Certified HTML Designer Learning Resources MIME types

Learning Resources
 

MIME types


MIME is a standard for describing different types of information This was originally meant to be used to specify encoding for different types of information into text. This made it possible to send them as e-mail.

The standard MIME is also used in other types of communication where there is a need for specifying which type of information is used. This could be your local operating system or a web server.


Mime is just a specification. Normally the information is encoded with some other standard format. When decoded it regains it original shape.

To be able to read the file you need an application that can handle the attached file. If two files, a word document and a image is sent by email they would both get encoded as mime. Upon receiving these files there need to be an application associated with each file type. Microsoft word or maybe another word processor would be associated with the word document making it possible to read the file. Photoshop or another image viewer would be associated with the image.

Normally the conversion from MIME to files is handled by the e-mail application. When the file is stored on disk it is up to the operating system to map an application to file type.

file type MIME type
ai application/postscript
aif audio/x-aiff
aifc audio/x-aiff
aiff audio/x-aiff
asc text/plain
atom application/atom+xml
au audio/basic
avi video/x-msvideo
bcpio application/x-bcpio
bin application/octet-stream
bmp image/bmp
cdf application/x-netcdf
cgm image/cgm
class application/octet-stream
cpio application/x-cpio
cpt application/mac-compactpro
csh application/x-csh
css text/css
dcr application/x-director
dif video/x-dv
dir application/x-director
djv image/vnd.djvu
djvu image/vnd.djvu
dll application/octet-stream
dmg application/octet-stream
dms application/octet-stream
doc application/msword
dtd application/xml-dtd
dv video/x-dv
dvi application/x-dvi
dxr application/x-director
eps application/postscript
etx text/x-setext
exe application/octet-stream
ez application/andrew-inset
gif image/gif
gram application/srgs
grxml application/srgs+xml
gtar application/x-gtar
hdf application/x-hdf
hqx application/mac-binhex40
htm text/html
html text/html
ice x-conference/x-cooltalk
ico image/x-icon
ics text/calendar
ief image/ief
ifb text/calendar
iges model/iges
igs model/iges
jnlp application/x-java-jnlp-file
jp2 image/jp2
jpe image/jpeg
jpeg image/jpeg
jpg image/jpeg
js application/x-javascript
kar audio/midi
latex application/x-latex
lha application/octet-stream
lzh application/octet-stream
m3u audio/x-mpegurl
m4a audio/mp4a-latm
m4b audio/mp4a-latm
m4p audio/mp4a-latm
m4u video/vnd.mpegurl
m4v video/x-m4v
mac image/x-macpaint
man application/x-troff-man
mathml application/mathml+xml
me application/x-troff-me
mesh model/mesh
mid audio/midi
midi audio/midi
mif application/vnd.mif
mov video/quicktime
movie video/x-sgi-movie
mp2 audio/mpeg
mp3 audio/mpeg
mp4 video/mp4
mpe video/mpeg
mpeg video/mpeg
mpg video/mpeg
mpga audio/mpeg
ms application/x-troff-ms
msh model/mesh
mxu video/vnd.mpegurl
nc application/x-netcdf
oda application/oda
ogg application/ogg
pbm image/x-portable-bitmap
pct image/pict
pdb chemical/x-pdb
pdf application/pdf
pgm image/x-portable-graymap
pgn application/x-chess-pgn
pic image/pict
pict image/pict
png image/png
pnm image/x-portable-anymap
pnt image/x-macpaint
pntg image/x-macpaint
ppm image/x-portable-pixmap
ppt application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
ps application/postscript
qt video/quicktime
qti image/x-quicktime
qtif image/x-quicktime
ra audio/x-pn-realaudio
ram audio/x-pn-realaudio
ras image/x-cmu-raster
rdf application/rdf+xml
rgb image/x-rgb
rm application/vnd.rn-realmedia
roff application/x-troff
rtf text/rtf
rtx text/richtext
sgm text/sgml
sgml text/sgml
sh application/x-sh
shar application/x-shar
silo model/mesh
sit application/x-stuffit
skd application/x-koan
skm application/x-koan
skp application/x-koan
skt application/x-koan
smi application/smil
smil application/smil
snd audio/basic
so application/octet-stream
spl application/x-futuresplash
src application/x-wais-source
sv4cpio application/x-sv4cpio
sv4crc application/x-sv4crc
svg image/svg+xml
swf application/x-shockwave-flash
t application/x-troff
tar application/x-tar
tcl application/x-tcl
tex application/x-tex
texi application/x-texinfo
texinfo application/x-texinfo
tif image/tiff
tiff image/tiff
tr application/x-troff
tsv text/tab-separated-values
txt text/plain
ustar application/x-ustar
vcd application/x-cdlink
vrml model/vrml
vxml application/voicexml+xml
wav audio/x-wav
wbmp image/vnd.wap.wbmp
wbmxl application/vnd.wap.wbxml
wml text/vnd.wap.wml
wmlc application/vnd.wap.wmlc
wmls text/vnd.wap.wmlscript
wmlsc application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc
wrl model/vrml
xbm image/x-xbitmap
xht application/xhtml+xml
xhtml application/xhtml+xml
xls application/vnd.ms-excel
xml application/xml
xpm image/x-xpixmap
xsl application/xml
xslt application/xslt+xml
xul application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml
xwd image/x-xwindowdump
xyz chemical/x-xyz
zip application/zip

 

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