Encyclopedia of graphics file formats PDF
Preview Encyclopedia of graphics file formats
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS FILE FORMATS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS FILE FORMATS SECOND EDITION James D. Murray and William vanRyper O'REILLY & AssociATES, INc. BONN • CAMBRIDGE • PARIS • SEBASTOPOL • TOKYO Encyclopedia of Graphics Fde Formats, Second Edition by James D. Murray and William vanRyper Copyright © 1996, 1994 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastop<•l, CA 95472 Editor: Deborah Russell Production Editor: David Futato Software Development: Norman Walsh & Ken DeCanio Printing History: July 1994: First Edition April1996: Second Edition Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish thdr products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in c :tps or initial caps. Specific copyright notices and restrictions for specification documents and pr{lgrams included on the CD-ROM accompanying this book are included on that CD-ROM. All of the specification documents and programs described in this book and provided by vendors for inclusion on the CD-ROM are subject to change without notice by those vc!ndors. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., and the authors have used their best efforts in pr•!paring this book, the CD-ROM accompanying this book, and the'programs and data contained therein. However, the authors and publisher make no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the documentation or programs or data contained in this book or the CD-ROM. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., and the authors specifically disclaim, without any limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect co the CD-ROM, the programs therein and/o r techniques described in the book. In no event shal the authors or publishers be responsible or liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or any other damages in connection with or arising out of furnishing, performance, or use of this book or the pro 5fams or data. This book is printed on acid-free paper with 85% recycled content, 15% post-consumer waste. O'Reilly & Associates is committed to using paper with the highest recycled content available consistent with high quality. ISBN: 1-56592-161-5 [9/96] TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................................................... xu PART ONE Overview 1. Introduction 3 The Basics ...................................................................................................... 4 Graphics Files ................................................................................................ 5 Graphics Data ................................................................................................ 7 Types of Graphics File Formats .................................................................. 12 Elements of a Graphics File ........................................................................ 20 Converting Formats ..................................................................................... 22 Compressing Data ....................................................................................... 22 Format Summary ......................................................................................... 24 2. Computer Graphics Basics 27 Pixels and Coordinates ............................................................................... 27 Pixel Data and Palettes ............................................................................... 31 Color ............................................................................................................ 45 Overlays and Transparency ......................................................................... 51 For Further Information ............................................................................. 52 3. Bitmap Files 55 How Bitmap Files Are Organized .............................................................. 55 Header ......................................................................................................... 57 Examples of Bitmap Headers ..................................................................... 62 Bitmap Data ................................................................................................. 65 Footer ........................................................................................................... 72 TABLE OF CONTENTS V Other Bitmap File Data Structures ............................................................ 73 Other Bitmap File Features ........................................................................ 73 Pros and Cons of Bitmap File Formats ...................................................... 74 4. Vector Files 75 Vector Versus Bitmap Files ......................................................................... 75 Wllat Is Vector Data? ................................................................................... 75 Vector Files and Device Independence ..................................................... 7ti Sources of Vector Format Files ................................................................... 77 How Vector Files Are Organized ................................................................ 77 Vector File Size Issues ................................................................................. 82 Scaling Vector Files ..................................................................................... 83 Text in Vector Files ...................................................................................... 83 Pros and Cons of Vector Files ..................................................................... 84 5. Metafiles 87 Platform Independence? ............................................................................ 88 How Metafiles Are Organized .................................................................... 88 Pros and Cons of Metafiles ......................................................................... 88 6. Platform Dependencies 91 Byte Order ................................................................................................... 91 File Size and Memory Limitations ............................................................. 93 Floating-Point Formats ............................................................................... 94 Bit Order ...................................................................................................... 94 Filenames ..................................................................................................... 97 For Further Information ............................................................................. 99 7. Format Conversion 101 Is It Really Possible? ................................................................................. 101 Don't Do It IfYou Don't Need to ......................................................... 102 ... But If You Do ..........................................• .. .......................................... 102 Other Format Conversion Considerations ............................................. 106 8. Working With Graphics Files 107 Reading Graphics Data ............................................................................ 107 Writing Graphics Data ............................................................................. 117 Test Files .................................................................................................... 120 Corruption of Graphics Files ................................................................... 121 Vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Encryption of Graphics Files .................................................................... 127 Viruses in Graphics Files ........................................................................... 137 Designing Your Own Format .................................................................... 139 Writing a File Format Specification ......................................................... 141 Trademarks, Patents, and Copyrights ...................................................... 144 9. Data Compression 153 Data Compression Terminology .............................................................. 155 Pixel Packing ............................................................................................. 158 Run-Length Encoding (RLE} ................................................................... 160 Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) Compression ................................................... 170 CCIIT (Huffinan) Encoding .................................................................... 179 JPEG Compression ..................................................................................... 191 JBIG Compression ..................................................................................... 205 ART Compression ...................................................................................... 210 Fractal Image Compression ............................. :. ....................................... 212 For Further Information About Data Compression ............................... 217 10. Multimedia 219 Beyond Traditional Graphics File Formats .............................................. 219 Multimedia File Formats ........................................................................... 220 Types of Data ............................................................................................. 221 For Further Information ........................................................................... 230 PART TWO Graphics File Formats Adobe Illustrator ....................................................................................... 235 Adobe Photoshop ...................................................................................... 250 Atari ST Graphics Formats .... : .................................................................. 261 AutoCAD DXF ..................................................................................... .-..... 276 Autodesk 3D Studio .................................................................................. 282 BDF ............................................................................................................ 310 BRI.rCAD ................................................................................................... 315 ··································································!······································· BUFR 318 CALS Raster ............................................................................................... 321 CGM ........................................................................................................... 330 CMU Formats ............................................................................................ 336 DKB ............................................................................................................ 342 Dore Raster File Format ........................................................................... 344 · TABLE OF CONTENTS vii DPX ........................................................................................................... 350 Dr. Halo .................................................................................................... 368 DVM Movie ............................................................................................... 372 Encapsulated PostScript .......................................................................... 