I was watching a video where the narrator stated that changing a file type from .PDF to .PNG doesn’t change the actual file type of the document. Could anyone explain why ?
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Changing the end doesn’t change the format of the document just what the computer sees as compatible softwares to open it with
So it may try to open it as a PNG but the contents will still be PDF and this may be unable to open it
Essentially if you see PDF as a square object and PNG as a round object changing the end is just you telling the computer this is a round object and so it gives you a round hole but the document itself is still square
changing the file extension of a file does not magically convert the contents of said file.
you can convert a pdf to png using software, but simply renaming the file extension will not do that
What you’re saying makes no sense. “Changing the file type doesn’t change the file type”?
Yes it does, otherwise it wouldn’t be changing the file type.
Is it possible that you mean “if I change the file name from “something.pdf” to “something.png” it doesn’t turn the file into a png image.
If so, that is correct, and the reason the file type doesn’t change is that the data in the file didn’t change.
The filename is just a convention. If you name a file .png a lot of applications are going to assume that the file contents can be read as png data. But it might not be. Especially not if you just took a .pdf file and renamed it.
The file extension is simply a name or label. If you rename a .pdf to a .png the actual contents of the file don’t change.
Most programs that work with files assume that the extension matches the file type. If a program for displaying.png files tries to open a PDF file named .png it probably won’t work. One could of course write a program to analyze a file and try to the file type based on the content.
Think of it like this: You have a jar of sand labeled “sand” and a jar of peanut butter labeled “pb”. The labels are like the file extensions. If you swap the labels you don’t change the contents of the jars, but you won’t get what you expect when you open them based on the label.
Say you own a book, “Alice in Wonderland”. You’ve read it and enjoyed it. Now you want to read “Through the Looking Glass”. Would simply scratching out the title of the book you own and writing “through the looking glass” on it change the contents of the book?
The file type is a NAMING convention. This is simply a general rule how to write titles for the file. It has nothing to do with the contents of the file.
Do you mean changing the extension in the filename? The extension is the characters at the end of the filename that come after the dot (“.”). Changing the extension from pdf to png doesn’t change the file type because file type is the format of the data in the file. The file has to be converted from one data format to another using a file converter. It would be like crossing out the title on a book and writing a new title on it. It doesn’t change the contents of the book.
That doesn’t make sense. They are very different file formats. A PDF (portable document format) is a vector format that is often used for documents but can also be used for graphics.
A png (portable network graphic) is a raster format that supports lossless compression, which is a fancy way of saying it makes graphics look good while still being a small size.
Maybe you didn’t hear it correctly?
Unless you mean just changing the name of the file? Like changing the extension from .pdf to .png wouldn’t actually it change it from one to the other. You have to actually open it into a friendly program and save it that way.
File is like a human, it doesn’t matter what name it has as the name doesn’t define the human. If John Doe renames himself as Wolfie Mozart it won’t make him suddenly one of the best composers. The same way if you rename readme.pdf into donotreadme.png it is still a pdf 🙂
Naming convention yada yada, like said in previous comments.
When your pc/phone/device opens a file, it looks at the extension. If the extension is pdf, it opens it with a program that reads pdf files.
If it’s png, it’ll open it with a program that handles pictures.
So if you change the name from pdf to png, it’ll try to open your file with a program that knows how to read pictures… and probably fail miserably.
The file type portion of the name is just an indicator. If you are in the supermarket and take a loaf of bread off the shelf and place it in the meat department, the bread isn’t meat now, it’s still bread.
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