Appendix B

Commonly Used MIME Media Types

by Michael Ellsworth


Several types and subtypes of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) were defined by Request For Comments (RFC) 1341 in 1992. Many more have subsequently been approved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). It was the expressed intention of the original RFC that the number of MIME types be limited to the seven proposed in the RFC, as follows:

Within each type, various subtypes are allowed and are appended to the type with a slash (/). Tables B.1 through B.7 list all the IANA-approved MIME types and subtypes (in boldface italic) as well as additional types that appear to be supported by the popular servers and browsers. In addition to the types indicated, NCSA Mosaic 2.0 supports a type of telnet (with no subtype). I'm indebted to Ken Jenks for his list found at http://sd-www.jsc.nasa.gov/mime-types/.

To find out about current IANA-approved media types, visit the anonymous FTP site ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/.

Table B.1  MIME Type: Application

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
application/acad
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/activemessage
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/andrew-inset
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/applefile
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/atomicmail
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/cals1840
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/clariscad
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/commonground
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/cybercash
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/dca-rft
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/dec-dx
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/drafting
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/dxf
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/eshop
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/excel
 
 
x
 
 
 
application/fractals
x
 
 
 
 
 
application/i-deas
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/iges
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/macbinary
 
 
 
x
 
 
application/mac-binhex40
x
 
 
x
x
 
application/macwriteii
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/mathematica
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/msword
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/news-message-id
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/news-transmission
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/octet-stream
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/oda
x
 
 
 
x
x
application/pdf
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/postscript
x
x
x
 
x
x
application/powerpoint
 
 
x
 
 
 
application/pro_eng
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/remote-printing
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/riscos
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/rtf
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/set
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/sgml
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/SLA
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/slate
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/solids
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/STEP
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/vda
 
 
 
 
 
x
application/wita
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/word   
x
 
 
 
application/wordperfect5.1
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/x400.bp
 
 
 
 
 
 
application/x-bcpio
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-compressed
x
 
 
 
 
 
application/x-cpio
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-csh
x
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-dvi
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-gtar
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-hdf
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-latex
x
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-mif
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/x-netcdf
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-rtf
x
x
x
 
 
x
application/x-sh
x
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-shar
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-stuffit
x
 
 
 
 
 
application/x-sv4cpio
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-sv4crc
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-tar
x
 
 
 
x
 
application/x-tcl
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-tex
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-texinfo
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-troff
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-troff-man
x
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-troff-me
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-troff-ms
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/x-ustar
 
 
 
 
x
 
application/x-wais-source
 
 
 
 
x
x
application/zip
 
 
 
 
x
 

Table B.2  MIME Type: Audio

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
audio/32kadpcm
 
 
 
 
 
 
audio/au
 
 
x
 
 
 
audio/basic
x
x
x
x
x
x
audio/wav
 
x
x
 
 
 
audio/x-aiff
x
 
 
x
x
x
audio/x-midi
 
x
x
 
 
 
audio/x-wav
x
 
 
 
x
x

Table B.3  MIME Type: Image

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
image/bmp
 
 
x
 
 
 
image/cgm
 
 
 
 
 
 
image/cmu-raster
 
 
 
 
 
x
image/g3fax
 
 
 
 
 
 
image/gif
x
x
x
x
x
x
image/ief
 
 
 
 
x
x
image/jpeg
x
x
x
x
x
x
image/naplps
 
 
 
 
 
 
image/targa
 
x
 
 
 
 
image/tiff
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-cmu-raster
x
 
 
 
x
 
image/x-pict
 
 
 
x
 
 
image/x-portable-anymap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-portable-bitmap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-portable-graymap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-portable-pixmap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-rgb
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-tiff
 
 
x
 
 
 
image/x-win-bmp
 
x
 
 
 
 
image/x-xbitmap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-xbm
 
 
 
x
 
 
image/x-xpixmap
x
 
 
 
x
x
image/x-xwindowdump
 
 
 
 
x
x

Table B.4  MIME Type: Message

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
message/external-body
 
 
 
 
x
 
message/news
 
 
 
 
x
 
message/partial
 
 
 
 
x
 
message/rfc822
 
 
 
 
x
 

Table B.5  MIME Type: Multipart

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
multipart/alternative
 
 
 
 
x
 
multipart/appledouble
 
 
 
 
x
 
multipart/digest
 
 
 
 
x
 
multipart/form-data
 
 
 
 
 
 
multipart/header-set
 
 
 
 
 
 
multipart/mixed
 
 
 
 
x
 
multipart/parallel
 
 
 
 
x
 
multipart/related
 
 
 
 
 
 
multipart/report
 
 
 
 
 
 
multipart/voice-message
 
 
 
 
 
 
multipart/x-gzip
 
 
 
 
 
x
multipart/x-tar
 
 
 
 
 
x
multipart/x-ustar
 
 
 
 
 
x
multipart/x-zip
 
 
 
 
 
x

Table B.6  MIME Type: Text

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
text/enriched
 
 
 
 
 
 
text/html
 
x
x
x
 
x
text/plain
x
 
x
 
x
x
text/richtext
x
 
 
 
x
x
text/sgml
 
 
 
 
 
 
text/tab-separated-values
 
 
 
 
x
x
text/x-setext
 
 
 
 
x
x
text/x-sgml
 
 
 
 
x
 


Table B.7  MIME Type: Video

 Win Netscape 1.1N Win AIR MosaicWin Mosaic 2.0 Mac Mosaic 2.0NCSA HTTPD 1.4.2 W3/ CERN HTTPD
video/mpeg
x
x
x
x
x
x
video/mplayer
 
 
x
 
 
 
video/msvideo
 
x
x
 
 
 
video/qtime
 
 
x
 
 
 
video/quicktime
x
x
x
x
x
x
video/x-msvideo
x
 
x
 
x
x
video/x-sgi-movie
x
 
 
 
x
x