376 FaceSaver .................................................................................................. 386 FAX Formats .............................................................................................. 389 FITS ............................................................................................................ 392 FLI ......................................................................................· . ....................... 401 GEM Raster ................................................................................................ 417 GEM 'VDI .......................................................................... :. ....................... 42~ GIF ............................................................................................................. 429 GRASP ........................................................................................................ 451 GRIB .......................................................................................................... 457 Harvard Graphics ...................................................................................... 460 Hierarchical Data Format ......................................................................... 462 IFF .............................................................................................................. 465 IGES ........................................................................................................... 484 Inset PIX .................................................................................................... 487 Intel DVI .................................................................................................... 497 JPEG File Interchange Format ................................................................. 510 Kodak Photo CD ....................................................................................... 516 Kodak YCC ................................................................................................. 520 Lotus DIF ................................................................................................... 522 Lotus PIC ................................................................................................... 529 Lumena Paint ............................................................................................ 532 Macintosh Paint ......................................................................................... 537 Macintosh PICT ........................................................................................ 544 Microsoft Paint .......................................................................................... 549. Microsoft RIFF ........................................................................................... 554 Microsoft RTF ............................................................................................ 564 Microsoft S'Yl..K .......................................................................................... 569 Microsoft Windows Bitmap ....................................................................... 572 Microsoft Windows Metafile ..................................................................... 592 MIFF ...................................................................................................... ~ .... 599 MPEG ......................................................................................................... 604 MTV ........................................................................................................... 613 NAPLPS ..................................................................................................... 617 NFF ............................................................................................................. 620 OFF ............................................................................................................ 627 OS/2 Bitmap ............................................................................................. 630 P3D ........... :. ................................................................................................ 651 PBM, PGM, PNM, and PPM ..................................................................... 658 Viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PCX ............................................................................................................ 662 PDS ............................................................................................................. 678 Pic tor PC Paint .......................................................................................... 683 Pixar RIB .................................................................................................... 695 Plot-10 ........................................................................................................ 698 PNG ............................................................................................................ 700 POV ............................................................................................................ 720 Presentation Manager Metafile ................................................................ 725 PRT ............................................................................................................. 730 QRT ............................................................................................................ 736 QuickTime .................. ·. .............................................................................. 74 7 Radiance .................................................................................................... 760 Rayshade .................................................................................................... 764 RIX ............................................................................................................. 772 RTrace ........................................................................................................ 776 S.AF' ............................................................................................................. 786 SenseS NFF ................................................................................................ 796 SGI Image File Format .............................................................................. 801 SGI lnven tor .............................................................................................. 806 SGI "YA.ODL ................................................................................................ 812 SGO ............................................................................................................ 818 SPIFF .......................................................................................................... 822 Sun Icon ..................................................................................................... 838 Sun Raster .................................................................................................. 841 TDDD ......................................................................................................... 846 TGA ............................................................................................................ 860 TIFF ............................................................................................................ 880 TTDDD ...................................................................................................... 909 uRay ............................................................................................................ 914 Utah RLE ................................................................................................... 917 VICAR2 ...................................................................................................... 921 VIFF ............................................................................................................ 925 VIS-5D ........................................................................................................ 935 Vivid and Bob ............................................................................................ 943 Wavefront OBJ .............................................. ~ ............................................ 946 Wavefront RIA .......................................................................................... 953 WordPerfect Graphics Metafile ................................................................ 964 XBM ........................................................................................................... 983 XPM ........................................................................................................... 987 XWD ........................................................................................................... 992 ZBR ............................................................................................................ 998 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix PART THREE Appendices Appendix A: Graphics Files and Resources on the Internet 1005 Encoding of Graphics Files ..................................................................... 1005 Email ........................................................................................................ 1010 USENET News .......................................................................................... 1011 Mailing Lists ............................................................................................ 1017 FTP Archives ............................................................................................ 1018 Archie ....................................................................................................... 1019 The World Wide Web (WWW) ................................................................ 1020 Internet Graphics Resources .................................................................. 1029 For Further Information ......................................................................... 1039 Appendix B: Graphics Files and Resources on the Commercial Services 1041 CompuServe ............................................................................................ 1041 America Online ....................................................................................... 1043 Bulletin Board Systems ........................................................................... 1044 Appendix C: Installation and Setup 1047 Using the CD-ROM .................................................................................. 1048 Installing GFF ........................................................ ~ .................................. 1050 Removing GFF ......................................................................................... 1051 Which Browsers Can I Use? .................................................................... 1052 Accessing Software on the CD-ROM ....................................................... 1053 How Does GFF Work? .............................................................................. 1053 Customizing GFF ..................................................................................... 1054 Glossary ......................................................................................................... 1061 Index ............................................................................................................. 1099 X TABLE OF CONTENTS
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