Several types and subtypes of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) were defined by Request For Comments (RFC) 1341 in 1992. Many more have subsequently been approved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). It was the expressed intention of the original RFC that the number of MIME types be limited to the seven proposed in the RFC, as follows:
Within each type, various subtypes are allowed and are appended to the type with a slash (/). Tables B.1 through B.7 list all the IANA-approved MIME types and subtypes (in boldface italic) as well as additional types that appear to be supported by the popular servers and browsers. I'm indebted to Ken Jenks for his list found at http://sd-www.jsc.nasa.gov/mime-types/.Table B.1 MIME Type: Application
Win Win AIR Win Mac NCSA W3/
Netscape Mosaic Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD CERN
1.1N 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
application/acad [ts]
application/activemessage [ts]
application/andrew-inset [ts]
application/applefile [ts]
application/atomicmail [ts]
application/cals1840
application/clariscad [ts]
application/commonground
application/cybercash
application/dca-rft [ts]
application/dec-dx [ts]
application/drafting [ts]
application/dxf [ts]
application/eshop
application/excel [ts]
application/fractals [ts]
application/i-deas [ts]
application/iges [ts]
application/macbinary [ts]
application/mac-binhex40 [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/macwriteii [ts]
application/mathematica
application/msword [ts]
application/news-message-id [ts]
application/news- [ts]
transmission
application/octet-stream [ts] [ts]
application/oda [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/pdf [ts] [ts]
application/postscript [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/powerpoint [ts]
application/pro_eng [ts]
application/remote-printing [ts]
application/riscos
application/rtf [ts]
application/set [ts]
application/sgml
application/SLA [ts]
application/slate [ts]
application/solids [ts]
application/STEP [ts]
application/vda [ts]
application/wita [ts]
application/word [ts]
application/wordperfect5.1 [ts]
application/x400.bp
application/x-bcpio [ts] [ts]
application/x-compressed [ts]
application/x-cpio [ts] [ts]
application/x-csh [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/x-dvi [ts] [ts]
application/x-gtar [ts] [ts]
application/x-hdf [ts] [ts]
application/x-latex [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/x-mif [ts]
application/x-netcdf [ts] [ts]
application/x-rtf [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/x-sh [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/x-shar [ts] [ts]
application/x-stuffit [ts]
application/x-sv4cpio [ts] [ts]
application/x-sv4crc [ts] [ts]
application/x-tar [ts] [ts]
application/x-tcl [ts] [ts]
application/x-tex [ts] [ts]
application/x-texinfo [ts] [ts]
application/x-troff [ts] [ts]
application/x-troff-man [ts] [ts] [ts]
application/x-troff-me [ts] [ts]
application/x-troff-ms [ts] [ts]
application/x-ustar [ts]
application/x-wais-source [ts] [ts]
application/zip [ts]
Table B.2 MIME Type: Audio
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
audio/32kadpcm
audio/au [ts]
audio/basic [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
audio/wav [ts] [ts]
audio/x-aiff [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
audio/x-midi [ts] [ts]
audio/x-wav [ts] [ts] [ts]
Table B.3 MIME Type: Image
***Note another wider-than-usual table below.***
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
image/bmp [ts]
image/cgm
image/cmu-raster [ts]
image/g3fax
image/gif [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/ief [ts] [ts]
image/jpeg [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/naplps
image/targa [ts]
image/tiff [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-cmu-raster [ts] [ts]
image/x-pict [ts]
image/x-portable-anymap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-portable-bitmap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-portable-graymap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-portable-pixmap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-rgb [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-tiff [ts]
image/x-win-bmp [ts]
image/x-xbitmap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-xbm [ts]
image/x-xpixmap [ts] [ts] [ts]
image/x-xwindowdump [ts] [ts]
Table B.4 MIME Type: Message
***Note another wider-than-usual table below.***
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
message/external-body [ts]
message/news [ts]
message/partial [ts]
message/rfc822 [ts]
Table B.5 MIME Type: Multipart
***Note another wider-than-usual table below.***
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
multipart/alternative [ts]
multipart/appledouble [ts]
multipart/digest [ts]
multipart/form-data
multipart/header-set
multipart/mixed [ts]
multipart/parallel [ts]
multipart/related
multipart/report
multipart/voice-message
multipart/x-gzip [ts]
multipart/x-tar [ts]
multipart/x-ustar [ts]
multipart/x-zip [ts]
Table B.6 MIME Type: Text
***Note another wider-than-usual table below.***
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
text/enriched
text/html [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
text/plain [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
text/richtext [ts] [ts] [ts]
text/sgml
text/tab-separated- [ts] [ts]
values
text/x-setext [ts] [ts]
text/x-sgml [ts] Table B.7 MIME Type: Video
Win Win Win Mac NCSA
Netscape AIR Mosaic Mosaic HTTPD W3/CERN
1.1N Mosaic 2.0 2.0 1.4.2 HTTPD
video/mpeg [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
video/mplayer [ts]
video/msvideo [ts] [ts]
video/qtime [ts]
video/quicktime [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
video/x-msvideo [ts] [ts] [ts] [ts]
video/x-sgi-movie [ts] [ts] [ts]
In addition to the types indicated, NCSA Mosaic 2.0 supports a type of telnet (with no subtype).
To find out about current IANA-approved media types, visit the anonymous FTP site ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/. This site also contains subdirectories named for the major MIME types. A short text file giving an explanation of each approved type appears in each subdirectory.