Documentation
Preferred file formats
Preferred file formats at the National Library of Norway [EN]

Preferred file formats at the National Library of Norway [EN]

The Norwegian primary document can be found here.

This is a list over the preferred file formats for preservation at the National Library of Norway. The recommendations are prepared by the respective media departments, while the list is managed by the digital preservation team.

The list covers both files produced by the National Library and files the National Library acquire from external actors. The preferred formats are those our departments would prefer to have, while the acceptable ones will also be accepted without conversion/normalization. Any other formats should be discussed with relevant departments before acceptance.

The list is inspired by Open Preservation Foundation’s (OPF) list “International Comparison of Recommended File Formats” and the Library of Congress’s overviews “Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections” and “Recommended Formats Statement”.

Images

Purpose
Preferred formatsAcceptable formats
Digitized images
  • TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), revision 6 1
    • Posters
  • PDF/A Family, PDF for Long-term Preservation 2
  • PDF (Portable Document Format) Family 3
    • Access copies
  • JPEG 2000 Part 2 (Extensions) jpf (jpx) 4

    • Moving images

    Purpose
    		Preferred formatsAcceptable formats
    Film masters and digitization
  • Matroska/FFV1/PCM (Matroska File Format with FFV1 video encoding) 5
  • DPX (Digital Moving-Picture Exchange), Version 2.0 6
  • TIFF sequence 1
  • MPEG-4, Advanced Video Coding (Part 10) (H.264)/PCM (lossless, uncompressed mezzanine) 7
  • OpenEXR 8
  • Apple Prores4444/mov 9
  • DNxHR444
  • Apple ProRes 422 High Quality/mov 10
  • DNxHR HQX/HQ
    • TV (master), VOD, home video and access
  • Interoperable Master Format (IMF) 11
  • MXF/XDCAM
  • MXF OP1a 12
  • MPEG-4, Advanced Video Coding (Part 10) (H.264) 7
  • MPEG-2 Video Encoding (H.262) 13 (50Mbit/s, Inter-frame encoded)
    • Film distribution (cinema)
  • DCP, Version 1.0 (Digital Cinema Initiative Distribution Package) 14 (unencrypted)
  • IMF (Interoperable Master Format) 11 (unencrypted)
    • Digitized video
  • Matroska/FFV1/PCM 5
    • Film sound (final mix/audio master)
  • BWF (Broadcast WAVE Audio File Format), Version 2 15
  • WAVE Audio File Format with LPCM audio 16
  • FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Version 1.1.2 17
    • Subtitles
  • SRT (SubRip Subtitle format) 18
  • PAC (Presentation Audio/Video Coding)
  • XML

    • Sound

    Purpose
    		Preferred formatsAcceptable formats
    Masters and sound digitization
  • Minimum bit depth: 16 bit
  • Recommended bit depth: 24 bit
  • Minimum sample rate: 44100 Hz
  • BWF (Broadcast WAVE Audio File Format), Version 2 15
  • WAVE Audio File Format with LPCM audio 16
  • MBWF/RF64 (Multichannel BWF) [EBU TECH 3306] 19
  • FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Version 1.1.2 17
  • AIFF LPCM (Audio Interchange File Format with LPCM Audio) 20

    • Web archive

    Purpose
    		Preferred formatsAcceptable formats
    Web harvesting
  • WACZ (Web Archive Collection Zipped) 21
  • WARC (Web ARChive file format) 22

    • Text

    Purpose
    		Preferred formatsAcceptable formats
    Scanned text
  • JPEG 2000 Part 1 (Core) jp2 File 23
    • OCR
  • ALTO XML 24
    • Digital text
  • PDF/A Family, PDF for Long-term Preservation 2
  • EPUB (Electronic Publication) File Format Family 25
  • PDF (Portable Document Format) Family 3
    • Access copies
  • JPEG 2000 Part 2 (Extensions) jpf (jpx) 4
    • Cover page images
  • JPEG Image Encoding Family 26
  • PNG (Portable Network Graphics) 27

    1. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. TIFF, Revision 6.0. (2023, June 21). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000022.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    2. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. PDF/A Family, PDF for Long-term Preservation. (2020, December 31). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000318.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    3. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. PDF (Portable Document Format) Family. (2023, August 29). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000030.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    4. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. JPEG 2000 Part 2 (Extensions) jpf (jpx) File Format. (2022, November 22). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000154.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    5. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Matroska File Format with FFV1 video encoding. (2022, April 4). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000343.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    6. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Digital Moving-Picture Exchange (DPX), Version 2.0. (2016, December 13). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000178.shtml ↩︎

    7. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. MPEG-4, Advanced Video Coding (Part 10) (H.264). (2011, December 5). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000081.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    8. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. OpenEXR. (2023, May 12). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000583.shtml ↩︎

    9. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Apple ProRes 4444 Codec Family. (2020, December 11). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000527.shtml ↩︎

    10. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Apple ProRes 422 High Quality. (2020, November 17). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000403.shtml ↩︎

    11. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Interoperable Master Format (IMF). (2024, January 2). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000535.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    12. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. MXF Operational Pattern 1a (OP1a). (2015, December 3). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000266.shtml ↩︎

    13. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. MPEG-2 Video Encoding (H.262). (2011, December 1). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000028.shtml ↩︎

    14. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Digital Cinema Initiative Distribution Package (DCP), Version 1.0. (2022, April 11). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000200.shtml ↩︎

    15. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Broadcast WAVE Audio File Format, Version 2. (2024, April 23). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000357.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    16. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. WAVE Audio File Format with LPCM audio. (2024, April 23). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000002.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    17. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Version 1.1.2. (2015, December 21). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000198.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

    18. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. SubRip Subtitle format (SRT). (2023, March 28). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000569.shtml ↩︎

    19. MBWF / RF64: An extended file format for audio (EBU TECH 3306). (n.d.). https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3306v1_1.pdf ↩︎

    20. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. AIFF File Format with LPCM Audio. (2010, June 28). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000116.shtml ↩︎

    21. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Web Archive Collection Zipped. (2023, May 19). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000586.shtml ↩︎

    22. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. WARC, Web ARChive file format. (2024, April 29). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000236.shtml ↩︎

    23. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. JPEG 2000 Part 1, Core Coding System. (2022, November 22). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000138.shtml ↩︎

    24. Alto: Technical metadata for layout and text objects (standards, Library of Congress). (n.d.). https://www.loc.gov/standards/alto/ ↩︎

    25. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. EPUB (Electronic Publication) File Format Family. (2020, May 12). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000310.shtml ↩︎

    26. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. JPEG Image Encoding Family. (2022, April 26). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000017.shtml ↩︎

    27. Sustainability of digital formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. PNG, Portable Network Graphics. (2022, April 15). https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000153.shtml ↩︎

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    Foretrukne digitale formater i Nasjonalbiblioteket [NO]