Historically there have been hundreds of recording media and formats.

A format is a transformation where the original information gets translated into features in a physical media.

A format is not an encoding, as several encodings can belong to the same format. For example, for web pages, HTML and XML documents can both be encoded in either EBCDID or ASCII.

natural languages formats

• hieroglyphic
• ideographic
• phonetic

Mechanical formats

• punch cards.
• phonograph formats
  • Vinyl record
  • Flexi disc
• Magnetic storage
  • Magnetic tape formats
    • Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
    • 8-track cartridge
    • Compact audio cassette
    • Digital Audio Tape
  • Floppy disk
  • Hard disk
• optical media formats
  • Compact disc
  • DVD
• Magneto-optic storage
  • Magneto-optical drive
  • Write Once Read Many
• filesystems

still image formats

(to be written)

(to be written)