Sources

Revision as of 20:55, 25 October 2012

If you're looking for places to pull either file format information, or to verify stuff you've found, or to go that extra mile to track down variations, here's some similar endeavors and items.

List of Places Keeping Track of Formats

• http://archivematica.org/preservation
• http://www.fileformat.info/
• http://www.ace.net.nz/tech/TechFileFormat.html
• http://wotsit.org/ (presently broken)
• http://unarchiver.c3.cx/formats
• http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/ Version-level format information on hundreds of formats, can be downloaded as XML (ask me for details AndyJackson 15:07, 2 July 2012 (EDT))
• http://wiki.multimedia.cx/
• http://archive.org/download/file-format-encyclopedia/fileformat.zip/
• http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/descriptions.shtml
• http://www.udfr.org/
• http://gitorious.org/re-lab Tools & specs from re-lab- graphics formats, and office formats
• http://www-mmsp.ece.mcgill.ca/documents/AudioFormats/index.html - Documentation, details, specs, and samples for a handful of audio formats
• http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php/Game_File_Format_Central This wiki is the home of the most game (archive) file format knowledge in the world.
• http://rewiki.regengedanken.de has some more game related reverse engineering

Books

• Compressed Image File Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, XBM, BMP by John Miano (1999)
• Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats: The Complete Reference on CD-ROM with Links to Internet Resources by James D. Murray and William VanRyper (1996) Copy Acquired!
• The CD-ROM for the above book is located here.
• Graphics File Formats by David C. Kay and John R. Levine (1994)
• Graphics File Formats: Reference and Guide by C. Wayne Brown, Barry J. Shepherd (1994)
• File Formats for Popular Personal Computer Software: A Programmer's Reference (Self-teaching Guides) by Jeff Walden (1986) Copy Acquired!
• File Formats on the Internet: A Guide for PC Users by Allison B. Zhang (1996) Copy Acquired!
• 3D Graphics File Formats: A Programmer's Reference by Keith Rule (1996)
• More File Formats for Popular PC Software: A Programmer's Reference by Jeff Walden (1987) Copy Acquired!
• Lotus File Formats for 1-2-3 Symphony & Jazz: File Structure Descriptions for Developers from Lotus, Inc. (1986)

Other Useful Materials and Services

• http://www.nsrl.nist.gov/ National Software Reference Library (see also http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/05/life-saving-the-national-software-reference-library/)
• http://www.openplanetsfoundation.org/software/fido Format Identification for Digital Objects
• https://github.com/usnationalarchives/File-Analyzer File Analyzer
• http://sk1project.org/modules.php?name=products&product=uniconvertor UniConvertor is a universal vector graphics translator. It is a command line tool which uses sK1 object model to convert one format to another
• http://www.textfiles.com/programming/FORMATS/
• http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/SPR/Digital+Preservation+Tools Wiki list of digital preservation tool lists
• http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/REQ/Digital+Preservation+and+Data+Curation+Requirements+and+Solutions Digital Preservation and Data Curation Requirements and Solutions. Not classified by formats, but by datasets, issues and solutions.
• http://fileformats.wordpress.com/ - The File Formats Blog
• http://www.archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive - The Internet Archive has over 1,500 CD-ROMs loaded with shareware, and with that comes converters, documentation and other vital works related to file formats.
• Crowd sourced Representation Information for Supporting Preservation (cRIsp)