File extensions – definition and basic information


File extensions are the integral parts of the files that are on each computer. Often, when working on a computer, we encounter a wide range of files, such as docx, ppt, part, mp3 or rmvb. We realize that they are there – but we often do not know what they are for on our computer.

File extension, also known as the filename extension is a suffix added to the name of a computer file, usually consisting of a number of characters placed after the last dot in the filename, which gives us information about its coding. In other words a file extension is a file format. It allows the operating system (e.g. Windows) to recognize what program it should try to open the file.

In the table below you will find a random selection of popular file extensions.


File extension The full name of the file Category

AIF file extension

Audio Interchange File Format

Audio Files

CBR file extension

Comic Book RAR Archive

Compressed Files

DXF file extension

Drawing Exchange Format File

CAD Files

GIF file extension

Graphical Interchange Format File

Raster Image Files

JPG file extension

JPEG Image

Raster Image Files

JS file extension

JavaScript File

Web Files

MID file extension

MIDI File

Audio Files

PAGES file extension

Pages Document

Text Files

PSPIMAGE file extension

PaintShop Pro Image

Raster Image Files

TARGZ file extension

Compressed Tarball File

Compressed Files

TORRENT file extension

BitTorrent File

Misc Files

TTF file extension

TrueType Font

Font Files

XHTML file extension

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language File

Web Files

XLS file extension

Excel Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet Files

3G2 file extension

3GPP2 Multimedia File

Video Files