Files and File Formats

Supported File Formats

LEADTOOLS currently supports over 120 different image formats and sub formats, and with over 12 years in the field and thousands of customers in all areas of applications development, LEAD Technologies continues to expand support for new formats and new format sub-types in response to the ever changing demands of developers worldwide.

Here is a list of some of the file formats and some of the flavors LEAD supports: JPEG, DICOM, FlashPix (FPX), Fuji Exif 2.0 (EXF), Adobe PhotoShop (PSD), Kodak PhotoCD PCD, EPS, IOCA, MODCA, CALS raster (CAL), Windows Icon (ICO), Windows Cursor (CUR), PC Paintbrush (PCX), Multipage PCX (DCX), IMG, Windows DIB, FAXraw, Winfax (WFX), MAC, VDA, GIF (Embedded Text, Animated, Interlaced, Transparency), CompuServe PNG, Targa (TGA), Sun Raster (RAS), Macintosh PICT (PCT), LEAD CMP, Windows BMP, OS/2 BMP, Microsoft FAX (AWD), Windows Metafile (WMF), WordPerfect (WPG), AVI, Microsoft Paint (MSP), TIFF 6.0 (MPT, JPEG, Packbits, Huffman, RLE, LZWyf, CMYK, CCITT, CCITT G31D, CCITT G32D, CCITT G4, Bitonal, Grayscale, Palletized, RGB, YCbCr, CIELAB).

General File Format Support

LEAD Technologies is constantly adding support for new file formats, and "flavor" support to formats already supported. The extensive format support provided by LEADTOOLS will give your application the flexibility to support almost any image you encounter.

Visit LEAD’s website at http://www.leadtools.com/formats.htm for a complete list of LEADTOOLS’ file format support.

(Note: a separate patent license from Unisys is required to use the GIF and TIFF LZW filters)

The LEADTOOLS General File Format features are available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging

LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging Pro

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging Suite

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging Suite

Support for the General File Format features is provided for the following programming interfaces:

ActiveX

API

Class Library

COM

.NET

VCL

CMW File Format Support

LEADTOOLS CMW compression/decompression outperforms all other known image compression algorithms in quality and compression ratio. CMW is a new advanced compression algorithm that is better than JPEG2000 in quality, speed and compression ratios. The LEADTOOLS CMW includes support for multiple resolutions. This makes your applications faster and more memory efficient because the entire file does not have to be loaded and decompressed just to load a low resolution image.

CMW is better than JPEG2000 for the following reasons:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ CMW files are smaller than JPEG2000 files of comparable quality

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ CMW files can be loaded and saved faster than comparable JPEG2000 files.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Since there are fewer parameters to set, CMW files are easier to use.

Just like with JPEG2000 you have the ability to specify a progression order, giving you control over the display effect during a progressive decompression. The available progression orders are:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Quality Axis - The image starts blurred and the sharpness increases as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Resolution Axis - The image is loaded as a smaller version and the physical pixel size increases as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Color Axis - The image is loaded one color plane at a time. The image starts loading as a grayscale image and the color will fill in as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Position Axis - The image is loaded as blocks. As more image data is received, more blocks are displayed.

Additionally, you have complete control of the resulting file size and quality. You can choose to compress a file based on any of the following:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Target file size

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Compression ratio

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Quality Factor

You can even specify to use lossless compression so that when the compressed image is decompressed it will be exactly the same as the original image.

The LEADTOOLS CMW File Format support is available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS CMW Plug-in

CMW File Format Support is provided for the following programming interfaces:

ActiveX

API

Class Library

COM

.NET

VCL

JPEG2000 File Format Support

The JPEG2000 format stores data in a hierarchical format containing several resolutions of the image in the same file without duplication of data. For that reason, a JPEG2000 compressed image can be sent to a device in the best resolution for that device, without requiring additional storage overhead. LEAD has committed to fully support all future parts as they are released and therefore LEADTOOLS JPEG 2000 SDK will continue to grow as the JPEG 2000 standard grows.

The LEADTOOLS JPEG 2000 File Format currently supports:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ The JP2 file format and JPEG 2000 Stream Data.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Improved performance and quality.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Lossless compression, meaning the decompressed image data is exactly as it was before compression.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Four progressive display methods:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Quality Major - The images starts blurred and the sharpness increases as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Resolution Major - The image is loaded as a smaller version and the physcal pixel size increases as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Color Major - The image is loaded one color plane at a time. The image starts loading as a grayscale image and the color will fill in as more image data is received.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Position Major - The image is loaded as blocks. As more image data is received, more blocks are displayed.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Storage of multiple resolutions in the same file without duplication of the image data and the ability to decode and display only the size required by the application.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Error checking and robustness allowing the transmission of JPEG 2000 encoded files over a noisy medium. Even if an error occurs in the decoding, the image will still be displayed.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Control over the final size of the file with out hit and miss quality factor adjustments.

