Design file formats
16 formats in this category.
Design formats keep artwork editable, with layers, vectors, effects and metadata intact. They are working files, usually tied to a specific application.
Working files stay editable
Design formats are the working files of creative applications, and their whole point is to preserve editability: layers, vector paths, effects, masks, text you can still retype and metadata. Photoshop's PSD, Illustrator's AI and GIMP's XCF each keep this structure so an artist can reopen the file and change anything. That richness makes them large and usually tied to the application that created them.
When artwork is finished, it is exported to a flat delivery format: a PNG or JPG for the web, a PDF for print. Those exports are not editable in the same way; the layered source file is what you keep.
Opening a design file without the original app
Because design files are application-specific, opening one without its native software is the common frustration. Some viewers and converters can flatten a PSD or AI to a viewable image, and GIMP can open many PSD files, but advanced effects may not survive. The reliable path is to ask whoever made the file for a flattened export in a universal format.