Getting started with Novus Examples: find and download a sample file

Novus Examples is, at heart, a catalog of sample files you download to test something else. Its purpose is not to process files you already have but to hand you clean, predictable inputs so you can exercise the tools and workflows that do. That distinction matters, because it shapes how you use it: you come here not to get work done on a file you already have, but to get a file whose contents you do not care about so you can prove that a converter, form, editor, or pipeline handles it correctly.

Because the files are disposable by design, you can be reckless with them in exactly the way testing requires. Download a 8000×8000 image to see whether your upload form rejects oversized files, grab a deliberately corrupt PDF to check an error path, or pull a plain sample MP3 to confirm your player loads it; none of it is precious, so you can break things freely. The rest of this guide is about finding the right disposable file quickly.

The catalog is organized by the kind of file you need, and it has grown well past a handful of buckets; it now spans seventeen categories and 2,558 files across 221 distinct extensions. Images cover the common web and print types (PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, SVG, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, AVIF, and ICO) including special cases like transparent PNGs and grayscale images. A dedicated Data category holds CSV, JSON, XML, and YAML for parsers and schema work, while Documents span PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, TXT, Markdown, RTF, and ODT for converters, viewers, and OCR.

Beyond those, there are categories for audio (MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG), archives (ZIP, TAR, GZ, RAR, 7z), source code across sixteen languages, AI/ML datasets and model artifacts, localization files, web assets, security fixtures (PKI, JWT, OAuth, CORS/CSP, SSH), email (.eml and .mbox), 3D and CAD models, e-books, fonts, and ready-to-fill templates and forms. Running through all of them is a specialty set of deliberate edge cases (zero-byte files, malformed or corrupt files, wrong-extension files, and very large files) meant specifically for robustness and error-handling tests. If you are new to those, the reference at Sample file types explained: what each sample is for walks through what each represents and why it matters.

Video deserves its own mention, because it is now the second-largest category at 401 files rather than the afterthought it once was. It covers fourteen codecs, seven containers stream-copied from a single encode, pixel formats, playable HLS and DASH packages, captions in awkward encodings, chapters, multi-track accessibility fixtures, and AI-video pairs where every degraded clip points at the pristine version it came from. The walkthrough at Test a video pipeline with the 401-file video set covers how to use them.

You do not have to click through every category to find a file. A Search jumps straight to a sample by name or property, and purpose-based navigation lets you browse by the job you are doing (OCR testing, CSV parsing, form testing, colourization, ASR, visual diff and regression, schema and OpenAPI, JWT and JWKS, video codecs, streaming manifests, media accessibility, and more) rather than by format.

Choose the file by the question you are trying to answer, not just the format name. If you want to confirm a converter turns PNG into WebP, a plain PNG is enough. If you want to know whether it preserves transparency, you specifically need a transparent PNG, not any PNG. The catalog separates those variants precisely so you can match the sample to the behavior you are checking rather than settling for a generic file and hoping it exercises the right path.

This is where a moment of thought saves a misleading test. Testing a background remover on a subject against a plain white backdrop tells you far less than testing it on a hair-detail portrait against a busy background, because the easy sample never stresses the hard part. Pick the sample that puts pressure on the thing you actually doubt, and your test result means something. The dedicated use-case tutorials cover exactly which samples to reach for.

Downloading a sample is a single action, and it happens entirely in your browser. There is no account to create, no email to hand over, and nothing to install: you find the file you want and download it straight to your device, the same as any other download. This keeps the tool consistent with the rest of the Novus Stream Solutions ecosystem: free, privacy-respecting, and built to get out of your way rather than gate a simple task behind a sign-up.

Because the download runs client-side, the sample lands wherever your browser normally saves files, ready to feed into whatever you are testing. Grab one file when you have a single thing to check, or pull several across formats when you are putting a converter or an upload form through its paces. Nothing about the download commits you to anything; take exactly what you need and move on to the tool you are actually testing.

A sample file only earns its keep once it is inside the thing you are checking. Upload it to a form to see whether validation accepts or rejects it, drop it into an editor to confirm the editor opens it, or run it through a converter or background remover to judge the output. Novus Examples pairs naturally with the rest of the ecosystem here: use it alongside Novus Convert at convert.novusstreamsolutions.com to test conversions, and alongside the NSS Background Remover at bgremover.novusstreamsolutions.com to test cutouts.

The two focused tutorials build directly on this step. For image cutouts, Test a background remover with the right sample images covers how to choose samples that genuinely stress a background remover. For format conversion, Test a file converter end to end with sample files covers grabbing files across types and verifying the output end to end. If you are new to those sibling apps, How to convert and compress files privately with Novus Convert and How to remove a background from an image with NSS Background Remover orient you before you start feeding samples in.

Be clear on the boundaries so you use it for the right things. Novus Examples is a source of clean, disposable sample files for testing rather than a stock-asset library for production use. One thing worth knowing about the files: they are generated, not collected, produced deterministically to an exact spec, which makes them copyright-free by construction and means each ships with a property sheet describing exactly what is inside it, from noise levels to timestamps and encodings. Many also come as paired fixtures, such as a clean file next to a deliberately messy one, which is handy when you are testing a transformation rather than a single input.

The library has also grown past plain browse-and-download. A Search and purpose-based navigation help you find fixtures by name or by the job you are doing; an in-browser Editor lets you tweak a sample before downloading it, and now open a .docx, .epub or .tar.gz as a member list rather than a hex dump, or create a file from one of 51 starters; a Visual Template Studio holds 840 editable templates across 42 categories; and Live Test Targets give you real-world fixtures to point a tool at rather than only files to open. For orientation on all of it, the documentation at Novus Examples is the place to start, and the tool map at Tool maps lists what the app covers. From there, the use-case tutorials at Test a background remover with the right sample images, Test a file converter end to end with sample files and Test a video pipeline with the 401-file video set put the samples to work, Build an OBS scene from a broadcast template covers the broadcast templates, and the reference at Sample file types explained: what each sample is for explains what the trickier sample types are for.