Mime Types

MIME types are a standard way of specifying the type of a document. A web server uses MIME types to tell browsers what type of document the server is sending. For files, the server determines the MIME type by the file's extension (the file extension is the last part of file name, such as .html, or .gif). Mime types allow files to be opened by "helper" applications on web browser clients, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.