Graphics File Formats: Reference and Guide

The first comprehensive guide to graphical file formats that spans typical industry boundaries and graphical data types. It discusses and explains in clear English the key issues related to the implementation and design of file formats that store graphical data. This guide will be in demand because there is no universal standard for storage and transmission of graphical data.

Since the Web popularized the creation and manipulation of graphics, there has been an increased demand for graphics tools, requiring developers to understand graphics file formats. Graphics File Formats explores the means by which we store visual information in files. The book catalogs existing file formats, comparing their strengths and weaknesses, and discusses the issues programmers must address when designing and implementing new file formats. The authors avoid language-specific code throughout this book, shunning even pseudocode in favor of flowcharts, formulas, and conceptual diagrams.

The author exposes the guts of image files, both vector and raster, and, in ample appendixes, details other useful information, such as how each pixel's data is stored in a Targa file and how MPEG files work. The rest of the book explores competing ways of encoding line, color, and shape. (The discussion of color is particularly cool.) If you are venturing beyond just using libraries to read and write image files, Graphics File Formats can assist you.