Open format

An open format is a published specification for storing digital data, which can be used without legal or technical restrictions.

The development of open formats is usually under the supervision of an open-access panel. Open formats must be implementable by both proprietary and free software or open source software. Open formats, file formats, such as containers, are a subset of open standards.

The primary goal of format openness is to allow the unimpeded use of data to create restrictions or dependencies without any legal ( eg, licensing ) or technical (eg DRM). A commonly formulated secondary goal is to allow competition because the use of proprietary digital formats can easily lead to so-called vendor lock-in. Governments are showing increasing interest in the use of open formats.

In contrast to open formats are proprietary formats, which were usually defined by firms. Therefore, often a flow in addition to technical and commercial interests in the design of proprietary formats.

Examples of open formats

  • CrossCrypt and dm -crypt ( a container format for encrypted disk)
  • CSV text-based table format
  • DAISY ( an audio book format)
  • DVI ( page description language )
  • DjVu (an image format)
  • FLAC ( an audio format )
  • FreeOTFE ( a container format for encrypted disk)
  • HTML / XHTML ( a description language )
  • Office Open XML ( for office documents )
  • Ogg ( container format )
  • Ogg Writ ( a codec for animated text )
  • OpenDocument ( for office documents )
  • OpenEXR (an image format)
  • PNG (image format)
  • SVG ( an image format )
  • SMIL ( a markup language for time-synchronized multimedia contents )
  • Speex ( an audio format for votes)
  • Theora ( video format )
  • TrueCrypt ( a container format for encrypted disk)
  • Vorbis ( an audio format )
  • XML ( a description language )
  • XSPF ( a Playlist Format )
Specification (technical standard) License Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language XML Shareable Playlist Format
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