What is a .ACT file?
An ACT file is a type of file that can be used in two different ways. Firstly, it is known as an audio file format that is commonly recorded by devices like Chinese MP3 players, MP4 players, or voice recorders. This format is typically used to save voice memos or to record songs from the radio. The audio in ACT files is compressed, which means it takes up less space on your device. It uses a specific method called Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) to compress the audio, and the quality of the sound is set at a bitrate of 8 kbit/s, which is a way to measure how much audio data is processed over time.
To open and listen to an ACT file, you can use programs like SoX, which is a versatile tool for processing audio files, or File Viewer Plus, which you can download from the Microsoft store. Another program that can open ACT files is Logipole Konvertor, which is useful for converting between different file formats.
Secondly, ACT files have a completely different use in the context of Adobe Photoshop. In this scenario, an ACT file is used for managing colors in images, especially when preparing images for the web. This type of ACT file helps in optimizing images by adjusting the number of colors in the Color Look-Up Table (CLUT). This is helpful because it allows you to balance the quality of the image with the file size, which is important for making websites load faster. You can adjust the colors by loading Adobe color tables in the "Save for Web" dialog box in Photoshop. This feature is particularly useful for images saved in formats like .GIF, which support limited colors. However, it's not applicable for .JPG and .PNG files, which handle colors differently. Photoshop comes with several predefined ACT files that you can find in the program's installation directory, specifically under the "Presets/en_US/Save for Web Settings/Color Tables/" folder.
In summary, ACT files can either be audio files used by certain digital audio players and recorders, or they can be files used in Photoshop for color management when preparing images for the web. Depending on the context, different programs are used to open and work with these files.
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