Advanced PRONOM

Last updated on 2025-10-29 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What’s left to learn?
  • What other considerations are there when documenting file format signatures?

Objectives

  • Identify new learning objectives.

Priorities

Signatures will also makes use of a priority over another file format which allows tools using PRONOM to enforce a single identification for a file, e.g. Scalabale Vector Graphics (SVG) (a format based on XML) has a priority over XML to prevent SVG being identified as XML when it can be identified more specifically.

To that end, you will often see priorities over core file formats such as HTML, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, OLE2, and so on, as many other file format variants will be written on top of those.

The complete picture

When you’ve completed your efforts a complete PRONOM record is a combination of signature & priorities & metadata.

Image shows how a format identification is constructed in PRONOM by combining signature, priority, and metadta
Format identification result using PRONOM data.

When you submit a new sigature to PRONOM you get a good feel for the information they are looking for when you do.

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Information to submit to PRONOM

  • Format name
  • Version number
  • Extensions
  • MIME/Media Type
  • Description
  • Format type
  • Vendor
  • File format identification signatures
  • Relevant links, documentation, extra information
  • Credit

Container signatures

Many of the techniques used for standard signatures and signature development can be applied to container files. Container files are formats built on top of technologies such as ZIP and OLE2 whose contents can be queried to provide more accurate identification.

Container signatures take some additional effort to research and test. We will endeavor to follow up this learning resource with a similar one containing all of the information from our previous workshop: PRONOM: What’s in the Box?

Recording your progress

The PRONOM Research repository is a great place to have discussions about file forrmats you are working on, as well as request new entries or updated ones.

Some researchers, such as Tyler, maintain their own GitHub repositories for file format research. This is useful as it provides them with a way to:

  • record inforamation,
  • store sample signature files,
  • store sample files.

It provides something to point to, and a way to keep track of your own efforts.


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FAQ and Glossary

Consult the FAQ section of this site for quick answers to some of the questions you may have going forward.

We also hope the glossary will be useful in contunuing to demystify some of the terminology you will have come across today.


Key Points
  • Much of this effort is researching files and writing a signature but another big part is testing, calibration, AND documentation.