Blank Files

A collection of minimal valid blank files in various formats. These files are valid and open in the right software. This repo is the canonical source for the Blank Files website and is consumable via CDN or the NPM package @filearchitect/blank-files.

This collection focuses mainly on binary work files, not text-based files.

Catalog schema (for bots and contributors)

The file list is in files/files.json. It has a single key files, an array of objects:

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Extension / type id (e.g. xlsx, pdf).
url	string	Filename under files/ (e.g. blank.xlsx).
category	string	Slug for grouping (e.g. document-spreadsheet, image).
package	boolean (optional)	If true, the file is served as {url}.zip (e.g. blank.logicx.zip).

Example entry: { "type": "xlsx", "url": "blank.xlsx", "category": "document-spreadsheet" }.

Adding a file

1. Add the file under files/ (e.g. files/blank.xyz).
2. Append an entry to files/files.json with type, url, category, and optional package.
3. Keep the file as small and minimal as possible.

Then open a Pull Request.

Categories

These categories are used for grouping on the website and in the NPM package. They are broad and may evolve.

• 3D
• 3D-editing
• audio
• audio-editing
• document-text
• document-spreadsheet
• document-presentation
• image
• image-editing
• video
• video-editing
• CAD (Todo)
• etc. (suggestions and pull requests welcome)

Consuming the catalog

CDN

• Catalog: {BASE_URL}/files/files.json — returns the full files array.
• File: {BASE_URL}/files/{url} (or {BASE_URL}/files/{url}.zip when package: true).

Example: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filearchitect/blank-files/main/files/blank.xlsx.

Note: Using raw.githubusercontent.com as the base is subject to GitHub rate limits. For higher traffic, use a CDN that mirrors the repo (e.g. Statically, jsDelivr).

NPM package

Install: npm install @filearchitect/blank-files (or pnpm/yarn).

From src/index.ts:

• listBlankFiles() — Returns a list of categories and their file types (for UI grouping). Uses the bundled files/files.json.
• getBlankFile(category, type) — Fetches the file from /files/blank.{type} and returns a Blob. Expects a local or same-origin server serving the files/ directory unless you use a custom base URL (e.g. when running with the included server.js or against the live website’s download proxy).

Automation

.github/workflows/zip-files.yml runs on push to main when files/** changes (or on manual dispatch). It creates a ZIP of the files/ directory and uploads it to a GitHub Release with tag latest. Use this artifact if you need a single ZIP of all blank files.

Website

The Blank Files website and its source repo consume this catalog via a configurable CDN URL and provide browse/download and an API.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Some of the images and documents are from VerifyTests/EmptyFiles and are licensed under the MIT License.