MIME types, which stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, is a way of identifying files on the Internet according to their nature and format. For example, using the Content-Type header value defined in a HTTP response, the browser can open the file with the appropriate extension/plugin.
Here are some common MIME types:
- Text Types:
- text/plain
- text/html
- text/css
- text/javascript
- Image Types:
- image/jpeg
- image/png
- image/gif
- image/webp
- image/svg+xml
- Audio and Video Types:
- audio/mpeg
- audio/ogg
- video/mp4
- video/webm
- video/ogg
- Application Types:
- application/octet-stream (for binary files)
- application/json
- application/pdf
- application/zip
- application/gzip
- application/vnd.ms-excel
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document (for .docx files)
Remember, this is not an exhaustive list. There are many other MIME types that can be used to correctly identify the nature of data so that it can be handled correctly. Each MIME type corresponds to a specific kind of file and it’s intended to help browsers understand how to process different types of content.