Comparison of graphics file formats

This is a comparison of image file formats (graphics file formats). This comparison primarily features file formats for 2D images.

## General

[edit]

Ownership of the format and related information.

Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent-
free

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AI | Adobe Illustrator Document  | Adobe Systems |  | .ai  | application/illustrator,
application/postscript  | Adobe Illustrator  | No
ANI | ANI file format  | Microsoft | RIFF | .ani  |  | Microsoft Windows |
ANIM |  | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .anim  | video/x-anim  |  |
APNG | Animated Portable Network Graphics  | Mozilla | PNG | .png  | image/png  | Gecko 1.9 and Opera | Yes
Apple Icon Image |  | Apple Inc. |  | .icns  |  | macOS |
ART |  | AOL |  | .art  |  |  |
ASCII art |  |  |  | .txt, .ansi, .text  | text/vnd.ascii-art  | Supported by GIMP |
AutoCAD DXF | Drawing Interchange Format  | Autodesk |  | .dxf  | image/vnd.dxf  |  |
ARW | Sony Alpha RAW  | Sony | TIFF  | .arw  |  |  |
AVIF | AV1 Image File Format  | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) | AV1 | .avif  | image/avif  | General purpose  | royalty-free
BAY | Casio RAW  | Casio |  | .bay  |  |  |
BMP | raw-data unencoded or encoded bitmap  | simple colour image format, far older than Microsoft; some .bmp encoding formats developed/owned by Microsoft |  | .bmp, .dib, .rle,
.2bp (2bpp)  | image/x-bmp  | Used by many 2D applications.  | Yes
BPG | Better Portable Graphics  | Fabrice Bellard  | HEVC | .bpg  |  | General purpose  | No
BSAVE | BSAVE Image  |  |  | .BSV  |  | Used by IBM PC.  |
CAL | CALS raster file format  |  |  | .cal, .cals, .ras, .dcl  |  |  |
CIFF | Camera Image File Format  | Canon |  | .crw, .ciff  |  |  |
CR2 | Canon RAW 2  | Canon | TIFF  | .cr2  |  |  |
CDR | CorelDRAW Document  | Corel Corporation |  | .cdr, .ccx, .cdt, .cmx  | application/coreldraw  | CorelDRAW  | No
CD5 | Chasys Draw IES Image  | John Paul Chacha  |  | .cd5  |  | Native format for Chasys Draw IES for storing layered images and animations  | No
CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile  |  |  | .cgm  | image/cgm  | CGM files are editable using programs that support the format, such as IBM Lotus Freelance Graphics, Inkscape, etc.  |
CIN | Cineon  |  |  | .cin  | image/cineon  |  |
CPC | Cartesian Perceptual Compression  | Cartesian Products, Inc.  |  | .cpc, .cpi  | image/cpi  | Highly compressed raster imaging format.  | No
DCS | Kodak DCS Pro RAW  | Kodak |  | .dcs  |  |  |
DCR | Digital Camera Raw  | Kodak | TIFF  | .dcr  |  |  |
DDS | DirectDraw Surface  | Microsoft |  | .dds  |  |  |
DNG | Digital Negative  | Adobe Systems | compatible with
ISO 12234-2,
TIFF/EP[1] | .dng  |  | A raw image format suitable as an archival format and as the native raw format of digital cameras[2] | Yes[3]
DICOM | Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine  | National Electrical Manufacturers Association |  | .dcm, .dicom  | application/dicom[4] | Numerous biomedical imaging applications[4] (e.g. OsiriX, XMedCon), some general bitmap graphics applications (e.g. GIMP, Photoshop)  |
DjVu | DjVu  | AT&T Research  |  | .djvu, .djv  | image/vnd.djvu  |  |
DPX | Digital Picture eXchange file format  |  |  | .dpx  | image/dpx  |  |
DRF | Kodak Pro Back RAW  | Kodak |  | .drf  |  |  |
Encapsulated PostScript | page description/scripting language (see PostScript)  | Adobe |  | .epi, .eps, .eps2,
.eps3, .epsf, .epsi,
.ept  | application/postscript  | printing/publishing industry standard format  |
ECW | Enhanced Compressed Wavelet  | ERDAS  |  | .ecw  |  | Wavelet image format used primarily with geo-referenced aerial and satellite imagery  | No
EMF | Enhanced Metafile Format  | Microsoft |  | .emf, .emz  |  | Microsoft Office |
EMF+ | Enhanced Metafile Format Plus Extensions  | Microsoft |  | .emf, .emz  |  |  |
ERF | EPSON RAW  | EPSON  | TIFF  | .erf  |  |  |
Exif | Exchangeable Image File Format  |  |  | .exif  |  |  |
EVA  | Extended Vector Animation  | Sharp Corporation |  | .eva  | application/x-eva  |  |
EXR | OpenEXR  | ILM |  | .exr  | image/exr  | Used in film effects for 3d rendering and hdr images.  | Yes[5]
FITS | Flexible Image Transport System  |  |  | .fit, .fits  |  | Scientific (esp. astronomical) data acquisition  |
FLIC |  | Autodesk |  | .fli, .flc, .flx, .flh, .flt  |  | Supported by GIMP |
FLIF | Free Lossless Image Format  |  |  | .flif, .flf  |  | General-purpose,

