This free online tool shows you the basic information about various file types.
Note: This tool is completely client-based and all processing is done on your device. That means your files are not transferred to the server.
If you you're an Android enthusiast that likes to learn more about Android internals, I highly recommend to check out the Bugjaeger app. It allows you to connect 2 Android devices through USB OTG and perform many of the tasks that are normally only accessible from a developer machine via ADB directly from Android phone/tablet.
What Can I Use This Tool For
You can get some quick basic information about hundreds of textual and binary file types. For example:
- You can quickly get the mime type of your file
- Check basic image properties of various image formats
- Find the encoding of your files
- Find often used extensions for some of the file types
- Get ABI and platform from elf .so libraries
- Get file size in human readable format
- Get .pdf version
Filename Extension
The filename extension is usually a suffix separated from the filename with a period. It often gives a hint about the content of the file and which applications can process it. On a Windows system it even denotes if the file is executable (.exe, .com, .bat).
However, you often won't be able deduce the file type or processing program directly from the extension alone (e.g., there might be multiple file types with same extension, or the original file could've been renamed and extension has changed). This tool should help you to find the file type and processing program when it cannot be deduced from extension because it analyzes the file content.
MIME (/Media) Type
MIME type is a standardized identifier for file types transferred over the internet. It consists of 2 parts - type and subtype. For example, the Cascading Style Sheet files (.css) used on this website have mime type text/css.
This tool allows you to quickly determine the media type of hundreds of file types.
Binary vs Text Files
Files on a computer contain sequence of bytes. All files on a computer can be considered binary. Text files are a subclass of binary files that contain only bytes in specific encoding that can be converted to text.
Depending on the context, "binary" file can also have a slightly different meaning than what I wrote above. You can sometimes say that a file is binary, when you want to emphasize that the file is not textual.
Opening a text file inside a text editor can often give you a hint about the type of the file. Finding the file type of non-textual binary files might be a bit tricky.
This tools can recognize text files and also non-textual binary files.
Other Useful Tools
If you want to get detailed information about Android's APK files, check out my APK Analyzer tool.
Additionally, if you you're an Android enthusiast that likes to learn more about Android internals, I highly recommend to check out the Bugjaeger app. It allows you to connect 2 Android devices through USB OTG and perform many of the tasks that are normally only accessible from a developer machine via ADB directly from Android phone/tablet.
