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Preferred file formats

The following documents the Libraries preferred file formats based on the level of confidence in long-term preservation stability in the file format. The level of support given depends on a confidence level associated with a file format (high, medium, low) and the tools available to address specific preservation issues. Current confidence levels by generic file types are provided below and represent preferred file formats of the Libraries. File formats are listed in alphabetical order under the confidence level.

Text formats

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • PDF/A-1 - ISO 19005-1 (.pdf)
  • Plain Text - with encoding: US-ASCII, UTF-8 (.txt)
  • XML - with included schema (.xml)
  • HTML - include a DOCTYPE declaration (.htm, .html)
  • LaTeX with referenced files (.latex, .tex, .ltx)
  • Microsoft Word 2007 or newer (.docx)
  • PDF - with embedded fonts (.pdf)
  • Rich Text Format 1.x (.rtf)
  • SGML (.sgml)
  • Microsoft Word 2003 or older (.doc)
  • PDF - encrypted (.pdf)
  • WordPerfect (.wpd)

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

 

Raster images / graphics

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • PNG - 24bit (.png)
  • Tiff - uncompressed (.tif, .tiff)
  • Digital Negative DNG (.dng)
  • GIF (.gif)
  • JPEG2000 - lossless (.jp2)
  • JPEG/JFIF (.jpg)
  • PNG - 8 bit (.png)
  • Tiff - compressed (.tif, .tiff)
  • JPEG2000 - lossy (*.jp2)
  • Photoshop document (.psd)
  • RAW formats (.raw, etc)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Vector images

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • SVG -- no JavaScript binding (.svg)
  • Computer graphics Metafile (.cgm)
  • Encapsulated Postscript (.eps)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Spreadsheet / database

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • Comma- or tab-separated Values (.csv, .tsv, .txt)
  • Delimited text (.txt, .csv)
  • SIARD: Software Independent Archiving of Relational Databases (.siard)
  • Excel 2007 or newer (.xlsx)
  • Open Document Spreadsheet (.ods)
  • XML (.xml)
  • Excel 2003 or older (*.xls)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Audio formats

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • AIFF - uncompressed (.aif, .aiff)
  • Free Lossless Audio Codec (.flac)
  • WAV - uncompressed (.wav)
  • Advanced Audio Coding (.mp4)
  • Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) (.m4a)
  • MP3 (*.mp3)
  • SUN audio -- uncompressed (.au, .snd)
  • AIFC -- compressed AIFF (.aifc)
  • RealAudio (.ra, .rm)
  • WAV -- compressed (.wav)
  • Windows Media Audio (.wma)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Video formats

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • AVI - uncompressed (.avi)
  • QuickTime - uncompressed, motion JPEG (.mov)
  • Material Exchange Format - uncompressed (.mxf)
  • Motion Jpeg2000 (.jp2)
  • Mpeg-1, mpeg-2 (.mp1, .mp2)
  • MPEG-4 - preferably H.264 (.mp4)
  • RealVideo (.rv, .rm)
  • Quicktime - compressed (.mov)
  • Windows Media Video (.wmv)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

PowerPoint or similar

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • [none provided]
  • OpenOffice (.odp)
  • Powerpoint 2007 or newer (.pptx)
  • Portable Document Format (.pdf)
  • PowerPoint 2003 and older (.ppt) (2003 and older)

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Websites

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • WebARChive (.warc)
  • Internet Archive ARC (.arc)
  • Files from content management system

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Email

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • MBOX (.mbox)
  • Exports as plain text with message header and context (.txt)
  • EML (.eml)
  • MSG (.msg)
  • PST (.pst)
  • [none provided]

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Geospatial formats

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • geoJSON (.json, .tif)
  • Geotiff (.tif)
  • ESRI Database file
  • ESRI shape file
  • GeoMarkup (GML)
  • GeoPackage
  • Keyhole markup (KML)
  • Other geospatial files

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

CAD (Computer Aided Design)

Highest confidence Medium confidence Lowest confidence
  • PDF/E - ISO 24517-1:2008 (.pdf)
  • AutoCad (.dwg)
  • AutoDesk’s Drawing Interchange File Format/Data eXchange Format (.dxf)
  • [none provided]

 

Jump to: Text | Raster images/graphics | Vector images | Spreadsheet/database | Audio | Video | PowerPoint | Websites | Email | Geospatial | CAD

Contact us

If you have any questions about digital preservation at the University of Minnesota Libraries please contact the digital preservation team at lib-dp@umn.edu and we will be happy to assist you.

Last Updated: Dec 1, 2023 8:41 AM