What is This Guidance About?
This guidance This article offers recommendations for file formats that support long-term preservation and usability of digital textual works.
File Formats for Preservation
Not all file formats are created equal. Just like computers and software change, file formats have evolved over time, and some have fared better in the long-term than others. Have you recently tried to open a WordStar, pre-1997 Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect file? If you have, you most likely had a hard time opening the file on a modern computer. As you think about managing your data, we recommend you select file formats that will be usable into the long-term, meaning a future user can open the file in 5 or 10 years.
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Digital Text Types | Primary Recommendations | Secondary Recommendations |
|---|---|---|
Word processing | .pdf/a | .rtf |
Text | .txt |
|
Structured text (markup) | .xml | .xhtml or .html .dtd .tex (LaTex) |
Presentation slides | .pdf/a
|
References
Library of Congress. (2023). Library of Congress Recommended Formats for Textual Works. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/text.html
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