Standard Clipboard Formats

Introduction

This reference gives you an overview of standard and common clipboard formats with links to the data structures.

Definitions

The following type definitions are used in the below tables:

ANSI text

Null terminated ANSI or multi byte string.

Unicode text

Null terminated Unicode (UTF-16LE) string.

ANSI / Unicode text list

List of null terminated strings followed by a NULL character (double NULL terminated).

ASCII / ANSI text

ASCII 7-bit text by definition but ANSI 8-bit text may be supported.

DWORD (BOOL)

DWORD value representing a boolean value (true if not zero).

Links indicate the destination in brackets. For MSDN links in the tables the indication is omitted.

Standard Clipboard Formats

The Standard Clipboard Formats [MSDN] use numeric IDs defined in WinUser.h. All non-standard formats must be registered using a unique format name.

Format Identifier	Data Type	Description
CF_TEXT (1)	ANSI text	Text.
CF_BITMAP (2)	HBITMAP	Handle to a bitmap (GDI object).
CF_METAFILEPICT (3)	METAFILEPICT	Windows-Format Metafiles picture.
CF_SYLK (4)	ANSI text	Microsoft Symbolic Link [Wikipedia].
CF_DIF (5)	ASCII text	Software Arts Data Interchange Format [Wikipedia].
CF_TIFF (6)	TIFF [Wikipedia]	TIFF image.
CF_OEMTEXT (7)	8-Bit DOS text	Text.
CF_DIB (8)	BITMAPINFO	Structure followed by bitmap bits.
CF_PALETTE (9)	HPALETTE	Handle to a color palette (GDI object).
CF_PENDATA (10)	–	Windows 3.1 pen extension data.
CF_RIFF (11)	RIFF	Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) audio.
CF_WAVE (12)	WAVE	WAVE audio.
CF_UNICODETEXT (13)	Unicode text	Text.
CF_ENHMETAFILE (14)	HENHMETAFILE	Enhanced-Format Metafiles handle.
CF_HDROP (15)	DROPFILES	List of file names.
CF_LOCALE (16)	DWORD (LCID)	LCID for CF_TEXT to CF_UNICODE conversion.
CF_DIBV5 (17)	BITMAPV5HEADER	Structure followed by bitmap bits
CF_DSPTEXT (0x0081)	ANSI text	Text.
CF_DSPBITMAP (0x0082)	HBITMAP	Handle to a bitmap (GDI object)
CF_DSPMETAFILEPICT (0x0083)	METAFILEPICT	Windows-Format Metafiles picture.
CF_DSPENHMETAFILE (0x008E)	HENHMETAFILE	Enhanced-Format Metafiles handle.

Shell Clipboard Formats

The Shell Clipboard Formats [MSDN] are used to transfer shell objects via clipboard and Drag & Drop. For most of them there is a definition for the format name in the header file shlobj.h:

Definition	Format Name
CFSTR_SHELLIDLIST	Shell IDList Array
CFSTR_SHELLIDLISTOFFSET	Shell Object Offsets
CFSTR_NETRESOURCES	Net Resource
CFSTR_FILEDESCRIPTORA	FileGroupDescriptor
CFSTR_FILEDESCRIPTORW	FileGroupDescriptorW
CFSTR_FILECONTENTS	FileContents
CFSTR_FILENAMEA	FileName
CFSTR_FILENAMEW	FileNameW
CFSTR_PRINTERGROUP	PrinterFriendlyName
CFSTR_FILENAMEMAPA	FileNameMap
CFSTR_FILENAMEMAPW	FileNameMapW
CFSTR_SHELLURL	UniformResourceLocator
CFSTR_INETURLA	UniformResourceLocator
CFSTR_INETURLW	UniformResourceLocatorW
CFSTR_PREFERREDDROPEFFECT	Preferred DropEffect
CFSTR_PERFORMEDDROPEFFECT	Performed DropEffect
CFSTR_PASTESUCCEEDED	Paste Succeeded
CFSTR_INDRAGLOOP	InShellDragLoop
CFSTR_DRAGCONTEXT	DragContext
CFSTR_MOUNTEDVOLUME	MountedVolume
CFSTR_PERSISTEDDATAOBJECT	PersistedDataObject
CFSTR_TARGETCLSID	TargetCLSID
CFSTR_LOGICALPERFORMEDDROPEFFECT	Logical Performed DropEffect
CFSTR_AUTOPLAY_SHELLIDLISTS	Autoplay Enumerated IDList Array
CFSTR_UNTRUSTEDDRAGDROP	UntrustedDragDrop
CFSTR_FILE_ATTRIBUTES_ARRAY	File Attributes Array
CFSTR_INVOKECOMMAND_DROPPARAM	InvokeCommand DropParam
CFSTR_SHELLDROPHANDLER	DropHandlerCLSID
CFSTR_DROPDESCRIPTION	DropDescription

