Proper MIME media type for PDF files

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When working with PDFs, I've run across the MIME types application/pdf and application/x-pdf among others.

Is there a difference between these two types, and if so what is it? Is one preferred over the other?

I'm working on a web app which must deliver huge amounts of PDFs and I want to do it the correct way, if there is one.

Best Answer

The standard Media Type (formerly known as MIME types) is application/pdf. The assignment is defined in RFC 3778, The application/pdf Media Type, referenced from the Media Types registry.

Media Types are controlled by a standards body, The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). This is the same organization that manages the root name servers and the IP address space.

The use of x-pdf predates the standardization of the Media Type for PDF. Media Types in the x- namespace are considered experimental, just as those in the vnd. namespace are considered vendor-specific. x-pdf might be used for compatibility with old software.

Related Solutions

Python – How to find the mime type of a file in python

The python-magic method suggested by toivotuo is outdated. Python-magic's current trunk is at Github and based on the readme there, finding the MIME-type, is done like this.

# For MIME types
import magic
mime = magic.Magic(mime=True)
mime.from_file("testdata/test.pdf") # 'application/pdf'

Json – the correct JSON content type

For JSON text:

application/json

The MIME media type for JSON text is application/json. The default encoding is UTF-8. ^{(Source: RFC 4627)}

For JSONP (runnable JavaScript) with callback:

application/javascript

Here are some blog posts that were mentioned in the relevant comments:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – How to find the mime type of a file in python

Json – the correct JSON content type

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