2.5. HTTP MIME Types

type/subtype
text - Represents any document that contains text and is theoretically human readable
image - Represents any kind of images. Videos are not included, though animated images (like animated gif) are described with an image type
audio - Represents any kind of audio files
video - Represents any kind of video files
application - Represents any kind of binary data
multipart

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message bodies may consist of multiple parts, and header information may be specified in non-ASCII character sets. Email messages with MIME formatting are typically transmitted with standard protocols, such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), the Post Office Protocol (POP), and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).

The MIME standard is specified in a series of requests for comments: RFC 2045, RFC 2046, RFC 2047, RFC 4288, RFC 4289 and RFC 2049. The integration with SMTP email is specified in RFC 1521 and RFC 1522.

Although the MIME formalism was designed mainly for SMTP, its content types are also important in other communication protocols. In the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for the World Wide Web, servers insert a MIME header field at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use the content type or media type header to select an appropriate viewer application for the type of data indicated. [1]

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=genome.jpeg;
  modification-date="Wed, 12 Feb 1997 16:29:51 -0500";

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=frontier

This is a message with multiple parts in MIME format.
--frontier
Content-Type: text/plain

This is the body of the message.
--frontier
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

PGh0bWw+CiAgPGhlYWQ+CiAgPC9oZWFkPgogIDxib2R5PgogICAgPHA+VGhpcyBpcyB0aGUg
Ym9keSBvZiB0aGUgbWVzc2FnZS48L3A+CiAgPC9ib2R5Pgo8L2h0bWw+Cg==
--frontier--

2.5.1. Html, xhtml, xml, html5

HTML5 = html = living standard

XML has

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<crew>
    <astronaut firstname="Mark" lastname="Watney" />
    <astronaut firstname="Melissa" lastname="Lewis" />
    <astronaut>
        <firstname>Mark</firstname>
        <lastname>Watney</lastname>
    </astronaut>
</crew>

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>hello</h1>
        <p>hello world</p>
        <p>hello world</p>
        <img src="..." />
        <br />
    </body>
<html>

<html>
    <body>
        <h1>hello</h1>
        <p>hello world
        <p>hello world
        <img src="...">
        <br>
    </body>
</html>

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    </head>
    <body>
    </body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8" />
    </head>
    <body>
    </body>
</html>

2.5.2. Text Types

text/plain
text/html
text/css

2.5.3. Application Types

application/json
application/javascript
application/ecmascript
application/octet-stream - As it really means unknown binary
application/pkcs12
application/vnd.mspowerpoint
application/xhtml+xml
application/xml
application/pdf
application/ogg - An audio or video file using the OGG container format. Theora is the usual video codec used within it; Vorbis is the usual audio code
application/*

2.5.4. Multipart Types

multipart/form-data
multipart/byteranges

2.5.5. Image Types

image/gif - GIF images (lossless compression, superseded by PNG)
image/jpeg - JPEG images
image/png - PNG images
image/svg+xml - SVG images (vector images)
image/x-icon - Windows icons
image/bmp
image/webp
image/vnd.microsoft.icon

2.5.6. Audio Types

audio/wave
audio/wav
audio/x-wav
audio/x-pn-wav - An audio file in the WAVE container format. The PCM audio codec (WAVE codec '1') is often supported, but other codecs have more limited support (if any)
audio/webm - An audio file in the WebM container format. Vorbis and Opus are the most common audio codecs
audio/ogg - An audio file in the OGG container format. Vorbis is the most common audio codec used in such a container
audio/midi
audio/mpeg
audio/*

2.5.7. Video Types

video/mp4
video/webm - A video file, possibly with audio, in the WebM container format. VP8 and VP9 are the most common video codecs used within it; Vorbis and Opus the most common audio codecs
video/ogg - A video file, possibly with audio, in the OGG container format. Theora is the usual video codec used within it; Vorbis is the usual audio codec

2.5.8. Further Reading

RFC 1426 - SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport. J. Klensin, N. Freed, M. Rose, E. Stefferud, D. Crocker. February 1993.
RFC 1847 - Security Multiparts for MIME: Multipart/Signed and Multipart/Encrypted
RFC 3156 - MIME Security with OpenPGP
RFC 2045 - MIME Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies
RFC 2046 - MIME Part Two: Media Types. N. Freed, Nathaniel Borenstein. November 1996.
RFC 2047 - MIME Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text. Keith Moore. November 1996.
RFC 4288 - MIME Part Four: Media Type Specifications and Registration Procedures.
RFC 4289 - MIME Part Four: Registration Procedures. N. Freed, J. Klensin. December 2005.
RFC 2049 - MIME Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples. N. Freed, N. Borenstein. November 1996.
RFC 2183 - Communicating Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The Content-Disposition Header Field. Troost, R., Dorner, S. and K. Moore. August 1997.
RFC 2231 - MIME Parameter Value and Encoded Word Extensions: Character Sets, Languages, and Continuations. N. Freed, K. Moore. November 1997.
RFC 2387 - The MIME Multipart/Related Content-type
RFC 1521 - Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies