File extension is usually three or more characters at the end of the computer file name. File extensions are useful for computer operating systems, like Microsoft Windows or Apple MAC OS X, and basicaly tell them, what kind of data file it is and with which application associated it is.
We have collected a huge amount of informations and created searchable file extension list. At present the File-Extensions.org library contains thousands of file extensions and with each day the database is growing. A large number of file type entries have detailed descriptions, including their current use and a list of applications associated with it and which can handle the unknown file type, you were searching for.

If you encounter a file in your computer with an unknown file extension, then you are at the right place. You can check our database for informations about file extension you were looking for, including list of associated applications.
Simply use the search box at the top-left corner of each page to check our database for a specific file extension. You may also browse our database in alphabetical order using the navigation menu at the top.

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Random daily pick from file-extensions.org database.

ai file icon.ai - Adobe Illustrator graphics

The Adobe Illustrator (AI) file format was developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. for the Macintosh and Windows platforms. It is primarily vector-based, although later versions support bitmap information.

The AI vector file format is a widely used format for the exchange of 2D objects. Basic files in this format are simple to write, but files created by applications implementing the full AI specification can be quite large and complex and may be too slow to render.

Simple AI files are easy to construct, and a program can create files that can be read by any AI reader or can be printed on any PostScript printer software. Reading AI files is another matter entirely. Certain operations may be very difficult for a rendering application to implement or simulate. In light of this, developers often choose not to render the image from the PostScript-subset line data in the file. However almost all of the image can usually be reconstructed using simple operations.implementation of the PostScript language.

The AI format encapsulates and formalizes a subset of the PostScript page description language (PDL) in a structured file. Such files are meant to be imaged on a PostScript printer, but may include a bitmap version of the image to facilitate a screen preview. PostScript is a powerful and complex language in its full implementation, and this complexity is partly due to its ability to specify almost anything that can appear on a 2D output device. AI, however, is tailored to the storage of graphics data in the conventional sense: drawings, artwork, and lettering used for ornamental and display purposes. AI files can still be quite complex. PostScript derives much of its power from the ability to define sequences of operations and to later concatenate them using a simple syntax. This hidden complexity is sometimes, but not always, minimized in AI files.

The AI files consist of a series of ASCII lines, which may be comments, data, commands, or combinations of commands and data. This data is based on the PDF language specification and older versions of Adobe Illustrator used format which is variant of Adobe Encapsulated PostScirpt (EPS) format.If The EPS is a slightly limited subset of full PostScript, then Adobe Illustrator AI format is a strictly limited, highly simplified subset of EPS. While EPS can contain virtually any PS command that's not on the verboten list and can include elaborate program flow logic that determines what gets printed when, an AI file is limited to a much smaller number of drawing commands and it contains no programming logic at all. For all practical purposes, each unit of "code" in an AI file represents a drawing object. The program importing the AI reads each object in sequence, start to finish, no detours, no logical side-trips.

The AI file format is native to Adobe Illustrator. Originally written for the Macintosh platform, Adobe Illustrator is a well-known and widely used computer drawing application and vector graphic editor. There are currently Macintosh and Microsoft Windows versions. The latest version is Adobe Illustrator CS5. Much of the power of Adobe Illustrator comes from its implementation of Bezier splines as drawing objects, and the fact that it presents a simple user interface for precise positioning of spline-based drawing objects. Bezier splines have some advantages for the modeling of natural (and some human-made) objects. AI files are also used to distribute clip art.

Mime: application/postscript

Associated application: Adobe Illustrator, XnView, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator for Mac

Help how to open: Use Adobe Illustrator to open and edit the graphics with all features (layers, vectors, effects etc.). You can use any other vector graphics solution (e.g. Corel Draw!) capable to import and edit the file contents.
You can open/import graphics to Adobe Photoshop (but without layers).

Help how to convert this file type: Open with Adobe Illustrator or import with Corel Draw! and then save into another vector graphics file format or export to PDF or bitmap image.

Help how to backup this file type: Use any backup solution to backup Adobe Illustrator files.

Database contains 9 records with the same file extension name.
Last update on August 27, 2010.

