We all know that a Word document is a .doc or .docx and Powerpoint is a .ppt Listed below are some common extensions you probably hear daily but perhaps didn't know what they stood for.
.JPEG (.JPG) stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEGs manage to capture wonderfully detailed images in millions of colors in minimal space thus making them the format of choice for photographic images.
MP3 . We ALL know what these ARE but the extension comes from a video codec MPEG which stands for Motion Picture Experts Group. In short you can think of an MP3 as the 'audio' part of an MP4 video.
WAVEFORM (.wav) This can be a very high quality (thus very large) audio file. (compress one to get a less quality MP3 format)
MIDI (.MID) Musical Instrument Digital Interface .Now we are right up my alley. As a songwriter and composer I have worked with MIDI since it's inception in the early 80's. (man, I'm old) In the simplest form you can think of a MIDI file as one of those old Player Piano rolls except the Midi 'plays' software and hardware synths and sound modules. In the beginning this type of file worked on a "Note On " Note Off" basis. MIDI has improved over the years to include many types of controls.
GIF stands for General Image Format file It is a representation of an image or simple animation. The format was created by Compuserve and is copyrighted. And as mentioned in an earlier blog the CREATOR pronounces it Jif like the peanut butter but these days both Gif and Jif are acceptable pronunciations.
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