Overview of the most important file and graphic formats

File format icons

Which file and graphic formats exist?​

Text formats and their extensions​

DOCX: Microsoft Word document format (word processing). DOCX is the format used by newer Word versions. A DOCX file can contain text, images, and graphics. Older Word versions may not fully support it.

TXT: Plain text file, often created with a basic text editor. TXT files can be opened by text editors, word processors, or web browsers.

RTF: Rich Text Format, an open text document format. In addition to text, RTF can include formatting instructions and images. RTF files can be created with tools like WordPad and opened by many text processing programs.

XLS: Legacy Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format. XLS files store table data, formatting instructions, and macros. Newer versions often use XLSX.

PPT: Microsoft PowerPoint presentation format. PPT is editable and can include text, lists, images, videos, audio, and embedded spreadsheets. Newer versions typically use PPTX.

ODT: OpenDocument Text format. ODT files are created in suites such as OpenOffice/LibreOffice and can include text, formatting, images, graphics, and tables.

Graphic and image formats​

BMP: Windows Bitmap image format. BMP is a simple graphics format but usually results in relatively large file sizes, making it less suitable for web transfer.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format. GIF supports animation and can be compressed losslessly, but quality and color depth are limited compared to modern formats. Commonly used for web animations.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group image format. Widely used for web images due to small file sizes from lossy compression. Typically used for on-screen viewing rather than print workflows.

PSD: Adobe Photoshop document format. PSD stores image data plus layers, masks, paths, and related editing information. It is mainly used in design and graphics production workflows.

PDN: Image format created by Paint.NET.

PNG: Portable Network Graphics format. Frequently used because it supports lossless compression with relatively compact file sizes, making it useful for web graphics and infographics.

TIFF: Tagged Image File Format. Important format for high-quality graphics with lossless compression support. Usually larger in size and commonly used for high-resolution print requirements.

PDF: Portable Document Format from Adobe. PDF is ideal for document exchange and is one of the most widely used document formats. PDF files can contain text, images, graphics, and more. A major advantage is platform independence and consistent visual output. Adobe Acrobat Reader is the standard viewer for PDF files.

Almost all listed file formats can be converted into PDF with webPDF and then further processed as PDF documents. The features can be tested in the webPDF portal online demo.