This guideline gives an introduction to and the background for the Material eXchange Format (MXF). This guideline describes the technology involved in the format, the names of the various elements within the format, and the way in which the format can be used within the real world applications.Some parts of the descriptions within this guideline are generic to file formats, while other parts are specific to the material exchange format. There are descriptions of the object-oriented technology used within the MXF format, as well as a discussion of the metadata that can be used within the file. There are worked examples within this guideline to guide users and help improve the interoperability of applications using different MXF files.