Any computer user, one way or another, came across a concept such as "converter". This is due to the fact that some file formats are incompatible with each other, and you need to convert them in the process of working for ease of reading or editing. Next, we will consider the basic principles of the functioning of such programs, taking into account the specifics of the scope.
Converter: what is it? General concepts
For any kind of files, not counting some of the system components of the OS itself, there is an association with the software environment in which they were created, where you can view their contents or make changes by editing. Executable files of the EXE format are not taken into account, since such components themselves are programs.
But what is the concept of conversion and, in particular, a converter program? This is a universal means of converting one format to another. There are certain technologies that allow you to change the contents of a file, but only on condition that the desired and final files belong to the same category. For example: TXT text files or Word documents, a file to PDF converter can be completely elementary. At the same time, such a program cannot convert an audio or video file into a text format.
Format Converter: main types of programs
This kind of software is designed to perform the simplest operations to change the original format. If you look, the editors included in any office suite are also converters. In the Word editor, you can save the file not only in the βnativeβ DOC (or DOCX) format, but also use TXT, PDF, HTML, etc.
However, the essence of using converter programs is to change the format of the source file to another if there is no application that opens it to reduce the size or ease of editing. In fact, any archiver can conditionally be called a converter.
Based on this, we can distinguish several main areas in which applications in this area are divided into several types:
- Text (TXT, DOC, PDF, etc.);
- multimedia (graphics, sound, video);
- Databases and spreadsheets (DB, DBF, XLS, etc.);
- cross-conversion programs (e.g. PDF to XLS).
Format Conversion Processes
The converter itself is a means of converting data that does not differ from each other.
Why do video to audio converters work? Just because in any video there is sound represented by an audio track of a certain format. There is nothing easier than removing the video and leaving only the sound.
With text files itβs even easier. You can do the conversion yourself. We take the text from the PDF file, copy it and paste it into Notepad. Next, extract from there and paste into Word. Simple and convenient. Another thing is the present graphics. In this way, it will not be copied. But the conversion process allows you to save it in its original form (as if a picture was inserted in the same Word editor).
As an example, only a small part of the application areas of programs of this type is given, since today the range of capabilities of these applications is so huge that it simply does not work to describe everything in one material.