The LEADTOOLS JPEG2000 File Format support is available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS JPEG2000 Plug-in

Support for JPEG2000 file format is also provided for end users with the LEAD JPEG2000 Adobe PhotoShop Plug In.

LEADTOOLS JPEG2000 File Format Support is provided for the following programming interfaces:

ActiveX

Conversion API

Class Library

COM

.NET

VCL

Please note that LEAD also offers the LEADTOOLS JPEG 2000 COM Object for IE Module, which lets you view JPEG 2000 images in ActiveX enabled web browsers, such as Internet Explorer. For more information, refer to LEADTOOLS JPEG 2000 COM Object for IE.

MRC File Format Support

The LEADTOOLS MRC (Mixed Raster Content) file format results in both high compression factors and high detail retention. This format enhances LEADTOOLS file input/output functionality by adding support for raster color documents containing mixed image and text components. The MRC file format breaks an image into three different layers: foreground, background, and mask. Each layer is compressed separately using the best type of compression for that data type and is later uncompressed and recombined to restore the original image. Because standard compression schemes are geared towards an image being entirely text or color, the MRC model offers the advantage of using optimal compression for images that have both text and color in the same image.

The foreground layer contains color data for the text and line art, and may also contain photographic or continuous tone color data. The background layer generally contains low-resolution color image data, such as a background image, a wash or other pattern that would have text overlaid on it. The mask layer or the selector layer controls the process of image regeneration contains binary image data that is high spatial resolution, such as text and line art. This layer is used for drawing the corresponding foreground and background layers.

Segmentation can be performed automatically with the option to optimize it manually or it can be done only manually. Compression can be specified for each area type. The compression for 1-bit black and white areas can be CCITT G3 1D, CCITT G4 2D, CCITT G4 or JBIG. The compression for color areas is JPEG.

The LEADTOOLS MRC File Format support is available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging Suite

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging Suite

MRC File Format Support is provided for the following programming interfaces:

API

Class Library

COM

Multimedia File Format Support

Non-Multimedia toolkits can load AVI and MPEG files as raster still images and can save AVI files. . These features are available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging

LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging Pro

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging

LEADTOOLS Document Imaging Suite

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging Suite

In the Multimedia toolkits, LEAD provides much more extensive support for multimedia formats. LEADTOOLS Multimedia products can playback any input file format supported by DirectShow, including:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ AVI

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WAV

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Quicktime 2.0

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WMA Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WMV Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ ASF Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Mpeg1 Layer-3 Audio (MP3)

LEADTOOLS Multimedia products can convert any of the supported playback file formats to:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ AVI (using any available video compressor on the computer)

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WAV (using any available audio compressors on the computer)

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WMA Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ WMV Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ ASF Windows Media Format

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Mpeg1 Layer-3 Audio (MP3)

For more information on the support provided by the LEADTOOLS Multimedia toolkits, refer to the Multimedia Features.

PDF File Format Support

Support for the Portable Document Format, (PDF) is provided by the LEADTOOLS PDF Plug-in which is an add-on module for all LEADTOOLS Toolkits with the exception of the Linux versions and extends support for PDF, Postscript, and EPS formats.

The Portable Document Format was developed by Adobe Corporation to allow users to exchange and view their electronic documents in an easy and reliable way, independent of the environment in which these documents were created. A PDF file will look the same on the screen and in print regardless of what kind of machine you are using or which software package was used to create that file. One major advantage of PDF is that a large document can be compressed small enough to download very quickly, and still displays content as if you were looking at the original source such as a book or magazine.

Postscript is a simple interpretive page description language. Postscript is the language that most advanced laser printers use in order to render electronic information on a printed page. EPS stands for Encapsulated PostScript. An EPS file is a PostScript language program describing the appearance of a single page.

The LEADTOOLS PDF File Format support is available in the following products:

LEADTOOLS PDF Plug-in

For more information on the support provided by the LEADTOOLS PDF Plug-in, refer to the PDF Features.

