File Formats

Scalable Vector Graphics. An XML-based image format that can scale to any size without pixelation.

A lightweight markup language for formatting plain text. Used all over the web, including in this article!

Similar to JSON but strives to be even more human-friendly. Great for configuration files.

A widely used markup language for encoding documents in a way both humans and computers can read.

Lightweight data interchange format that’s easy for humans to read and write.

For tabular data like spreadsheets. Very simple and universally supported.

A structured collection of data, often with multiple tables. Access, MySQL, and Oracle are big players.

For slideshows and lectures. Microsoft’s PPTX is commonly used.

Data organized into a grid of cells. Microsoft Excel’s XLSX is a de facto standard.

Any file that’s been made smaller with compression. ZIP and RAR for general files, MP3 for audio, JPG for images, etc.