What file formats should I use for my data? Am I using proprietary formats? How accessible will my data be if the software I'm using to work with it disappears?
To ensure the future use of your data, file formats should:
- be non-proprietary and based on open, documented standards
- be commonly used by your community
- use standard character encoding (ASCII, UTF-8)
- be unencrypted
- be uncompressed
Examples of preferred formats:
- PDF/A (not DOC)
- ASCII (not XLS)
- MPEG-4 (not MOV)
- TIFF or JPEG2000 (not GIF or JPG)
- XML or RDF (not RDBMS)
For more examples of supported file formats see UK Data Archive Formats Table.