Various text document, image and media file formats and how to select and convert between them.

Transcription

1 Various text document, image and media file formats and how to select and convert between them.

2 Plain text Rich Text Format.DOC.DOCX

3 No fancy formatting but can be read by any computer. Use Notepad or Notepad++ to create and amend. I use it in s and for making quick notes Also, if you paste a Word document into Notepad, it will remove all formatting. Very handy.

4 In the beginning, each word processor had its own document file format (and this is still true ). It was initially seen as a way of locking customers into a specific product. Later, it became very clear that customers wanted to communicate with each other (surprise surprise) hence the standard RTF format that can handle fancy formatting. Most word processors can create and read it.

5 This was the standard MS Word format up to and including Office It supports a lot more features than.rtf most of which nobody uses. If you receive one of these files and can t open it, MS provides a free viewer at

6 This is a new format in MS Office 2007 and later. It s based upon XML which holds the promise of extracting content (such as address or recipient) automatically. You don t need it and I suggest that you amend the default file format to.doc

7 Use what you like at home but, if you expect other folks to read your files, it s courteous to send them as.rtf files or first convert them to.pdf (Adobe Reader) - because everybody can read those. Office 2010 can save as.pdf natively and there are plenty of freeware pseudo printer converters out there.

8 Most programs have their own file formats but there are a few that are in common use..bmp is used for clip art and icons..gif is used for clip art..jpg is used for photos and such..png is used for clip art and photos..tiff is used for photos.

9 BitMaP image Mainly used for screen icons only. Usually 256 colours but can be any power of 2. Uncompressed hence larger than needed files. Generally avoid.

10 Graphics Image Format Has maximum of 256 colours. Compressed but without loss of quality. Can be configured to have fewer colours and hence reduce size further. Good for logos and web page icons.

11 Joint Picture Expert Group colours or more Compressed file format and so reduced quality. Some programs can adjust the size/quality trade off. Good for photos on websites and in albums.

12 Portable Network Graphics A relatively modern format introduced to combine the merits of.gif and.jpg Variable colour depth Compressed format lossy or lossless Understood by modern graphics programs and browsers, but not by all word processors. Not yet ready for prime time IMHO.

13 Tagged Image File Format Variable colour depth Compressed but without loss of quality. Little used except within graphics programs. Good for archiving photos without loss of detail. Not good in documents or on the web.

14 .PSD - Adobe Photoshop format that preserves the layers of multi-layer images and image editing history. Uncompressed and hence large files. Most high end graphics programs can read/create them. Excellent for preserving a work in progress but, once finalised, the image should be flattened to a single layer and saved as a.jpg,.gif or whatever before releasing into the wild.

15 .PSP and.pspimage are the Paint Shop Pro equivalent of.psd.

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17 The home user rarely encounters these. They mathematically define an image as a series of lines and areas rather than a collection of pixels as raster graphics programs do. The advantages are reduced file sizes and scalability without loss of quality. Mainly used in Computer Aided Design drafting programs (and also some MS clip art).

18 Most high end graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro can convert between common (and some unusual) formats. is a free web based application to adjust the size and compression level of a.jpg image. is a free application to reduce the colour depth of a.gif image.

19 Usually uncompressed audio. Large files ~10MB per minute. Just audio no metadata such as artist or title. Created in Windows Recorder, CDs and Windows sound effects.

20 Free Lossless Audio Codec Compresses files without loss of quality. Can also contain metadata such as title and artist. Mainly used by audiophiles. Sadly, Audacity doesn t handle.flac Lots of info on file conversion and utilities at Nero converts.flac to audio CD automatically.

21 The most common compressed audio file format. Some loss of quality but you won t notice on earbuds. CDEX is great for ripping CDs to MP3. Audacity converts sound recordings to MP3. Nero converts MP3s to CDs automatically.

22 Apple specific format used natively by ipods and itunes software. ipods can also play.mp3s and.wavs (which is fortunate). Not recommended for general use.

23 Ogg Vorbis Lossy but better quality than MP3. Audacity can read and write.ogg files. More info at Mainly used by audiophiles.

24 Keep It Simple Stupid. Stick with.mp3 and.wav if you can. CDEX is good for converting CD tracks to.mp3. Audacity is good for processing sound recordings, into.wav,.mp3 and.ogg. It can also read them. Stop press. The latest Audacity 2.0 can also handle.aiff and.flac.

25 These are complicated. Whilst most are in DVD format,.avi or.mp4, there are is a plethora of codecs (coder/decoders) in use....and Windows only contains a few of them.

26 Video creation and conversion is too big a topic for tonight. To maximise the chances of being able to view a video:- 1. Download K-Lite Codec Pack from 2. Download VLC Media Player from

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