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Practical, jargon-free guides to file formats and conversions - written to help you pick the right format and get the best results every time.
A bookmarkable reference to the file formats you meet every day. Skim the category you need and you will know exactly which format to convert to.
8 min readUploading a document or photo to a website you have never used can feel risky. Here is what actually happens to your files during an online conversion - and how to tell a trustworthy tool from a careless one.
6 min readZIP files show up everywhere - downloads, email attachments, shared folders. Here is what they actually are, why they are useful, and how to open one on any device.
5 min readMost email providers cap attachments at around 20-25 MB. When your file is too big, you have several easy options - and the best one depends on what you are sending.
6 min readWant just the sound from a video - a lecture, interview, or song? Extracting audio pulls the soundtrack into an MP3 or other audio file. Here is how it works and how to do it.
5 min readAudio formats split into two camps: lossless (perfect quality, big files) and lossy (smaller files, some detail discarded). Knowing which is which stops you wasting space or quality.
6 min readVideo files come in a confusing array of formats. Understanding the difference between a container and a codec makes it obvious which one you should use for editing, sharing, or the web.
7 min readConverting a PDF back into an editable Word document is easy; keeping the layout perfect is the hard part. Here is what actually affects the result and how to get the cleanest conversion.
6 min readPNG and JPG are the two most common image formats, and picking the wrong one leads to bloated files or fuzzy graphics. Here is the simple rule for choosing between them.
5 min readImages are usually the heaviest thing on a web page, so the format you choose has a direct impact on load time and Core Web Vitals. Here is how WebP, AVIF, JPG, and PNG really compare.
7 min readiPhones save photos as HEIC to keep quality high and files small - but that format still trips up Windows PCs, websites, and email. Here is when to keep HEIC and when to convert to JPG.
6 min read