# What is JSON?

TIP

This page serves as an introduction to JSON. If you're already familiar, we suggest you continue on to the next section: Document Structure.

JavaScript Object Notation—or JSON for short—is a popular data serialization and interchange format based on the JavaScript language. It's quite simple, decently human readable, and there are reliable implementations available for many programming languages. To get a feel for the format, I've included some samples below:

["Sean", "Adam", "Luke", "David", "Prajna"]
{
  "common_name": "Queensland kauri pine",
  "species": "A. robusta",
  "genus": "Agathis",
  "family": "Araucariaceae"
}

In KDF, document content and other data is stored in a series of JSON files, which are then bundled up into a single file. We'll explore this idea much further, in the next section of the specification: Document Structure.

# Further Reading

If you'd like to learn some more about JSON, the following resources my come in handy: