Sustainability of Digital Formats
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Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact |
Full name | News Industry Text Format |
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Description |
An XML-based format, developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council. NITF represents the content and structure of news articles and accompanying metadata. The intent of NITF is as a base format, from which publishers can adapt the look, feel, and interactivity of their documents to the bandwidth, devices, and personalized needs of their subscribers. NITF documents can be translated into HTML, WML (for wireless devices), RTF (for printing), or any other format the publisher wishes. This format description does not attempt to distinguish between versions, but covers NITF in general. |
Production phase | A middle-state format (intended for use by publishers and newswire services). |
Relationship to other formats | |
Defined via | XML_DTD, XML Document Type Definition (DTD). Originally, only a DTD was used. |
Defined via | XML_SCHEMA, W3X XML Schema . As of version 3.4, released in May 2007, an XML Schema for NITF has been made available. |
Used by | NewsML, |
Has subtype | Versions not separately described. |
LC experience or existing holdings | None |
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LC preference | Suggested as a preferred format for textual news feeds, individual news articles, etc.. |
Disclosure | Open standard. NITF was developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council, an independent international association of news agencies and publishers. |
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Documentation | NITF specifications can be found at http://www.iptc.org/cms/site/index.html?channel=CH0154 |
Adoption | Substantial adoption by newswire services. See http://www.iptc.org/cms/site/index.html?channel=CH0157. |
Licensing and patents | None |
Transparency | Human-readable XML. Well-documented DTD. |
Self-documentation | The DTD includes descriptive elements relevant to news articles, such as title, byline, dateline, headline. Also in the DTD are elements for topical subjects, publication details, and revision history. |
External dependencies | None |
Technical protection considerations | None |
Text | |
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Normal rendering | Good support. |
Integrity of document structure | The NITF DTD represents the structure of an individual news article. |
Integrity of layout and display | Not intended to define precise rendering, but to support rendering using stylesheets for different disseminations, via PDAs, RSS, web browsers, etc. Includes HTML-compatible support for tables and lists. |
Support for mathematics, formulae, etc. | Not supported. |
Functionality beyond normal rendering | Supports links to external media objects, such as images, audio, or video. Also supports embedding of media objects (in binary format). |
Tag | Value | Note |
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Filename extension | xml |
Common practice for XML document instances is to use the .xml extension. The particular XML Schema or DTD should be declared within the document. |
Internet Media Type | text/vnd.IPTC.NITF |
See Registration form for NITF Media Type. |
General | |
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History |
Version 3.2 of NITF was released in October 2003. Version 3.4 was released in May 2007. |
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