superseded by Jpeg XL

| Yes
FPX | FlashPix (1.0.2)  |  |  | .fpx  | image/vnd.fpx  |  |
Gerber Format | The Gerber Format Specification  | Ucamco | Printable ASCII  | .gbr  | application/vnd.gerber  | Printed Circuit Board or PCB software  | Yes
GIF | Graphics Interchange Format  | CompuServe,
Unisys (compression algorithm)  |  | .gif, .gfa, .giff  | image/gif  | General purpose, popular for small animated images  | Yes
HEIF | High Efficiency Image Format  | Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG)  |  | .heif, .heic  | image/heif, image/heic,
image/heic-sequence,
image/heif-sequence  | General purpose  | No
HDRi |  |  | TIFF  | .tif, .tiff  | image/tiff  |  |
ICER |  | NASA Mars Rovers |  |  |  |  |
ICO | ICO file format  | Microsoft |  | .ico, .cur  | image/vnd.Microsoft.icon,
image/x-icon  | Microsoft Windows and web browsers as favicon |
ICS | Image Cytometry Standard  |  |  | .ics, .ids  |  |  |
IGES | Initial Graphics Exchange Specification  |  |  | .igs  | image/iges  | CAD/CAM interoperability | Yes
ILBM | InterLeaved BitMap  | Electronic Arts and Commodore | IFF | .iff, .ilbm, .lbm  | image/x-ilbm  | Planar graphics format designed for Amiga graphics hardware.  | Yes
JBIG |  | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group |  | .jbig, .bie, .jbg  |  |  |
JBIG2 |  | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group |  |  |  |  |
JNG | JPEG Network Graphics  |  |  | .jng  | image/x-jng  |  | Yes
JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group  | Joint Photographic Experts Group |  | .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe
(containers:
.jif, .jfif, .jfi)  | image/jpeg  | General purpose  | Yes
JPEG 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000  | Joint Photographic Experts Group |  | .jp2, .j2c, .jpc,
.j2k, .jpx  | image/jp2  | General purpose  | royalty-free
JPEG-LS |  | Joint Photographic Experts Group |  | .jls  |  |  |
JPEG-HDR |  | Dolby Laboratories/BrightSide Technologies | JPEG  |  |  | General purpose  |
JPEG XL |  | Joint Photographic Experts Group | PIK, FUIF (FLIF)  | .jxl  | image/jxl  | General-purpose, lossless JPEG transcoding.  | Yes
JPEG XT |  | Joint Photographic Experts Group |  |  |  | General purpose  |
JPEG XR / HD Photo | JPEG XR / HD Photo  | Microsoft |  | .wdp, .hdp, .jxr  | image/vnd.ms-photo  | General purpose  | royalty-free
KDC | Kodak DC40/DC50 RAW  | Kodak | TIFF  | .kdc  |  |  |
K25 | Kodak DC25 RAW  | Kodak | TIFF  | .k25  |  |  |
Logluv TIFF |  | Greg Ward  | TIFF  |  |  | Supported by LibTIFF |
MNG | Multiple-image Network Graphics  |  | PNG | .mng  | video/x-mng  |  | Yes
NEF | Nikon RAW  | Nikon | TIFF  | .nef  |  |  |
MIFF | Magick image file format  | ImageMagick Studio  |  | .miff  |  | ImageMagick |
MRW | Minolta RAW  | Minolta |  | .mrw  |  |  |
ORF | Olympus RAW  | Olympus | TIFF  | .orf  |  |  |
PAM | portable arbitrary map file format  |  |  | .pam  | image/x-portable-arbitrarymap  |  | Yes
PBM | Portable Bitmap File Format  |  | ASCII | .pbm  | image/x-portable-bitmap  |  | Yes
PCX | ZSoft PC Paintbrush File  | ZSoft Corporation |  | .pcx, .pcc, .dcx  | image/x-pcx  | Dated rle packed indexed image format, used in some early 3d shooting games like Unreal Tournament as it takes up very little space and is easy to decode.  | ?
PDF | Portable Document Format  | Adobe Systems |  | .pdf, .epdf  | application/pdf  |  |
PEF | PENTAX RAW  | PENTAX  | TIFF  | .pef  |  |  |
PGF | Progressive Graphics File  | xeraina GmbH  |  | .pgf  |  | Photographic images, eventual replacement for JPEG.  | Yes
PGM | Portable Graymap File Format  |  | ASCII | .pgm  | image/x-portable-graymap  |  | Yes
