Bit depth refers to how much information is captured at each sample. A higher bit depth means that a greater dynamic range can be recorded, which makes for better recordings.

The bitstream is all the ones (1) and zeroes (0) that make up digital data.

A channel is an individual audio signal. Mono (one channel) recordings have a single signal whereas stereo (two channel) recordings have two signals played together.

A codec is a system for encoding and decoding digital data. The codec determines how the audio and video information in a file are stored and read by media players. Codec types differ in whether and how the data is compressed.

Compressed data is data of manually reduced size.

An enduring format is a file format that can be accessed well into the future, like a PDF.

Lossy compression refers to techniques used to compress the size of data for storing, handling, or the transmission of said data. In lossy compression, some information is permanently discarded and cannot be recovered.

Open format file formats are not proprietary and therefore do not require specific software to be opened, but rather could be opened using free software.

Proprietary formats require specific software, usually from a certain brand, to be opened.

Raster images are images produced by cameras or scanners.

Resolution is the amount of information in a given unit of a file. For image files, this is usually expressed as the number of pixels per square inch, while for audio files, this is expressed by the bit depth and sampling rate. The former determines how detailed each snapshot of audio is, and the latter determines how many snapshots are taken per second.

The sample rate is the number of snapshots of sound recorded in each second of audio.

Vector images are images produced by cameras, scanners, or image editing programs.