MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)

Introduction to MIME

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standard which was proposed by Bell
Communications in 1991 in order to expand upon the limited capabilities of email, and
in particular to allow documents (such as images, sound, and text) to be inserted in a
message. It was originally defined by RFCs 1341 and 1342 in June 1992.

Using headers, MIME describes the type of message content and the encoding used.

MIME adds the following features to email service:

 Be able to send multiple attachments with a single message;

 Unlimited message length;
 Use of character sets other than ASCII code;
 Use of rich text (layouts, fonts, colors, etc)
 Binary attachments (executables, images, audio or video files, etc.), which may be
divided if needed.
MIME uses special header directives to describe the format used in a message body, so
that the email client can interpret it correctly:

 MIME-Version: This is the version of the MIME standard used in the message.
Currently only version 1.0 exists.
 Content-type: Describes the data's type and subtype. It can include a "charset"
parameter, separated by a semi-colon, defining which character set to use.
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: Defines the encoding used in the message body
 Content-ID: Represents a unique identification for each message segment
 Content-Description: Gives additional information about the message content.
 Content-Disposition: Defines the attachment's settings, in particular the name
associated with the file, using the attribute filename.

Primary MIME types

MIME types, used in the Content-Type header, are used to classify documents attached
to an email. A MIME type is comprised as follows:
Content-type: main_mime_type/mime_subtype
A GIF image, for example, has the following MIME type:
Content-type: image/gif
 The primary data types, sometimes called "discrete data types," are:

 text: readable text data text/rfc822 [RFC822]; text/plain [RFC2646]; text/html

[RFC2854] .
 image: binary data representing digital images: image/jpeg; image/gif; image/png.
 audio: digital sound data: audio/basic; audio/wav
 video: video data: video/mpeg
 application: Other binary data: application/octet-stream; application/pdf
MIME types are also used on the Web to classify documents transferred using the
protocol HTTP. Thus during a transaction between a web server and a browser, the first
thing the web server does is send the MIME type of the file to the browser, so that the
browser knows how to display the document.

Encoding formats

To transfer binary data, MIME offers five encoding formats which can be used in the
header transfer-encoding:
 7bit: 7-bit text format (for messages without accented characters);
 8bit: 8-bit text format;
 quoted-printable: Quoted-Printable format, recommended for messages which use a
7-bit alphabet (such as when there are accent marks);
 base64: Base 64, recommended for sending binary files as attachments;
 binary: binary format; not recommended.
Since MIME is very open, it can use third-party encoding formats such as:

 BinHex (a proprietary format belonging to Apple),

 uuencode,
 xxencode

Header encoding

The transfer-encoding header is used to specify an encoding format for the message
body, but it doesn't solve the problem of encoding headers themselves (such as the
message subject).
To encode headers with character sets which use more than 7 bits, such as for
including accented letters in an email's subject, the MIME standard offers the following
format:

=?charset?encoding?result?=
 charset represents the character set used,
 encoding defines the encoding desired with two possible values:
  Q for quoted-printable
 B for base64
 result: text encoded using the method specified.
Below is an example of Quoted-Printable encoding with "Building façade" as the
email's subject.
Subject: Building fa=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=E7ade?=

Composite messages

With the MIME type "multipart", the MIME standard allows for composite messages,
meaning messages which include multiple attachments, which may even be nested.

To do so, MIME allows for a standard called boundary. This is an arbitrary string
defined as an attribute in the Content-type header:
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="------------020005090303070203010601"
Each separator delimits a portion of content beginning with the headers Content-
Type and Content-Encoding. It is essential that the value of this separator is not found
within the message contents.
There are several types of separators:

 multipart/mixed defines a series of multiple elements

 multipart/alternative defines alternatives for the same information, such as a
message in either text and HTML format. If the email client is able to display
messages with a layout and configured to do so, it will show the HTML version;
otherwise, it will display the test version.
 multipart/parallel defines data present at the same time (such as sound and image).
 multipart/signed defines a digital signature for message data
 multipart/related defines related pieces of information

List of MIME types

MIME types are standardized by a group called the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority). Here is a non-exhaustive list of the most common MIME types.
Associated
MIME Type Type of file
extension

application/atom+xml Files in ATOM format atom

application/iges CAS files iges

application/javascript JavaScript files js

application/dxf AutoCAD files dxf

application/mp4 MPEG4 files mp4

application/iges IGES CAD exchange format igs,iges

application/octet-stream Non-interpreted binary files bin

application/msword Microsoft Word document files doc

application/pdf Adobe Acrobat files pdf

application/postscript PostScript files ai,eps,ps

application/rtf Rich text format rtf

application/sgml SGML files sgml

application/vnd.ms-excel Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files xls

application/vnd.ms- Microsoft Powerpoint

ppt
powerpoint presentation files

application/xml XML file xml

application/x-tar Compressed tar files tar

application/zip Compressed ZIP files man

audio/basic Basic audio files au,snd

audio/mpeg MPEG audio files mpg,mp3

audio/mp4 MPEG-4 audio files mp4

audio/x-aiff AIFF audio files aif,aiff,aifc

audio/x-wav Wave audio files wav

image/gif Gif images man

image/jpeg Jpeg images jpg,jpeg,jpe

image/png Images PNG png

image/tiff Tiff images tiff,tif

image/x-portable-bitmap PBM Bitmap files pbm

image/x-portable-graymap PBM Graymap files pgm

image/x-portable-pixmap PBM Pixmap files ppm

multipart/x-zip Zip archive files zip

multipart/x-gzip GNU zip archive files gz,gzip

text/css Style sheet css

text/csv Comma-separated text files csv

text/html HTML files htm,html

text/plain Unformatted text files txt,g,h,c,cc,hh,m,f90

text/richtext Rich text files rtx

text/rtf Rich Text Format text files rtf

text/tab-separated-value Tab-separated text files tsv

text/xml XML files xml

video/h264 H.264 videos h264

video/dv DV videos dv

video/mpeg MPEG videos mpeg,mpg,mpe

video/quicktime QuickTime videos qt,mov

video/msvideo Microsoft Windows videos avi

Source: http://en.kioskea.net/contents/120-mime-multipurpose-internet-mail-
extensions