PGML | Precision Graphics Markup Language  | Adobe Systems, IBM,
Netscape, Sun Microsystems |  |  |  |  | Yes
PICT | Macintosh PICT Format  | Apple Inc. |  | .pict, .pic, .pct,
.pct1, .pct2  | image/pict  | Metafile for Classic Mac OS, not meant for print publishing.  | Likely
expired
PICtor |  | John Bridges, Doug Wolfgram  |  | .pic  |  | Supported by PCPaint |
PNG | Portable Network Graphics  | World Wide Web Consortium |  | .png  | image/png  | General purpose  | Yes
PNM | Portable Anymap File Format  |  | ASCII | .pnm  | image/x-portable-anymap  |  | Yes
PostScript | page description/scripting language, levels 1–3  | Adobe |  | .ps, .ps2, .ps3  |  | printing/publishing industry standard format  |
PPM | Portable Pixmap File Format  |  | ASCII | .ppm  | image/x-portable-pixmap  | Very easy to understand. Programs to analyze and write to this format are easily written.  | Yes
PSD | Photoshop Document  | Adobe Systems |  | .psd, .psb, .pdb,
.pdd  | image/vnd.adobe.photoshop[6] | Used mainly for storing image manipulation & editing data.  | No
PSP | Paint Shop Pro Document  | Corel Corporation |  | .psp, .tub,
.pspimage  | image/x-psp  | Paint Shop Pro | ?
QOI | Quite OK Image Format  | Dominic Szablewski  |  | .qoi  |  |  | Yes
RAD |  | Gregory Ward Larson  |  | .rad  |  | Radiance |
RAF | Fujifilm RAW  | Fujifilm |  | .raf  |  |  |
RGBE |  | Gregory Ward Larson  |  | .hdr  | image/vnd.radiance  | Radiance, most HDR imaging software  |
SGI | Silicon Graphics Image  |  |  | .sgi, .rgb, .rgba,
.bw, .int, .inta,
.icon  |  |  |
SRF | Sony RAW File  | Sony | TIFF  | .srf, .sr2  |  |  |
SVG | Scalable Vector Graphics  | World Wide Web Consortium | XML | .svg,
.svgz (compressed)  | image/svg+xml  | Vector graphics  | Yes
SWF | Shockwave Flash  | Adobe Systems |  | .swf  | application/x-shockwave-flash  | Adobe Flash Player  |
TGA | Truevision Targa  | Truevision Inc.  |  | .tga, .tpic  | image/tga  | Texture format used by many 3d application.  | Yes
TIFF | Tag Image File Format  | Adobe Systems |  | .tiff, .tif  | image/tiff  | Document scanning and imaging format, also functions as a container.  | Yes
TIFF/EP | Tag Image File Format / Electronic Photography  | International Organization for Standardization  | TIFF | .tiff, .tif  |  |  |
UFO | Ulead File for Objects  |  |  | .ufo  |  |  |
VML | Vector Markup Language  | Microsoft | XML  | .htm, .html  | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.vmlDrawing  | Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office | Yes
WBMP | Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap Format  | Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum)  |  | .wbmp, .wbm, .wbp  | image/vnd.wap.wbmp  | Used in WAP-pages  | Yes
WebP | WebP image format  | Google |  | .webp  | image/webp  | General purpose  | royalty-free
WMF | Windows Metafile Format  | Microsoft |  | .wmf, .wmz  |  |  |
XAR | Xar  | Xara | Xar (graphics) | .xar  | application/vnd.xara  | Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | Yes
XBM | X BitMap, colour variant of original black-and-white bitmap (bmp) format  |  |  | .xbm, .bm,
.icon, .bitmap  | image/x-xbitmap  | Used by many legacy Unix applications.  |
XCF | XCF, name derived from eXperimental Computing Facility | The GIMP Team  |  | .xcf,
.xcfbz2 (compressed),
.xcfgz (compressed)  | application/x-gimp-image  | GIMP  |
XPM | X-Pixmap  |  |  | .xpm, .pm  | image/x-xpm  | Legacy Unix applications  |
X3F | SIGMA RAW  | SIGMA |  | .x3f  |  |  |
Format | Full name | Owner | based Format | File extension | MIME type | Application | Patent-
free

