> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.brieftech.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.brieftech.ai/reference/supported-file-formats.md).

# Supported file formats

BriefTech does not restrict uploads to a fixed list of file types — almost any file can be uploaded.

A file BriefTech can't convert to a PDF has no text extracted, so it isn't searchable. It lands in the <img src="/files/WUo1SJNpCnDRiEcO2opi" alt="Exceptions" data-size="line"> view instead (see [Document processing and errors](/reference/document-processing-and-errors.md)).

## How common formats are handled

The table below summarises how BriefTech handles the most common formats, based on testing against a representative document set. The three support columns show what BriefTech does with each file:

* **Converted to PDF** — BriefTech creates a PDF rendition of the file for on-screen viewing and inclusion in court bundles.
* **OCRed** — optical character recognition reads text from scanned pages and images so it is searchable and available to AI features. BriefTech skips OCR outright for some file types, and a file with no PDF rendition never reaches it. For everything else, how much is read is decided by the converted PDF rather than by the original format — so a **Yes** in this column can still mean partial OCR, or none: see [OCR page limits](/reference/document-processing-and-errors.md#ocr-page-limits).
* **Searchable** — the file's text is extracted and added to BriefTech's **search index**, so the document can be found by its text and used by AI features. (This "search index" is a different feature from the **Index** tab, which is the list of documents you build for a court bundle.) The text is taken from the PDF rendition, so a file that can't be converted to a PDF isn't searchable.

| Format family                 | Examples                                                      | Converted to PDF | OCRed                                                                                            | Searchable                                                                                                               |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Word processing & documents   | `.doc`, `.docx`, `.odt`, `.rtf`, `.wpd`, `.wps`               | Yes              | No¹                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| Spreadsheets & databases      | `.xls`, `.xlsx`, `.ods`, `.csv`, `.dbf`                       | Yes              | No¹                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| Presentations                 | `.ppt`, `.pptx`, `.odp`                                       | Yes              | No¹                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| PDF                           | `.pdf`                                                        | Already PDF      | Yes                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| Images                        | `.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.tif`, `.tiff`, `.bmp`, `.gif`      | Yes              | Yes                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| High-efficiency images        | `.heic`                                                       | No⁴              | No                                                                                               | No                                                                                                                       |
| Email                         | `.msg`, `.eml`                                                | Yes              | No¹ (the email itself); image attachments are OCRed after you extract them as separate documents | Yes (attachments [extractable](/reference/embedded-file-extraction.md) as separate documents)                            |
| Web, markup & plain text      | `.txt`, `.md`, `.html`, `.htm`, `.xml`                        | Yes              | No¹                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| Vector graphics               | `.svg`                                                        | Yes              | Yes                                                                                              | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| CAD drawings                  | `.dwg`, `.dxf`, `.dwf`                                        | Usually²         | Yes²                                                                                             | Yes                                                                                                                      |
| Text-based formats            | `.sam`, `.igs`, `.pgl`                                        | Usually⁵         | No¹                                                                                              | Usually⁵                                                                                                                 |
| Not converted (uploaded only) | `.epub`, `.tsv`, `.wks`, `.wdb`, `.rst`, `.wpg`               | No³              | No                                                                                               | No                                                                                                                       |
| Legacy raster images          | `.pct` (PICT)                                                 | No               | No                                                                                               | No                                                                                                                       |
| Archives & containers         | `.zip`, `.tar`, `.7z`, `.rar`, `.gz`, `.pst`, `.ost`, `.mbox` | No               | No                                                                                               | No (member names are detected, and members become searchable after [extraction](/reference/embedded-file-extraction.md)) |

¹ BriefTech skips OCR for these formats, based on the file type it detects when it processes the file. Their text is taken from the converted PDF instead, so they are searchable without it. Text inside an image embedded in one — a scanned page pasted into a Word document, say — is not recovered this way; see [Force OCR](/reference/document-processing-and-errors.md#force-ocr).

² BriefTech skips none of the three CAD formats on file type, so a drawing that converts to a PDF goes on to OCR. From there the ordinary rules apply — what BriefTech does is decided by the converted PDF, by how many pages it has and how much text it already carries; see [OCR page limits](/reference/document-processing-and-errors.md#ocr-page-limits). Two outcomes are particular to drawings:

* **An empty or corrupt drawing** — produces no PDF rendition, so it is not OCRed and its text isn't searchable.
* **A `.dxf` file saved in DXF's text format** — may be detected as a plain text file rather than as a drawing. Where that happens BriefTech converts and handles it as text, and it is not OCRed, as footnote ¹ describes.

³ BriefTech does not guarantee a PDF rendition for these formats, so treat them as not converted. To make one viewable and searchable, convert it to a supported format (for example PDF or DOCX) before uploading.

⁴ BriefTech accepts `.heic` files for upload but cannot open them, so they get no PDF rendition and are not searchable — they land in the Exceptions view. Convert a `.heic` image to JPEG or PNG before uploading it.

⁵ These formats are usually plain text. When the file you upload is plain text — the normal case — BriefTech detects it as text and converts it to a searchable PDF, and OCR is skipped as for the other text formats (footnote ¹). What you get is the file's **text** — so an IGES or HP-GL drawing becomes searchable text, not a picture of the drawing. A binary version of one of these formats is not converted and lands in the Exceptions view.

## Related

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>The document lifecycle: from upload to ready</strong></td><td>What happens to a file between upload and the moment it can be used.</td><td><a href="/pages/u8eIgAY8I81LcXEFoaCo">/pages/u8eIgAY8I81LcXEFoaCo</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Upload documents</strong></td><td>Add documents to a matter from the Files tab — drag-and-drop, the Upload button, or whole folders.</td><td><a href="/pages/kv7fxuTDNszUmiNsyojd">/pages/kv7fxuTDNszUmiNsyojd</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>File size and storage limits</strong></td><td>Maximum file sizes, storage allowance, and path length limits.</td><td><a href="/pages/7f4RWteTco6ppstBtKdp">/pages/7f4RWteTco6ppstBtKdp</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Your First Matter</strong></td><td>A guided, end-to-end first run — take a practice matter from sample files all the way to a downloaded court bundle.</td><td><a href="/pages/JElpS8iDIgC3KPHk5auM">/pages/JElpS8iDIgC3KPHk5auM</a></td></tr></tbody></table>


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