IANA MIME Type IANA MIME Type: 'Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions' is a specification for formatting non-ASCII messages so that they can be sent over the Internet. (Webopedia.com) MIME Content Type The purpose of the MIME content type is to describe the data it relates to fully enough that the receiving user agent can pick an appropriate agent or mechanism to present the data to the user, or otherwise deal with the data in an appropriate manner. (w3.org) MIME Content Subtype While the top-level content type is used to declare the general type of data, the subtype specifies a specific format for that type of data. (w3.org) A retrievable digital resource of a particular data format text Textual information: the primary subtype, "plain", indicates plain (unformatted) text. No special software is required to get the full meaning of the text, aside from support for the indicated character set. Subtypes are to be used for enriched text in forms where application software may enhance the appearance of the text, but such software must not be required in order to get the general idea of the content. Possible subtypes thus include any readable word processor format. (w3.org) multipart Data consisting of multiple parts of independent data types. Four initial subtypes are defined, including the primary "mixed" subtype, "alternative" for representing the same data in multiple formats, "parallel" for parts intended to be viewed simultaneously, and "digest" for multipart entities in which each part is of type "message". (w3.org) message An encapsulated message. A body of Content-Type "message" is itself a fully formatted RFC 822 conformant message which may contain its own different content type. The primary subtype is "rfc822". The "partial" subtype is defined for partial messages, to permit the fragmented transmission of bodies that are thought to be too large to be passed through mail transport facilities. Another subtype, "External-body", is defined for specifying large bodies by reference to an external data source. (w3.org) image Image data. Image requires a display device (such as a graphical display, a printer, or a FAX machine) to view the information. Subtypes are defined for widely-used image formats, such as jpeg and gif. (w3.org) audio Audio data. Audio requires an audio output device (such as a speaker or a telephone) to "display" the contents. Subtypes are defined for widely-used audio formats, such as wav and mp3. (w3.org) video Video data. Video requires the capability to display moving images, typically including specialized hardware and software. Subtypes are defined for widely-used video formats, such as mpeg and avi. (w3.org) application Some other kind of data, typically either uninterpreted binary data or information to be processed by an application. The primary subtype, "octet-stream", is to be used in the case of uninterpreted binary data, in which case the simplest recommended action is to offer to write the information into a file for the user. (w3.org) model A model primary MIME type is an electronically exchangeable behavioral or physical representation within a given domain. (rfc2077) text/plain Plain text text/html HTML document text/xml XML document application/xml XML document application/msword Microsoft Word document application/pdf Adobe PDF document application/xhtml+xml XHTML document image/jpeg JPEG image image/gif GIF image image/png PNG image image/bmp Bitmap image audio/mpeg MPEG-1/2 audio audio/x-wav WAV audio audio/MP4A-LATM MPEG-4 audio video/mpeg MPEG video video/quicktime Quicktime video video/MP4V-ES MPEG-4 video video/x-msvideo AVI video model/vrml VRML model