Content-Type Header Field

The purpose of the Content-Type field is to describe the data contained in the body fully enough that the receiving user agent can pick an appropriate agent or mechanism to present the data to the user, or otherwise deal with the data in an appropriate manner.

In general, the top-level Content-Type is used to declare the general type of data, while the subtype specifies a specific format for that type of data. 

Registered subtypes of audio, image, text, and video, should not contain embedded information that is really of a different type. Such compound types should be represented using the "multipart" or "application" types. (what  multipart mean??)

multipart/form-data is significantly more complicated but it allows entire files to be included in the data. An example of the result can be found in the HTML 4 specification.

An initial set of seven Content-Types is defined by this document. This set of top-level names is intended to be substantially complete. It is expected that additions to the larger set of supported types can generally be accomplished by the creation of new subtypes of these initial types. In the future, more top-level types may be defined only by an extension to this standard. If another primary type is to be used for any reason, it must be given a name starting with "X-" to indicate its non-standard status and to avoid a potential conflict with a future official name.

Content-Type := type "/" subtype *[";" parameter] 

type :=          "application"     / "audio" 
          / "image"           / "message" 
          / "multipart"  / "text" 
          / "video"           / x-token 

x-token := <The two characters "X-" followed, with no 
           intervening white space, by any token> 

subtype := token 

parameter := attribute "=" value 

attribute := token 

value := token / quoted-string 

token := 1*<any CHAR except SPACE, CTLs, or tspecials> 

tspecials :=  "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@"  ; Must be in 
           /  "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <">  ; quoted-string, 
           /  "/" / "[" / "]" / "?" / "."  ; to use within 
           /  "="                        ; parameter values

The seven standard initial predefined Content-Types are detailed in the bulk of this document. They are:

text

textual information. The primary subtype, "plain", indicates plain (unformatted) text. No special software is required to get the full meaning of the text, aside from support for the indicated character set. Subtypes are to be used for enriched text in forms where application software may enhance the appearance of the text, but such software must not be required in order to get the general idea of the content. Possible subtypes thus include any readable word processor format. A very simple and portable subtype, richtext, is defined in this document.

multipart

data consisting of multiple parts of independent data types. Four initial subtypes are defined, including the primary "mixed" subtype, "alternative" for representing the same data in multiple formats, "parallel" for parts intended to be viewed simultaneously, and "digest" for multipart entities in which each part is of type "message".

message

an encapsulated message. A body of Content-Type "message" is itself a fully formatted RFC 822 conformant message which may contain its own different Content-Type header field. The primary subtype is "rfc822". The "partial" subtype is defined for partial messages, to permit the fragmented transmission of bodies that are thought to be too large to be passed through mail transport facilities. Another subtype, "External-body", is defined for specifying large bodies by reference to an external data source.

image

image data. Image requires a display device (such as a graphical display, a printer, or a FAX machine) to view the information. Initial subtypes are defined for two widely-used image formats, jpeg and gif.

audio

audio data, with initial subtype "basic". Audio requires an audio output device (such as a speaker or a telephone) to "display" the contents.

video

video data. Video requires the capability to display moving images, typically including specialized hardware and software. The initial subtype is "mpeg".

application

some other kind of data, typically either uninterpreted binary data or information to be processed by a mail-based application. The primary subtype, "octet-stream", is to be used in the case of uninterpreted binary data, in which case the simplest recommended action is to offer to write the information into a file for the user. Two additional subtypes, "ODA" and "PostScript", are defined for transporting ODA and PostScript documents in bodies. Other expected uses for "application" include spreadsheets, data for mail-based scheduling systems, and languages for "active" (computational) email. (Note that active email entails several securityconsiderations, which are discussed later in this memo, particularly in the context of application/PostScript.)

Reference: The Content-Type Header Field