[file extension ai]

Recently updated file extensions:

Existing and new file extensions are updated or added very often.

shm file icon file extension shm - Corel WordPerfect shell macro library file

itl file icon file extension itl - Apple iTunes music database file

m4p file icon file extension m4p - Apple iTunes Music Store audio file

cdda file icon file extension cdda - Apple iTunes AIFF audio file

hkdb file icon file extension hkdb - Apple iTunes database file

hplg file icon file extension hplg - Apple iTunes device plugin file

hvpl file icon file extension hvpl - Apple iTunes visual plugin file

itpc file icon file extension itpc - Apple iTunes podcast subscription file

itms file icon file extension itms - Apple iTunes store URL file

itlp file icon file extension itlp - Apple iTunes LP file

ite file icon file extension ite - Apple iTunes extras

nsq file icon file extension nsq - NScheduler Qlikview schedule file

scptd file icon file extension scptd - AppleScript script bundle file

spn file icon file extension spn - Corel WordPerfect distribution file

saver file icon file extension saver - Mac OS X Screen Saver

savedsearch file icon file extension savedsearch - Spotlight Saved Search

safariextz file icon file extension safariextz - Apple Safari extension file

rwtheme file icon file extension rwtheme - RapidWeaver theme file

rwstyle file icon file extension rwstyle - RapidWeaver style file

rwsnippet file icon file extension rwsnippet - RapidWeaver snippet file

vw3 file icon file extension vw3 - Volkswriter 3 text file

rwplugin file icon file extension rwplugin - RapidWeaver plugin file

rt file icon file extension rt - RealText subtitle file

rmvb file icon file extension rmvb - RealMedia variable bitrate file

rmp file icon file extension rmp - Internet audio playlist file

vw file icon file extension vw - Volkswriter text file

vrs file icon file extension vrs - Corel WordPerfect video resource device driver file

rmi file icon file extension rmi - MIDI-sequention music (RIFF RMID format)

rm file icon file extension rm - RealMedia

spm file icon file extension spm - Corel WordPerfect file

rec file icon file extension rec - Topfield TF5800 record file

ram file icon file extension ram - Real Audio metafile

r file icon file extension r - Sound Designer 2 file

s03 file icon file extension s03 - Corel WordPerfect distribution file

s02 file icon file extension s02 - Corel WordPerfect distribution file

pet file icon file extension pet - Corel WordPerfect

q2renderer file icon file extension q2renderer - Quake 2 for Mac renderer plug-in file

nb file icon file extension nb - Corel Word Perfect notebook file

pxr file icon file extension pxr - Pixar picture file

pvm file icon file extension pvm - Parallels Desktop virtual machine file

lnm file icon file extension lnm - Corel WordPerfect SGML alias file

hwl file icon file extension hwl - Corel WordPerfect hared Writing Tools 9.0 file

frs file icon file extension frs - Corel WordPerfect screen font resource file

ix2 file icon file extension ix2 - Corel WordPerfect Office address book file

ix2 file icon file extension ix2 - Corel WordPerfect Office template file

psm1 file icon file extension psm1 - Microsoft Windows PowerShell script module file

psdownload file icon file extension psdownload - Apple Mac OS X PubSub agent enclosure download file

psd1 file icon file extension psd1 - Microsoft Windows PowerShell file

psc1 file icon file extension psc1 - Microsoft Windows PowerShell console file

ix file icon file extension ix - Corel WordPerfect Office template file

proofingtool file icon file extension proofingtool - Microsoft Office proofing tool file

prfpset file icon file extension prfpset - Adobe Premiere Pro effect preset file

prefs file icon file extension prefs - Adobe Soundbooth preference file

pref file icon file extension pref - Adobe Device Central preferences document file

fmb file icon file extension fmb - WordPerfect for Win File Manager Button bar

irs file icon file extension irs - Corel WordPerfect IRS resource file

3rf file icon file extension 3rf - Advent 3B2 extensions script cross reference file

tmf file icon file extension tmf - Corel WordPerfect tagged font metric file

ths file icon file extension ths - Corel WordPerfect Thesaurus dictionary file

tv9 file icon file extension tv9 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv8 file icon file extension tv8 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv7 file icon file extension tv7 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv6 file icon file extension tv6 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv5 file icon file extension tv5 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv4 file icon file extension tv4 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv3 file icon file extension tv3 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv2 file icon file extension tv2 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tv1 file icon file extension tv1 - Corel WordPerfect overflow file

tst file icon file extension tst - Corel WordPerfect printer test file

shw file icon file extension shw - Corel Presentations Slide Show

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For an overview of common file types,
visit the common file extensions page, which includes a list of the most important computer file formats you should know.

For an overview of unknown file extension,
visit the unknown file extensions page, which includes a list of the unknown file formats. If you know function of any unknown extension, please click on Submit button at the top of page and contact us.

