Database

The glTF and GLB 3D formats — Khronos Group's open standard for efficient 3D asset delivery on the web, in AR/VR, and across real-time rendering applications.

GraphQL schema definition language and query files — a typed API query language and schema system for defining data graphs and client-driven data fetching.

The GZIP compression format — the ubiquitous single-file compressor built on DEFLATE, essential for tar.gz archives, HTTP content encoding, and Unix/Linux workflows.

Hierarchical Data Format version 5 — a binary file format for storing large-scale numerical data, widely used in scientific computing, machine learning, and simulation.

HEIC/HEIF is a modern image container format using HEVC compression, adopted

The foundational markup language of the World Wide Web, defining the structure and content of web pages through elements, attributes, and a document object model.

iCalendar (.ics) event format — the universal standard (RFC 5545) for exchanging calendar events, scheduling, and time-based data between applications.

ICO is the image file format used for icons in Microsoft Windows, containing

INI configuration file format — a simple, flat key-value format organized by sections, used in legacy Windows applications and many Unix-style config files.

The IPA file format — Apple's iOS application package containing compiled Mach-O binaries, resources, entitlements, and provisioning profiles for iPhone and iPad apps.

Jupyter Notebook format (.ipynb) — a JSON-based document format combining live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text in computational notebooks.

The ISO 9660 disk image format — the standard for optical disc images, OS installation media, and software distribution as mountable virtual discs.

JPEG is the most widely used lossy compressed image format, optimized for

JavaScript Object Notation — lightweight text-based data interchange format used nearly everywhere in web APIs, config files, and data storage.

JPEG XL is a next-generation image format designed as the universal successor

Apple's proprietary presentation format for Keynote, featuring cinematic animations, high-quality rendering, and tight integration with the Apple ecosystem.

A document preparation system and typesetting language built on Donald Knuth's TeX engine, the gold standard for academic papers, theses, and documents requiring precise mathematical notation.

Lottie is a JSON-based vector animation format created by Airbnb that renders After Effects animations natively on web, iOS, and Android at tiny file sizes.

HLS is Apple's adaptive bitrate streaming protocol using M3U8 playlists and segmented media files, the most widely deployed streaming technology for live and on-demand video.

An MPEG-4 container format for audio, typically holding AAC or Apple Lossless (ALAC) encoded content, widely used in the Apple ecosystem.

A lightweight plain-text markup language that uses intuitive punctuation-based syntax for formatting, widely used for documentation, README files, notes, and web content.

A protocol and file format that stores musical performance data (notes, timing, velocity) rather than audio, enabling instrument control and music composition.

MKV is an open, flexible multimedia container format that can hold virtually any combination of video, audio, subtitle, and metadata tracks in a single file.

Amazon's proprietary ebook formats for Kindle devices and apps, including MOBI (Mobipocket), AZW, and AZW3/KF8, supporting DRM-protected reflowable content.

MOV is Apple's QuickTime multimedia container format, widely used in professional video production on macOS and iOS, and the structural basis for the MP4 format.

The most widely adopted lossy audio compression format, balancing file size and audio quality for music distribution and playback.

MP4/M4V MPEG-4 container format supporting H.264/H.265 video, AAC audio, and subtitles — the dominant video format on the modern web and in consumer devices.

MPEG-DASH is the ISO-standard adaptive bitrate streaming protocol using MPD manifests and segmented media, widely used for DRM-protected and cross-platform video delivery.

MessagePack binary serialization — a compact, fast binary format that is like JSON but smaller and faster, used for caching, IPC, and network protocols.

MXF is the SMPTE-standardized professional container format for broadcast and post-production, designed for interoperable exchange of video, audio, and metadata between systems.

Newline-Delimited JSON — a text format with one JSON object per line, designed for streaming, logging, and processing large datasets line-by-line.

Apple's proprietary spreadsheet format for the Numbers application, featuring a canvas-based design with multiple tables per sheet, part of the iWork suite.

The OBJ 3D model format — a simple, human-readable text format for 3D geometry with broad support across modeling, rendering, and game development tools.

The open standard spreadsheet format from the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) family, used by LibreOffice Calc, Apache OpenOffice, and other applications for spreadsheet documents.

The open standard document format from the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) family, used by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and other applications for word processing documents.

An open-source, royalty-free lossy audio codec in the Ogg container, offering quality comparable to or better than MP3 without patent restrictions.

A modern, open-source, royalty-free audio codec excelling at both speech and music across a wide bitrate range, with ultra-low latency for real-time communication.

The OpenType font format — the modern standard for digital typography, extending TrueType with PostScript outlines, advanced layout features, and cross-platform support.

Apple's proprietary word processing and page layout format for the Pages application, part of the iWork suite, with tight Apple ecosystem integration and dual word-processing/layout modes.

Apache Parquet columnar storage format — a highly efficient binary format for analytics workloads, supporting compression and encoding optimizations.

Adobe's universal document format for fixed-layout, platform-independent document exchange with support for text, images, vector graphics, forms, and digital signatures.

PNG is a lossless compressed raster image format with full alpha transparency

The modern Microsoft PowerPoint presentation format based on Open XML, storing slides, layouts, themes, animations, and media in a ZIP-compressed package of XML files.

Apple ProRes is a family of lossy and visually lossless video codecs designed for high-quality professional video editing, post-production, and broadcast delivery.

Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) — Google's language-neutral binary serialization format for structured data, used in gRPC, inter-service communication, and data storage.

PSD is Adobe Photoshop's native file format, preserving layers, masks, blend

QOI (Quite OK Image Format) is a simple, fast lossless image format designed

The RAR archive format — proprietary compression with strong encryption, recovery records, and multi-volume splitting for high-ratio archiving.

RAW files contain minimally processed sensor data from digital cameras,

The RPM package format — Red Hat's software package manager for installing, updating, and managing applications on Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, SUSE, and other enterprise Linux distributions.

A Microsoft-developed text-based document interchange format that encodes formatted text with control words, providing cross-platform rich text exchange without binary complexity.

Structured Query Language files — text files containing database queries for schema definition, data manipulation, migrations, and seed data.

SQLite single-file relational database — a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration SQL database engine stored as a single cross-platform file.

The STEP file format — the ISO standard for exchanging complete CAD product data including 3D geometry, tolerances, materials, and assembly structure across engineering tools.

The STL 3D model format — the standard for 3D printing, representing surface geometry as a mesh of triangles in either ASCII or binary encoding.

SVG is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics that

The TAR archive format — Unix/Linux standard for bundling files while preserving permissions, ownership, and symlinks, typically paired with a compression layer.

TGA (Targa) is a raster image format supporting alpha channels and simple

TIFF is a flexible, high-quality raster image format widely used in

Tom's Obvious Minimal Language — a configuration file format emphasizing readability with explicit, unambiguous semantics. Used by Cargo, pyproject.toml, and Hugo.