Help section

Search by format

File names for electronic documents contain an extension which identifies the format of the document. This is the part of the file name which comes after the last dot, e.g. the "txt" in "readme.txt". Different software products typically have different extensions associated with their file formats, to identify the software used to create them. Several different software products may use the same extension for their file formats - this includes different versions of the same product, though the format may not stay the same.

This search page allows you to search for formats, or for software products which will create, render, identify, validate or extract metadata from file formats.

1. File Formats

Either enter a file extension in the first box and press 'search' to view a report on all file formats which use that extension, or enter a file format name into the second box and press 'search' to view a report on file formats which contain that name. You can enter part of a name rather than needing to provide the entire file format name. You do not need to include version numbers in the file format name - these are held separately in PRONOM and your search may fail to find the file format if you include the version number in this box.

Leaving the boxes blank and pressing 'search' will let you view a report of all file formats known to PRONOM.

2. Compatible software

Either enter a file extension in the first box and press 'search' to view a report on all software products which can create, render, identify, validate or extract metadata from each of the file formats which use that extension, or enter a file format name in the second box and press 'search' to view software products which can process each of the file formats whose name contains the entered text. You can enter part of a name rather than needing to provide the entire file format name. Note that where an extension is used by more than one file format this list can be large. You can choose to restrict your search to only those products which are still supported (by their author or a third-party), or to those which are not supported any more. The default is to show all software products, whether or not they are still supported.

3. File Format Risk

Enter a risk value and press search to find all formats with a risk value greater than the value entered. Select "under" from the drop-down box to return formats with risk values less than the value entered. Enter a format name in the text box to filter by format as well.