Unhide file extensions in your Windows operating system

By default, the file extensions in Windows operating systems, are hidden. What you can't see and have no idea about, can be for your computer very harmful one day. This can allow virus and other malicious software programmers to distribute executable files disguised as something non-executable. For example, an .exe file may, with hidden file extensions, appear as common text file with name like file-name.txt[.exe], where the true .exe extension is to the user not visible.

There have been a large number of malicious programs or viruses exploiting this default setting of Windows operating systems, which is hiding file extensions from the user. This "feature" can be used to fool users into executing malicious or damaging code by making a file appear to be something it is not.
Multiple email-borne viruses are known to exploit the fact that Microsoft Windows operating systems hide certain file extensions. The first major attack incorporating an element of file extension obfuscation was the VBS/LoveLetter worm. ILOVEYOU or LOVELETTER is a computer worm that successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers in 2000. The worm contained an email attachment named "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs". The vbs extension was hidden by default, which caused that many users just opened it, thinking it was a common text file. Other malicious programs and viruses have ever since incorporated similar naming schemes.
For very those reasons we believe, that hidding file extensions by default, is wrong decision by Microsoft, yet they are still hidden in the new Windows 7. For more informations about executable files, please visit the program executable files section.

Popular file extensions:

List of the file extensions you should know.

BitTorrent information file icon file extension torrent - BitTorrent information file

Active Server Page Extended ASP.NET script File icon file extension aspx - Active Server Page Extended ASP.NET script File

WinRAR compressed archive icon file extension rar - WinRAR compressed archive

Audio files encoded by Flac - free lossless audio codec icon file extension flac - Audio files encoded by Flac - free lossless audio codec

Compressed file from a multi-volume archive (part 2) icon file extension 002 - Compressed file from a multi-volume archive (part 2)

Microsoft Windows Live Messenger UCC API log file icon file extension uccapilog - Microsoft Windows Live Messenger UCC API log file

Comic Book Archive file or ComicBook Reader File icon file extension cbr - Comic Book Archive file or ComicBook Reader File

Partial download file icon file extension part - Partial download file

Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook file icon file extension xls - Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook file

Movie subtitle file format (SubRip format) icon file extension srt - Movie subtitle file format (SubRip format)

Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 Open XML workbook file icon file extension xlsx - Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 Open XML workbook file

iWork Pages document file icon file extension pages - iWork Pages document file

Nero-Burning ROM CD or DVD image file icon file extension nrg - Nero-Burning ROM CD or DVD image file

Microsoft Publisher document file icon file extension pub - Microsoft Publisher document file

AutoCAD Drawing Database file icon file extension dwg - AutoCAD Drawing Database file

World of Warcraft model object file format icon file extension m2 - World of Warcraft model object file format

Binary file icon file extension bin - Binary file

JDownloader download link container icon file extension dlc - JDownloader download link container

Microsoft Works document file icon file extension wps - Microsoft Works document file

Microsoft Windows 7 theme pack file icon file extension themepack - Microsoft Windows 7 theme pack file

OpenOffice.org Writer text document icon file extension odt - OpenOffice.org Writer text document

Windows sidebar gadget file icon file extension gadget - Windows sidebar gadget file

Split Multi-volume ZIP compressed file archive (part 2) icon file extension z01 - Split Multi-volume ZIP compressed file archive (part 2)

DjVu file bitmap image icon file extension djvu - DjVu file bitmap image

7-ZIP compressed 7z archive file
 icon file extension 7z - 7-ZIP compressed 7z archive file

Microsoft Windows Mobile encrypted file icon file extension menc - Microsoft Windows Mobile encrypted file

VMware virtual disk file icon file extension vmdk - VMware virtual disk file

MagicISO Universal Image Format - UIF file icon file extension uif - MagicISO Universal Image Format - UIF file

Microsoft PowerPoint 97 to 2003 complete slide show file icon file extension pps - Microsoft PowerPoint 97 to 2003 complete slide show file

CorelDRAW vector image icon file extension cdr - CorelDRAW vector image

Compressed file from a multi-volume archive (part 3) icon file extension 003 - Compressed file from a multi-volume archive (part 3)

MPEG-4 video file format icon file extension mp4 - MPEG-4 video file format

PowerISO Direct-Access-Archive file icon file extension daa - PowerISO Direct-Access-Archive file

Starcraft 2 encrypted game data file icon file extension mpqe - Starcraft 2 encrypted game data file

MPEG-4 video file format icon file extension m4v - MPEG-4 video file format

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