## Technical details

[edit]

Format | Compression
algorithm | Raster/
vector | Maximum
Color depth |

Indexed color

Transparency

Metadata

Interlacing

Multi-page

Animation

Layers

Color management

Extendable

| HDR format | CMYK

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AI | Lossy and lossless  | Both  | 8 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | No  |
AVIF | Lossy and lossless (AV1)  | Raster  | 12 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No
BMP | None, lossy (JPEG), and lossless (RLE, PNG)  | Raster  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | No  | No
BPG | Lossy and lossless (HEVC)  | Raster  | 14 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | Yes  | —  | Yes  | —  | —  |
CD5 | Lossless (ACSC)  | Both  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Partial  | Yes  | No  |
CDR | Lossy and lossless  | Both  | 8 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | No  |
CPC | Lossy (CPC)  | Raster  | 1  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | Yes, via embedded dictionary  | No  |
EPS | None and lossless (LZW, Deflate, RLE, DCT)  | Both  | Device specific  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
EXR | None and lossless (RLE, ZIP, Piz, PXR24, and B44, B44A, DWAA, DWAB)  | Raster  | 32 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
FLIF | Lossless (MANIAC entropy coding)  | Raster  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes, via chunks  | Yes  |
GIF | Lossless (LZW)  | Raster  | 255 colors  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes (GIF89a)  | No  | No
HD Photo / JPEG XR | Lossy and lossless (bi-orthogonal transform)  | Raster  | 32 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
ILBM | None and lossless (RLE)  | Raster  | 8 bpc  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes,
Palette-shifting | No  | No  | Yes  | No  |
JPEG | Lossy (DCT, RLE, and Huffman predictive nearest neighbor)  | Raster  | 8 bpc  | No  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | No (see unofficial JPEG-HDR)  | Yes
JPEG 2000 | Lossy and lossless (DWT)  | Raster  | 38 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | Yes  | —  | No  | Yes
JPEG XL | Lossy and lossless (VarDCT mode, Modular mode)  | Raster  | 32 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes
KRA | None  | Both  | 32 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
ORA | Lossless  | Both  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
PAM | None  | Raster  | Up to 16  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  |
PCX | None and lossless (RLE)  | Raster  | 8 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | No  | No  |
PGF | Lossy and lossless (DWT)  | Raster  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | No  | —  | No  |
PICT | None, lossy (Quicktime), and lossless (RLE)  | Both  | 8 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | No  | No  | No  | —  | No?  | No  |
PNG | Lossless (Deflate)  | Raster  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes (since the third edition)[7] | No  | Yes  | Yes, via chunks  | No, see discussion  | No
PPM | None  | Raster  | 8 ppc  | No  | No  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | No  | No  |
PSD and PSB | None and lossless (RLE)  | Both  | 32 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No?  | Yes  |
PSP | None  | Both  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | —  | No  | Yes  | —  | —  | No  |
SVG | None and lossless (gzip)  | Vector[a] | 8 bpc  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | —  | Yes (1.2 draft)[8] | Yes (SMIL/SVG)  | Yes  | Yes[9] | Yes, XML based  | —  |
TGA | None, lossless (RLE), and other  | Raster  | 32 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | No  | No  | No  | —  | No  |
TIFF | None, lossless (LZW, RLE, ZIP), and other  | Both  | 16 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes, via tags  | Yes, TIFF float  | Yes
WebP | Lossy and lossless  | Raster  | 8 bpc  | No[10][11] | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No
XCF | None and lossless (gzip, bzip2 and xz)  | Both  | 32 bpc  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |
Format | Compression algorithm | Raster/
vector | Maximum

