Open Formats

TODO: under construction

Why use open formats for files?

• You assure it will continue to work even if the original software it was designed for ceases being maintained. Open formats are future proof.
• It's possible to convert it into other formats and make it work with more pieces of software
• It feels good

Compression formats

• tar is okay when you have multiple files
• zip, rar are okay because even thought they're proprietary they're widely available and implemented in open source software
• tar.gz , tar.xz , .lzma are good because they're open formats but they tend to be less available in some systems cof windows cof, so use with care.
• 7z is fine, as it's a 7-Zip format, which is Free and Open Source

Note: If you want to share only one file, try to avoid compressing it. Even if it would save a few MB, a non-compressed file will make life easier for users or people trying to integrate the file via API.

Soundfonts

• .gig is good
• .sfz is good
• .sf2 is okay
• sfArk and sfpack are so bad they make kitties die, they require proprietary software which is Windows only and is not maintained any more. If you have these kinds of files convert it to sf2 with the windows application or this linux application. If you really want to compress it, do it with the sf2 and an open compression format.

Sound file formats

• .ogg
• .flac