Vector File Format Support

Support for vector file formats is provided by the LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro toolkit. Supported file formats include Vector File Formats include CGM, DGN, DRW, DWF, DWG, DXF, EMF, WMF, PLT, Gerber, PCL, PCT, SVG, VWPG, CMX and SHP. LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging provides 2-D and 3-D vector imaging for loading, viewing, modifying and saving vector files to memory/disk in native vector format. With Vector Imaging, objects are represented as exact geometrical entities, rather than approximated by a collection of discrete pixels, making them inherently scalable and suitable for other mathematical transformations. Drawing and CAD/CAM programs typically use vector images.

For more information on the support provided by the LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro toolkit, refer to the Vector Imaging Features.

Working with Files

Each image format has its own unique set of load/save/display options, which may encompass varying types and/or degrees of compression, a range of image information bit-depths, progressive (multi-pass) image display, the ability to maintain multi-page or multi-channel images, animations, or non-image data, just to name a few. LEADTOOLS offers extensive libraries of functions that allow you to deal with each type of image format and its special options, whether its Comments, Getting and Setting File Information, Layers, Loading Files, Multipage Files, Saving Files, or Tags. Each of these unique options is described in more detail in the following sections.

Comments

Some file formats can contain comments, and some cannot, and each file format has its own set of comment types. LEADTOOLS supports each of the following types of comments in one or more products:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ DICOM File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Exif File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ FlashPix File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ GIF File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ IPTC Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ JPEG and LEAD File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ PNG File Comments

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ TIFF File Comments

Getting and Setting File Information

LEADTOOLS provides extensive functionality for getting file information. Whether an image file is on disk or in memory, you can get information about the image before loading it. You can also handle file-format-specific information, such as the page number or physical resolution. Support includes functions that allow you to:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Obtain descriptive information about a file (including those loaded in memory)

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Obtain embedded audio data

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Determine what resolutions a file contains

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Load a stamp

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Read or load extensions from an Exif file

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Read the transforms stored with an image in a FlashPix file.

Functionality for setting file information is just as extensive. Support includes functions that allow you to:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Specify a callback function for handling input data that is in an undetermined format, used for loading raw FAX data (CCITT Group 3 or Group 4), raw run-length-encoded data (4-bit or 8-bit), raw Bitfield compressed data, raw PackBits compressed data or raw uncompressed data.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Specify the physical resolution (width and height) of the FlashPix, PhotoCD, or JBIG file to load.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Set the resolution to be used for loading or converting a PhotoCD file.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Set the resolution for the next save operation. Currently, this function only works with the JBIG format.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Set the DPI (dots per inch) value that LEADTOOLS uses when loading WMF files. By default, the value is 0. WMF files can contain vectored graphics or raster images. LEADTOOLS can load either type, but can save only raster images. The issue of image resolution arises mainly when loading vectored graphics.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Write comments.

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Write transforms to a FlashPix file.

Layers

PSD file formats support layers. LEADTOOLS provides functionality to allow the loading of an individual layer. PSD files can also be saved with layer information.

Loading Files

LEADTOOLS provides many options when loading image files. You can load an image at its own color resolution, manipulate it, and display it, regardless of current video mode. You can also convert the image to a specific color resolution (bits per pixel) as you load or save it. You can supply the input for a load operation or the output of a save operation, and you can add processing, such as a paint-while-load feature. You can control the execution of a load procedure as you supply transmitted image data. You can also load an image from a file, into a bitmap, and resize the bitmap as it loads.

The LEAD and JPEG (JFIF) file formats can be extended to support progressive loading and saving of images. Progressive loading is useful for transmitting images, because the first part of the file contains the full dimensions of the image. If you want to take advantage of this feature when loading a progressive file, you can control the number of passes that are required to complete the image.

JBIG and JPEG2000 also support progressive loading of an image.

Multipage Files

LEADTOOLS supports the following multipage file formats. These formats are:

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Animated Gif

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ CALS3

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ DICOM (Read Only)

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ DCX

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ FlashPix

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ IOCA/MODCA

$image\sqrblit.jpg$ Tiff(MPT)

When working with multipage files, you can delete individual pages within the file. When loading a multipage file, you can load all pages, or use a different function to load only one of the pages.

To load and play an animated GIF file, you can load a list of bitmaps from the file, and then play the list to a target bitmap in a loop that displays each change in the target bitmap. You can also create an animation sequence from scratch and save the bitmaps to create an animated GIF file.

Saving Files

LEADTOOLS provides many options when saving image files. You can convert an image to a specific color resolution (bits per pixel) as you save it. You can save a bitmap to a file in a memory buffer.

The LEAD and JPEG (JFIF) file formats can be extended to support progressive loading and saving of images. Progressive loading is useful for transmitting images, because the first part of the file contains the full dimensions of the image. If you want to save a progressive file you can control the number of passes that are required to complete the image.