda	CD Audio files	Used by MS Paint.
.css	Cascading Style Sheet files	Stores HTML style data.
.htm, html	HyperText Markup Language files	Store data that will be displayed on Web sites. Web servers use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http) to send the information to your Web browser. .html is gaining popularity for displaying information locally as well. Many vendors send help files in this format so that they can be used on both their Web sites and as offline files.
.tmp	Temporary file	A short term storage file.
.txt	Text file	ASCII text files that are readable on every operating system.
.wav	Windows Audio files	Audio files designed specifically for use with Windows.