(Updated as November 2008)
What
are
all those files, what will I need to have at hand in terms of licenses,
applications and often hardware to enable accessing content in these
file formats in the future?
The
following starter list below has been supplied by various Prometheus
collection area users.
Another
fairly reliable source to give you some background of associations and
potential dependencies for a file format is: http://www.fileinfo.com/
They
even
have a 'file
format of the day'
RSS feed should you like to learn more about file formats in a smaller
dosage. http://www.fileinfo.com/daily_extension.rss
WIKIPEDIA
- File
Formats
A
file
format is a particular way that
information is encoded for storage
in a computer file.
Any list of file formats
would contain
both proprietary and open source.[1]
Since
a disk
drive, or indeed any computer
storage, can
store only bits,
the computer must have some way of converting information
to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for
different kinds of information. Within any format type, e.g., word processor
documents, there will
typically be several different formats. Sometimes these formats compete
with each other.
File
formats can be divided into proprietary
and open
formats.
For
further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_format
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats
Digital
Preservation knowledge base
http://pc203221/
(note
this is a temporary beta test link and may be subject to sudden change)
John T. Maguire
has created two tools for generating a list of file extensions recorded
when archiving in Prometheus.
Please right-click
and select
'Save Target As or 'Save Link As'
for the
following file links to a suitable location on your workstation e.g.
D:\ drive:
E_Drive_File
Extensions Tool For Prometheus
USB Drive Extensions Tool For Prometheus
Security Certificate
One
tool
is
for CDs and DVDs, and the other is for USB flash drives.
The
tools
create lists
of file extensions in a couple of seconds and
also retrieve file extensions of hidden files. They are particularly
useful for media with a large number of files.
You can see what they look like in the PowerShell
File Extension Tools for Prometheus Digital Archiving User Manual .
Contact John if you want a demonstration or installation.
Previously
suggested file format extensions of interest to various collection areas
- this file
format is known by the NLA Knowledge Base [accessibility yet to be
confirmed]
- this file
format is currently unknown by our format identification tools and
should be noted within the Prometheus File Format Annotations to enable
further investigation in regards to long term support and access.
Format
Extension |
NLA
Supported |
Collection
Areas using |
Description |
ID
Method |
ADRG
|
|
Maps
|
National
Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA)'s ARC Digitized Raster Graphics
|
|
ARC
|
|
Maps
|
ArcInfo
ARC
arc info file format
|
|
BIL
|
|
Maps
|
Band
Interleaved by Line (image format
linked with satellite derived imagery)
|
|
BWF
|
|
Music
Oral History
|
BWF
(Broadcast Wave Format) is a standard audio format created by the
European Broadcasting Union as a successor to WAV. BWF allows metadata
to be stored in the file.
|
|
CADRG
|
|
Maps
|
National
Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA)'s Compressed ARC Digitised Raster Graphics (nominal compression
of 55:1
over ADRG)
|
|
CIB
|
|
Maps
|
National
Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA)'s Controlled Image Base (type of Raster Product Format)
|
|
DNG
|
|
Pictures
Manuscripts
|
Adobe Digital
Negative file format
|
|
DRG
|
|
Maps
|
Digital raster
graphic - digital scan of
a paper USGS topographic map
|
|
DTED
DTM
|
|
Maps
|
National Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA)'s Digital Terrain Elevation Data [Digital Terrain Models
– DTM]
|
|
DXF
|
|
Manuscripts
|
Contour
elevation plots in AutoCAD DXF
format
|
|
ECW
|
|
Maps
|
Enhanced
Compressed Wavelet (from
ERMapper). A compressed wavelet format, often lossy.
|
|
ESRI
|
|
|
ESRI grid
- binary
and ASCII raster formats used
by ESRI
|
|
EXE
|
|
|
A Microsoft
Windows executable program, which within the the Prometheus context may
be an installer application to either install and access the content or
provide a viewer for the content type.
|
|
FLV
|
|
Web Archiving
Manuscripts
|
Adobe (formerly
Macromedia) Flash format file extension, flv is related to
Flash-compatible video file exported
by the Flash Video Exporter plug-in (included with Adobe Flash) or
other program with FLV file support.
|
|
GeoTIFF
|
|
Maps
|
TIFF variant
enriched
with GIS relevant metadata
|
|
GML
|
|
Maps
|
Geography
Markup Language (GML)
- XML based open standard (by
OpenGIS) for GIS data exchange
|
|
IMG
|
|
Maps
|
ERDAS IMAGINE
image file format
|
|
JPG/JPEG
|
|
All
Collections
|
A compressed
[lossy] image file format.
|
|
JPEG2000
|
|
Maps
|
Open-source raster format. A compressed
format, allows both lossy and lossless compression.
|
|
MrSID
|
|
Maps
|
Multi-Resolution Seamless Image Database
(by Lizardtech). A compressed wavelet format, often lossy.
|
|
PDF
|
|
All
Collections
|
Adobe PDF file
format
|
|
PSD
|
|
Maps
manuscripts
|
Adobe
Photoshop file format
|
|
SIB
|
|
Music
|
Sibelius
music file for the software for writing, playing, printing and
publishing music notation.
|
|
SHP, SHX + DBF set
|
|
Maps
|
SHP,
SHX
& associated DBFs - Shapefile - ESRI's open, hybrid vector data
format
using SHP, SHX
and DBF
files
|
|
SWF
|
|
Web
Archiving
Australian
Deposit
|
Adobe
(formerly Macromedia)
Shockwave multimedia file
Flash movie file. ShockWave Flash, Animated Vector Format for Internet.
|
|
TAB
|
|
All
Collections
|
Tab-delimited text files store
two-dimensional arrays of data by separating the values in each row
with specific delimiter
characters
which in this case is the
TAB
character. These text files can
be
opened by several kinds of applications.
|
|
TAB
|
|
Maps
|
MapInfo TAB
format - MapInfo's vector data format using TAB, DAT,
ID
and MAP files
|
|
TIf/TIFF
|
|
Manuscripts
Pictures
Ephemera
|
Adobe TIFF
file format
|
|
TS.BUP
|
|
All
Collections
|
DVD
(Digital Video Disk) data file. File extension
bup is commonly backup of DVD IFO file. The .BUP file
extension is used by a variety of software as a backup of the IFO file
found on DVDs.
|
|
TS.IFO
|
|
All
Collections
|
DVD
(Digital Video Disk) data file. .IFO files store information
about
DVD chapter headings, subtitles,
audio settings. They also define which screen appears on start-up.
|
|
TS.AOD
|
|
All
Collections
|
DVD
(Digital Video Disk) data file. This file stores
audio data on DVD-Audio discs in an MPEG format. It
contains Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) data stored in the
AUDIO_TS folder.
|
|
TS.VOB
|
|
All
Collections
|
DVD
(Digital Video Disk) data file. The
.VOB file extension is for DVD Video Object files (which are in
practice DVD movie files). The data stored in the VIDEO_TS folder.
|
|
WAV
|
|
All
Collections
|
WAVE audio
file format
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|