File formats and standards

From RBOSE

This page lists proposed file formats and standards preferred for a given type of information in order to effectively and easily share information between different projects and individuals. Of course only free and open source file formats and standards are considered.

Contents 1 Archiving and compression 2 Calculations 3 Calendar events 4 Databases and datasets 5 Graphics and images 5.1 3D graphics 5.2 Charts and graphs 5.3 Molecule models 5.4 Raster graphics 5.5 Vector graphics 6 Printing and document preview 7 Scanned images and documents 8 Sound 9 Text 9.1 Mathematical formulas 10 Technical designs 11 Other 12 TODO 13 External Links

Archiving and compression

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Archiving		tar (archiving)
Compression		bzip2 (compression) gzip (compression)

Calculations

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

Calendar events

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Calendar	Events publishing	iCalendar

Databases and datasets

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Databases and datasets		CSV (for simple datasets) sqlite

Graphics and images

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

3D graphics

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
3d models	boolean operations	VRML/X3D .blend	Blender

Charts and graphs

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Graphs	tree diagrams network diagrams flowcharts venn diagram	.dia	Dia Diagram Editor, Grahhviz
Charts	histograms bar charts pie charts function graphs scatter plots ...

Molecule models

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

Raster graphics

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Raster images	image analysis alpha channel compression	.png	Gimp

Vector graphics

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Vector images	SVG is based on universal XML format	.svg	Inkscape

Printing and document preview

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

Scanned images and documents

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Scanned images and documents		DjVu

Sound

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

Text

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Text		unicode ascii dvi LaTeX

Mathematical formulas

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application

Technical designs

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
Technical drawings	Sharing		dxf	Qcad

Other

Purpose	Specification and requirements	File format	Application
A general-purpose markup language		XML
Mindmaps	Hierarchical categorization of complex problems
Updates and news tracking	RSS and Atom are based on XML, therefore tapping into data and extracting various parts of it is simple
Mathematical formulas		LaTeX
Sound analysis and music		Ogg
Molecule models

TODO

External Links

• https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Free_file_formats