AR&S Supported Formats

While we can accept and store any file format, long term preservation requires that the format is well known. Applications come and go, and files created with an applcation may become unusable if that application becomes obsolete.

We have defined three levels of support for file formats, as indicated in the table below:

1. Supported. There is a high likelihood that its content, appearance, and functions will be preserved over time. Supported file formats are well documented within the software community and can be rendered by a variety of software applications.
2. Known. We recognise this format, but cannot guarantee its support over time. In general, this applies to proprietary formats whose underlying code is not available to the wider software community. Preservation of content, appearance, and function will be dependent on the application vendor maintaining backward compatibility in future releases of the application used to create the file.
3. Unknown. We have no knowledge of, or information about this format. The bitstream will be preserved, but not appearance or functionality.

Please contact your AR&S Administrator if you have questions about a particular format.