Color depth

| Indexed color | Trans-parency | Meta-

data

| Inter-

lacing

| Multi-page | Anima-tion | Layers | Color manage-ment | Extend-

­able

| HDR format | CMYK

1. ^ Supports raster data embedding with the use of Base64.

## See also

[edit]

* List of codecs

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Adobe: DNG Specification
2. ^ Adobe: Introducing the Digital Negative Specification: Information for manufacturers
3. ^ Adobe Labs: CinemaDNG Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine (last bullet point)
4. ^ a b RFC 3240
5. ^ "License". openexr.com.
6. ^ "vnd.adobe.photoshop". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
7. ^ "Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Third Edition) is now a W3C Recommendation". World Wide Web Consortium. 24 June 2025. Archived from the original on 25 June 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-09.
8. ^ "Multiple pages (SVG 1.2)". www.w3.org.
9. ^ "Removed: Color — SVG 2". www.w3.org.
10. ^ "Issue 437: allow palette extraction from indexed lossless images". WebP issue tracker. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
11. ^ "Lossless Bitstream Specification, section Color Indexing Transform". WebP official reference at Google Developers. Retrieved 1 December 2020.

* v
* t
* e

Graphics file formats

Raster|

* ANI
* ANIM
* ART
* AVIF
* BMP
* BPG
* BSAVE
* CAL
* CIN
* CPC
* CPT
* DDS
* DPX
* ECW
* EXR
* FITS
* FLIC
* FLIF
* FPX
* GIF
* HDRi
* HEVC
* ICER
* ICNS
* ICO/CUR
* ICS
* ILBM
* JBIG
* JBIG2
* JNG
* JPEG
* JPEG LS
* JPEG 2000
* JPEG XL
* JPEG XR
* JPEG XS
* JPEG XT
* JPEG-HDR
* KRA
* MNG
* MIFF
* NRRD
* ORA
* PAM
* PBM/PGM/PPM/PNM
* PCX
* PGF
* PICtor
* PNG
* APNG
* PSD/PSB
* PSP
* QOI
* QTVR
* RAS
* RGBE
* Logluv TIFF
* SGI
* TGA
* TIFF
* TIFF/EP
* TIFF/IT
* UFO/UFP
* WBMP
* WebP
* XBM
* XCF
* XPM
* XWD

Raw|

* CIFF
* DNG

Vector|

* AI
* CDR
* CGM
* DXF
* EMF
* EMF+
* Gerber
* HVIF
* IGES
* PGML
* SVG
* VML
* WMF
* Xar

Compound|

* CDF
* DjVu
* EPS
* MODCA
* PDF
* PICT
* PS
* SWF
* XAML

Metadata|

* Exchangeable image file format (Exif)
* International Press Telecommunications Council § Photo metadata
* Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP)
* GIF § Metadata
* Steganography

Comparison •  Category
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