There is a wide variety of graphics formats in use today. The following list contains most of them. The formats are in order by extension name under bitmapped or vector category. Some formats appear in both categories because they can hold both raster and vector images. See graphics conversion and extension.
Conversions Can Be Problematic
Do not take for granted that just because an application says it imports and exports a file format, that it does so perfectly. It takes years to perfect the translations so that the copy in the new format is as identical to the original as possible, and graphics formats are the most difficult. Look at the two images below. The top one is the original, and the bottom was created using the JPEG export filter in the application. They may be similar, but are by no means identical.
Original (top) and JPEG Equivalent (bottom)
Export filters don't always work perfectly. If exact replication is required, be sure to test your application's export filters long before you are on deadline to finish the job. (Original image courtesy of Cedar Waxwing Design.)
BITMAPPED FORMATS (RASTER GRAPHICS) AG4 Access G4 document imaging ATT AT&T Group IV BMP Windows & OS/2 BRK Brooktrout fax CAL CALS Group IV CIT Intergraph scanned images CLP Windows Clipboard CMP Photomatrix G3/G4 scanner format CMP LEAD Technologies CPR Knowledge Access CT Scitex Continuous Tone CUT Dr. Halo DBX DATABEAM DCM DICOM medical image DCX Intel fax DX Autotrol document imaging ED5 EDMICS (U.S. DOD) ED6 EDMICS (U.S. DOD) EPS Encapsulated PostScript FAX Fax FMV FrameMaker FPX FlashPix GED Arts & Letters GDF IBM GDDM format GIF CompuServe GP4 CALS Group IV - ITU Group IV GX1 Show Partner GX2 Show Partner ICA IBM IOCA (see MO:DCA) ICO Windows icon IFF Amiga ILBM IGF Inset Systems (HiJaak) IMG GEM Paint JFF JPEG (JFIF) JPG JPEG KFX Kofax Group IV LV LaserView Group IV MAC MacPaint MIL Same as GP4 extension MSP Microsoft Paint NIF Navy Image File PBM Portable bitmap PCD PhotoCD PCX PC Paintbrush PIX Inset Systems (HiJaak) PNG Portable Network Graphics PNM Unix portable bitmap PPM Unix portable bitmap PSD Photoshop native format RAS Sun RGB SGI RIA Alpharel Group IV document imaging RLC Image Systems RLE Various RLE-compressed formats RNL GTX Runlength SBP IBM StoryBoard SGI Silicon Graphics RGB SUN Sun TGA Targa TIF TIFF WPG WordPerfect image XBM X Window bitmap XPM X Window pixelmap XWD X Window dump VECTOR GRAPHICS FORMATS 3DS 3D Studio 906 Calcomp plotter AI Adobe Illustrator CAL CALS subset of CGM CDR CorelDRAW CGM Computer Graphics Metafile CH3 Harvard Graphics chart CLP Windows clipboard CMX Corel Metafile Exchange DG Autotrol DGN Intergraph drawing format DRW Micrografx Designer 2.x, 3.x DS4 Micrografx Designer 4.x DSF Micrografx Designer 6.x DXF AutoCAD DWG AutoCAD EMF Enhanced metafile EPS Encapsulated PostScript ESI Esri plot file (GIS mapping) FMV FrameMaker GCA IBM GOCA GEM GEM proprietary G4 GTX RasterCAD - scanned images into vectors for AutoCAD HPGL HP graphics language IGF Inset Systems (HiJaak) IGS IGES MCS MathCAD MET OS/2 metafile MRK Informative Graphics markup file P10 Tektronix plotter (PLOT10) PCL HP LaserJet PCT Macintosh PICT drawings PDW HiJaak PGL HP plotter PIC Variety of picture formats PIX Inset Systems (HiJaak) PLT HPGL Plot File (HPGL2 has raster format) PS PostScript Level 2 RIS AUCOTEC CAD format RLC Image Systems "CAD Overlay ESP" vector files overlaid onto raster images SSK SmartSketch SVG Scalable vector graphics (XML) WMF Windows Metafile WPG WordPerfect graphics WRL VRML
Conversions Can Be Problematic
Do not take for granted that just because an application says it imports and exports a file format, that it does so perfectly. It takes years to perfect the translations so that the copy in the new format is as identical to the original as possible, and graphics formats are the most difficult. Look at the two images below. The top one is the original, and the bottom was created using the JPEG export filter in the application. They may be similar, but are by no means identical.
Original (top) and JPEG Equivalent (bottom)
Export filters don't always work perfectly. If exact replication is required, be sure to test your application's export filters long before you are on deadline to finish the job. (Original image courtesy of Cedar Waxwing Design.)
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
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