Have you ever received a file from someone that you can’t open? Just because you can’t open it, doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the file. Some file formats can be opened by many different programs, one of which you probably have on your computer. Other file types belong to specific programs and cannot be opened unless you have that program installed.
Here is a quick look at the most common types of files, and what programs you can use to open them:
Open formats
Several different programs can open the following types of files. They will more than likely open on your computer.
TIFF, PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG/JPG files
You can open these files using any image viewing/editing program.
PDF files
You can open PDFs using Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader (which is available for free online), or Preview.
EPS files
You can open EPS files on a Mac, but it may not be possible to open them on your PC, depending on how the EPS was saved.
Proprietary formats
The following file types are associated with a specific program. In order to open them, you may need to own the program.