Otto: Cross-platform File-naming Conventions

Otto Printing &
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Cross-platform File-naming Conventions

Work is done on both Wintel and Apple Macintosh machines. It is best that all work be prepared to be transparently cross-platform compatible.

Mac filenames cannot be longer than 32 characters, including dot delimiters and filename extensions.

Windows filenames can be up to 255 characters long, but may not begin with a space, or contain the characters: \ / : * ? " < > or |.

On either platform, extended characters, (those above ASCII 128), can be used, but are not recommended, due to character-mapping inconsistencies.

Mac files usually carry type and creator codes in their resource fork. However, newer versions of Apple File Exchange, (AFX), will be able to map PC filename extensions, should files originate on a Windows system.

In order to be identifiable on a Windows system, a file must have a 3- or 4-character extension indicating the file type. Some of the more common graphics file types include:

.3DS 3D Studio Max (interchange)
.afm ASCII Font Metrics
.ai Adobe Illustrator
.bmp Bitmap
.brn Bryce n where n is the major version number
.car Carrara document
.cdr CorelDRAW
.com Executable program
.doc MS Word Document
.eps Encapsulated PostScript
.exe Executable program or self-extracting archive
(Due to security issues, Otto will not accept .exe self-extracting archives.)
.fhn FreeHand n where n is the major version number
.htm HTML (Web) document
.html HTML (Web) document
.icm device color profile
.jpg Joint Photographic Experts Group file format (JPEG)
.max 3DS Max (application-specific) .mdb MS (Access) DataBase
.obj Wavefront Object (3D) .pdf Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format
.pfb PostScript Font Binary
.pfm PostScript Font Metrics
.pmn PageMaker n where n is the version number
.pnx PageMaker nx where n is the major version number and x the minor, ex: .p65
.ppd PostScript Printer Description
.ppt MS PowerPoint Document
.ps PostScript program or printer output stream
.psd PhotoShop Document
.pub MS Publisher Document
.rdd RayDream Designer
.qxd QuarkXPress document
.sea Self-Extracting (Mac) Archive
.shd Shade Designer (3D)
.sit StuffIt archive
.tif Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
.ttf TrueType Font
.txt ASCII/ANSI Text Document
.wpd WordPerfect Document
.xls Excel Spreadsheet
.zip ZIP-compacted archive file, (PKZIP or WinZIP)

Also...

Standards for Input & Source Material

Requirements for Ready Layouts

Bitmap Resolution: Why 1.4:1?

RGB vs CMYK

Preferred File Formats

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