El tipo Mime es un estandar que clasifica recursos y provee información a programas acerca de cómo manejarlos. Esto permite a los navegadores abrir correctamente un archivo .txt como un recurso de texto plano y no como un archivo de video o algún otro tipo. Cuando un tipo MIME no es especificado para un recurso, el programa que lo procese puede “suponer” su tipo por la extensión del recurso (por ejemplo, un archivo .bmp supone contener una imagen de mapa de bits). Se recomienda proveer información sobre tipos MIME en todos los lugares en que sea posible hacerlo (atributo type en tag HTML script y tag HTML link, atributo enctype para el tag HTML form y en el tag HTML meta cuando se define el content-type del documento). Esto puede ayudar a lograr una mayor compatibilidad con los navegadores y al correcto funcionamiento del documento en sí.
Aquí os dejo los tipos mime más utilizados:
file type MIME type ai application/postscript aif audio/x-aiff aifc audio/x-aiff aiff audio/x-aiff asc text/plain atom application/atom+xml au audio/basic avi video/x-msvideo bcpio application/x-bcpio bin application/octet-stream bmp image/bmp cdf application/x-netcdf cgm image/cgm class application/octet-stream cpio application/x-cpio cpt application/mac-compactpro csh application/x-csh css text/css dcr application/x-director dif video/x-dv dir application/x-director djv image/vnd.djvu djvu image/vnd.djvu dll application/octet-stream dmg application/octet-stream dms application/octet-stream doc application/msword dtd application/xml-dtd dv video/x-dv dvi application/x-dvi dxr application/x-director eps application/postscript etx text/x-setext exe application/octet-stream ez application/andrew-inset gif image/gif gram application/srgs grxml application/srgs+xml gtar application/x-gtar hdf application/x-hdf hqx application/mac-binhex40 htm text/html html text/html ice x-conference/x-cooltalk ico image/x-icon ics text/calendar ief image/ief ifb text/calendar iges model/iges igs model/iges jnlp application/x-java-jnlp-file jp2 image/jp2 jpe image/jpeg jpeg image/jpeg jpg image/jpeg js application/x-javascript kar audio/midi latex application/x-latex lha application/octet-stream lzh application/octet-stream m3u audio/x-mpegurl m4a audio/mp4a-latm m4b audio/mp4a-latm m4p audio/mp4a-latm m4u video/vnd.mpegurl m4v video/x-m4v mac image/x-macpaint man application/x-troff-man mathml application/mathml+xml me application/x-troff-me mesh model/mesh mid audio/midi midi audio/midi mif application/vnd.mif mov video/quicktime movie video/x-sgi-movie mp2 audio/mpeg mp3 audio/mpeg mp4 video/mp4 mpe video/mpeg mpeg video/mpeg mpg video/mpeg mpga audio/mpeg ms application/x-troff-ms msh model/mesh mxu video/vnd.mpegurl nc application/x-netcdf oda application/oda ogg application/ogg pbm image/x-portable-bitmap pct image/pict pdb chemical/x-pdb pdf application/pdf pgm image/x-portable-graymap pgn application/x-chess-pgn pic image/pict pict image/pict png image/png pnm image/x-portable-anymap pnt image/x-macpaint pntg image/x-macpaint ppm image/x-portable-pixmap ppt application/vnd.ms-powerpoint ps application/postscript qt video/quicktime qti image/x-quicktime qtif image/x-quicktime ra audio/x-pn-realaudio ram audio/x-pn-realaudio ras image/x-cmu-raster rdf application/rdf+xml rgb image/x-rgb rm application/vnd.rn-realmedia roff application/x-troff rtf text/rtf rtx text/richtext sgm text/sgml sgml text/sgml sh application/x-sh shar application/x-shar silo model/mesh sit application/x-stuffit skd application/x-koan skm application/x-koan skp application/x-koan skt application/x-koan smi application/smil smil application/smil snd audio/basic so application/octet-stream spl application/x-futuresplash src application/x-wais-source sv4cpio application/x-sv4cpio sv4crc application/x-sv4crc svg image/svg+xml swf application/x-shockwave-flash t application/x-troff tar application/x-tar tcl application/x-tcl tex application/x-tex texi application/x-texinfo texinfo application/x-texinfo tif image/tiff tiff image/tiff tr application/x-troff tsv text/tab-separated-values txt text/plain ustar application/x-ustar vcd application/x-cdlink vrml model/vrml vxml application/voicexml+xml wav audio/x-wav wbmp image/vnd.wap.wbmp wbmxl application/vnd.wap.wbxml wml text/vnd.wap.wml wmlc application/vnd.wap.wmlc wmls text/vnd.wap.wmlscript wmlsc application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc wrl model/vrml xbm image/x-xbitmap xht application/xhtml+xml xhtml application/xhtml+xml xls application/vnd.ms-excel xml application/xml xpm image/x-xpixmap xsl application/xml xslt application/xslt+xml xul application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml xwd image/x-xwindowdump xyz chemical/x-xyz zip application/zip