Not all file types are created equal. In terms of resistance to going out-of-support, or file type corruptions, these are the kings:
- Documents
- .txt - king, use UTF-8 character encoding
- Any offshoot of text that is just text under the hood (like .md)
- .pdf
- .odt
- .docx ← "x" at the end is important, it's XML-based
- Spreadsheets
- .csv - king (see: CSV)
- .ods
- .xlsx ← "x" at the end is important, it's XML-based
- Presentations
- .pptx ← "x" at the end is important, it's XML-based
- Images
- .raw - lossless, large
- .tif - lossless, large
- .jpg
- .png
- ...or use PDFs
- Video
- Audio
- .flac - lossless, large
- .mp3
Sources
Some primary research
LibGuides: Getting your data organised: Durable file formats
Guides: Data Management Recommended Practices: Sustainable File Types
Related Notes
Plain Text Durability
CSV
XML