 

Format Name	Data Type	Description
AsyncFlag	DWORD (BOOL)	Perform insert/paste operation in the background. Used by Explorer to avoid blocking the current instance.
FileContents	Binary	File content.
FileGroupDescriptor	FILEGROUPDESCRIPTOR	Array of FILEDESCRIPTORs.
FileGroupDescriptorW	FILEGROUPDESCRIPTOR	Array of FILEDESCRIPTORs.
FileName	ANSI text	Single file name in short (8.3) format.
FileNameW	Unicode text	Single file name.
FileNameMap	ANSI text list	List of file names when renaming.
FileNameMapW	Unicode text list	List of file names when renaming.
MountedVolume	Unicode text	Path for mounted volume.
Shell IDList Array	CIDA	Array of PIDL (pointer to ITEMIDLIST) offsets.
Autoplay Enumerated IDList Array	CIDA	Array of PIDL (pointer to ITEMIDLIST) offsets.
Shell Object Offsets	POINT[]	Array of points.
File Attributes Array	FILE_ATTRIBUTES_ARRAY	Array of file attributes.
Net Resource	NRESARRAY	Array of NETRESOURCE structures.
PrinterFriendlyName	DROPFILES	List of printer names.
UniformResourceLocator	ANSI text	URL
UniformResourceLocatorW	Unicode text	URL

Drag & Drop Related Formats

These formats are used with Drag & Drop. Most of them are not documented.

Format Name	Data Type	Description
ComputedImage	DWORD	?
DisableDragText	DWORD (BOOL)	?
DragContext	IStream	Used internally by the Windows drag/drop helpers.
DragImageBits	SHDRAGIMAGE	Drag image bitmap.
DragSourceHelperFlags	DWORD	Value passed to IDragSourceHelper2::SetFlags.
DragWindow	DWORD (HWND)	The window handle of the drag image window.
DropDescription	DROPDESCRIPTION	Aero drag cursor type and text.
DropHandlerCLSID	CLSID GUID	CLSID GUID of the drop handler.
InShellDragLoop	DWORD (BOOL)	Nonzero when within a drag-and-drop loop.
InvokeCommand DropParam	Unicode text	?
IsComputingImage	DWORD (BOOL)	?
IsShowingLayered	DWORD (BOOL)	Nonzero when a drop target shows the drag image.
IsShowingText	DWORD (BOOL)	Nonzero when a drop target requests update of Aero cursor.
Logical Performed DropEffect	DWORD (DROPEFFECT)	Logically performed drop effect with optimized moves.
Paste Succeeded	DWORD (DROPEFFECT)	Set by target when delete-on-paste operation succeeded.
Performed DropEffect	DWORD (DROPEFFECT)	Performed drop effect set by the target.
Preferred DropEffect	DWORD (DROPEFFECT)	Preferred drop effect set by source. Used also with clipboard.
TargetCLSID	CLSID GUID	CLSID GUID of the drop target.
UntrustedDragDrop	DWORD	URL Action Flags.
UsingDefaultDragImage	DWORD (BOOL)	Nonzero when the drag image is a system default image.

