Image file formats

Image file formats and
photo software that handle them

The table below lists some image file formats and tells you if a software is able to read or to read AND write a given image format.

Legend:

R means that a software is able to read the corresponding image format -open a file of such format-

W means that a software is able to read and to write the corresponding image file format -open and save a file of such format-

List of the photo editors -and their versions- retained for the comparison tables below.

Software name + link	Version tested
Zoner Photo Studio	7.00
PhotoPhilia	1.8
Photo-Brush	2.25
Paint Shop Pro	5.00
Photoshop Elements	2.02
Ultimate paint	2.83

Table of image file formats

The list is sorted alphabetically by the file extensions of the image file formats. Some of the listed image file formats are rather rare and you may never encounter them. But if you need to open such an image file format one day, you can find a software able to handle this image file format in this table.

The most common image file formats bmp, gif, jpg, png and tif are written in red to locate them more easily. You will see that the image file formats bmp, jpg and png can be written by every photo editor software.

Image file formats - file extensions : a... to c...

FILE EXTENSIONS A... to C...
Software these buttons are links -->
Autocad Pilot File	adi					R
Adobe illustrator	ai		R				R
Animated Cursor	any
Aldus Placeable metafiles	apm
Movie	asf			R
Movie	asx			R
AVI video	avi			R				R
MS fax format	awd			W
Zoner bitmap image	bmi	W	W
Bitmap	bmp	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
CALS Raster Format	cal			W
Corel Draw	cdr		R			R
Computer Graphics Metafile	cgm					R
Clipboard	clp			R		W
Lead compression format	cmp			W
Corel Clipart	cmx		R			R
TIFF image format	cpt			R
Canon Raw Image	cr2	R
Canon Raw Image	crw	R
Cursor	cur			W
Dr. Halo	cut					W

Image file formats - file extensions : d... to f...

FILE EXTENSIONS D... to F...
Software these buttons are links -->
Paintbrush DCX	dcx			R		R
Bitmap	dib	R	R	R		W	W
Micrografx Draw	drw					R
AutoCad dwg	dwg		R
Autocad Format 2D	dxf		R			R
Ecchi ECC PNG	ecc			R
Enhanced metafiles	emf	R	R	W	W	W		W
Encapsulated Postscript	eps		R	W		W	W
EXIF	exf			R
Raw Fax	fax			W
Flic Animation	flc
Filmstrip	flm						R
Kodak Flash Pix	fpx			W		W
WinFax	fxd			W
WinFax	fxm			W
WinFax	fxr			W
WinFax	fxs			W

Image file formats - file extensions : g... to j...

FILE EXTENSIONS G... to J...
Software these buttons are links -->
TIFF image	gel			R
Ventura GEM Drawing	gem			R		R
Graphics Interchange Format	gif	W	W	R		W	W	W
HP Graphics Language	hgl		R			R
IBM IOCA	ica			W
Truevision Targa	icb
True Vision Targa Bitmap	icb			R			W
Icon	ico	R	R	W				R
Amiga Interchange File	iff					W		W
GEM Bit Image	img			W		W
Movie	ivf			R
JPEG 2000 Code Stream	j2k
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jff			R
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jfi			R
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jfif			R
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jif			R
JPEG 2000	jp2
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jpe	R		R			W
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jpeg	R	R	W	W	W	W	W
Joint Photographic Experts Group	jpg	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
TIFF with jpeg compression	jtf			W
TIFF with jpeg compression	jti			W
TIFF with jpeg compression	jtif			W

Image file formats - file extensions : k... to m...

FILE EXTENSIONS K... to M...
Software these buttons are links -->
Kodak Digital Camera	kdc				R
Konica Quality Photo	kqp
Deluxe Paint	lbm				W	W
Mac Paint	mac	R	R	W	W
Minolta digital camera	mdc			R
Dimage messenger format	mdm	R	R
IBM MOD CA Raster Format	mod
Movie	mov			R
MPEG video	mpe			R
MPEG video	mpeg			R
MPEG video	mpg			R
TIFF image format	mpt			R
Movie	mpv			R
Minolta Raw Image	mrw	R
Microsoft Paint	msp			W	W

Image file formats - file extensions : n... to q...

FILE EXTENSIONS N... to Q...
Software these buttons are links -->
Nikon Raw Image	nef	R
Olympus Raw Image	orp	R
Portable Bitmap	pbm					W
Kodak Photo CD	pcd	R	R	R	R	R	R
Mac Pict	pct			W		W	W
Paintbrush PCX	pcx	W	W	W	R	W	W	W
Acrobat Portable Document File	pdf						W
Acrobat Touch Up Image	pdp						R
Portable Greymap	pgm					W
Pegasus Enh. Image Format	pic					W
Truevision Targa	pix
HP Plotter Paint File	plt	R	R			R
Portable Network Graphics	png	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
Mac Paint	pntg			R
Portable Pixmap	ppm					W
Adobe Photoshop Document	psd	R	R	W	W	W	W
Paint Shop Pro Image	psp			R		W
OS2 bitmap	ptr			R
Portable Pixmap	pxm
Pixar	pxr						W
Quick Time Movie	qt			R

Image file formats - file extensions : r... to v...

FILE EXTENSIONS R... to V...
Software these buttons are links -->
SUN Raster	ras			R		W
Fujifilm Raw Image	raf
Digital Camera Raw Image	raw	R				W	W
Run Length Encoded Bitmap	rle	R	R	R		W	W	W
SciTex Continuous Tone	sct					W	W
TIFF image	sep			R
Silicon Graphics Image	sgi
SUN raster	sun			W
Truevision Targa	tga	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
JPEG thumbnail format	thm	R		R
Tag Image File Format	tif	W	W	W	W	W	W
Tag Image File Format	tiff	W	W	W	W	W	W
Truevision Targa	vda			R			W
Truevision Targa	vst			R			W

Image file formats - file extensions : w... to z...

FILE EXTENSIONS W... to Z...
Software these buttons are links -->
Wireless Bitmap	wbm						R	W
Wireless Bitmap	wbmp						R	W
Movie	wm			R
Windows metafiles	wmf	R	R	W	W	W		W
Movie	wmv			R
Word Perfect Graphics	wpg	W	W	W		W
Movie	wvx			R
X-Windows bitmap	xbm
X-Windows pixmap	xpm
X-Windows dump v.11	xwd
Zebra for win	zbr	R	R
Zoner Draw 3 Clipart	zcl	R
Zoner Draw 3 Document	zmf	R
Callisto 4 document	zmf	R	R
Zoner template print job	zmp	R	R

Note:
The information in the table of image file formats above is given without any warranty.
The Paint Shop Pro Version tested is version 5.
The currently available version is version X and features may be different.

Recapitulation:

Bmp, Jpeg and png are the "universal" image file formats that any photo software can read -open- and write -save as-.

Bmp is one of the simplest raster image file formats, but takes a lot of disk space.
Png is a good alternative to bmp because png files are much smaller than bmp files and nevertheless belong to the lossless image file formats.
Jpeg belong to the lossy image file formats. It is the solution when you need files as small as possible and some loss of quality is not a problem, especially to publish on the web.