Durable File Types

.txt, .csv, .ods, .pdf, .mp4, .flac, .tif

Not all file types are created equal. In terms of resistance to going out-of-support, or file type corruptions, these are the kings:

• Documents
  • .txt - king, use UTF-8 character encoding
    • Any offshoot of text that is just text under the hood (like Markdown
  • .pdf
  • .odt
  • .docx ← “x” at the end is important, it’s XML-based
• Spreadsheets
  • .csv - king (see: CSV)
  • .ods
  • .xlsx ← “x” at the end is important, it’s XML-based
• Presentations
  • .pptx ← “x” at the end is important, it’s XML-based
• Images
  • .raw - lossless, large
  • .tif - lossless, large
  • .jpg
  • .png
  • …or use PDFs
• Video
  • .mp4
• Audio
  • .flac - lossless, large
  • .mp3

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Source §

• LibGuides: Getting your data organised: Durable file formats
• Guides: Data Management Recommended Practices: Sustainable File Types

Related §

• Plain Text Durability
• CSV
• XML