OLE Formats

Format Name	Data Type	Description
Link	ANSI text list	OLE 1.0 link.
Native	Binary	OLE 1.0 data.
ObjectLink	ANSI text list	OLE 1.0 link.
OwnerLink	ANSI text list	OLE 1.0 link.
Data Object	Binary	OLE 2.0 data.
Embedded Object	Binary	OLE 2.0 data.
Object Descriptor	OBJECTDESCRIPTOR	OLE 2.0 User interface information.
Link Source Descriptor	OBJECTDESCRIPTOR	OLE 2.0 User interface information.
Link Source	IMoniker	OLE 2.0. Followed by document class ID.
Hyperlink	IHlink	Methods to enable a hyperlink to navigate to its target.

Common Application Clipboard Formats

Many applications use the file extension or the MIME type [Wikipedia] as format name and pass data using the corresponding file format. The format names are case-insensitive but is is common practice to use all lower case for MIME types, all upper case for file extensions and Pascal case (upper case for first letter of each word) for descriptive names. Clipboard and drop target applications that should be able to receive such formats should register all commonly used format name variations.

The header file UrlMon.h contains some definitions for MIME types (see URL Moniker Clipboard Formats [MSDN]).

Common Text Formats

Format Name	Data Type	Description
text/plain	ASCII / ANSI text	See also CF_TEXT.
HTML Format	UTF-8 text	Microsoft specific HTML clipboard format.
text/html	Text	HTML [W3C] file content. The encoding is defined by BOM and HTML headers.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)	Text	See text/html.
text/csv	ASCII / ANSI text	Comma-Separated Values (CSV) [IETF] file content.
CSV	ASCII / ANSI text	See text/csv.
text/richtext	ASCII / ANSI text	Word 2007: Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.9.1 [Microsoft]
Rich Text Format	ASCII / ANSI text	See above.
Rich Text Format Without Objects	ASCII / ANSI text	See above.
RichEdit Text and Objects	ASCII / ANSI text	See above.
RTF As Text	ASCII / ANSI text	See above.
text/uri-list	ASCII text	The text/uri-list Internet Media Type [IETF].

Common Image Formats

Format Name	Data Type	Description
image/bmp	BITMAPFILEHEADER	File header followed by info header (see CF_DIB and CF_DIBV5) and bitmap data.
BMP	BITMAPFILEHEADER	See image/bmp.
image/gif	Binary	GIF [W3C] file content.
GIF	Binary	See image/gif.
image/jpeg	Binary	JPEG [W3C] file content.
JPEG	Binary	See image/jpeg.
JPG	Binary	See image/jpeg.
image/png	Binary	PNG [W3C] file content.
PNG	Binary	See image/png.
image/tiff	Binary	TIFF [Wikipedia] file content. See also CF_TIFF.

Points of Interest

My article Drag & Drop Images and Drop Descriptions for MFC Applications contains a demo application that can be used to show the objects actually on the clipboard (clipboard viewer) and the drag objects when dropping on an info list.

References

Clipboard Formats [MSDN]
Standard Clipboard Formats [MSDN]
Shell Clipboard Formats [MSDN]
Shell Data Object [MSDN]
Handling Shell Data Transfer Scenarios [MSDN]
HTML Clipboard Format [MSDN]
RegisterClipboardFormat function [MSDN]
OLE Background [MSDN]
Clipboard API and events [W3C]

History

2016-04-08 Initial version.
2016-04-14 Minor text changings, added links to GUID and URL moniker formats.
2016-04-18 Splitted and re-arranged tables, added some OLE formats, added text/richtext, corrected enhanced meta file type.
2016-06-21 Added formats text/uri-list, image/bmp, BMP; added link to W3C clipboard API
2017-06-22 Added AsyncFlag format and that Preferred DropEffect also used with clipboard.
2018-03-08 Fixed wrong FileContents description.