Document Management - File Formats

The document management industry has standardized on the tif file format for images. Engineering departments in manufacturing companies typically have several standards, depending on the tools they utilize to design their products. We have seen AutoCad, CALS group IV, and several proprietary formats in this arena. On the Internet side, gif and jpeg have been the standard, and recently pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file formats seem to be the choice for providing downloadable documents in accurate viewing and print formats.

We recommend that orgnaizations standardize on file formats, picking as few as possible.