Image Formats topic shortly describes the use of various image file formats supported in Pixopedia 24. At this time, supported file formats are: BMP, JPEG, PCX, TIFF, GIF, PNG, TARGA , with various subformat options and compressing methods.

Image Formats

In this topic, we will not discuss in details the structure of various file formats, the image can be saved. We will just give a brief description on supported formats, and how to set desired options for each.

The panel Parameters Preview is started from SaveAs dialog by clicking Advanced button after specifying filename and extension, or choosing some existing picture .
For each file format, various options can be specified. Once preferences are specified, saving in some format will automatically save image with options set in this panel, prior to saving action.

Although, Pixopedia 24 works with 24-bit color depth which gives 16M of different colors, you can save the picture with less colors as well. It depends on number of colors set inside the file format preferences.

By clicking on Preview button you will be able to see how your image will be saved. This is very usefull when you save your image in less then 16M colors or when using quality slider in JPEG format.

For more information on image file formats, refer to file format books, or see some on-line documentation on the web.

BMP
is Windows and OS/2 file format. You can select compression method from combo box. Two types of compression are supported: UNCOMPRESSED image and RLE compression. Number of colors are selected from another combo box .

JPEG
file format uses so called loosy compression method. The quality of the image depends on quality factor. Lower the factor, less space on disk is occupied by image, but some color informations are lost as well. This file format is widely used for web pages. For other options refer to JPEG file format documentation.

PCX
is Zsoft Paintbrush file format. It has same options as BMP file format: compression method and number of colors.

TIFF
is file format used for professional publishing. Possible options are sam as for BMP and PCX, except that other compression methods are used. Methods currently not supported are explicitly marked so. NOTE: At present moment you can read the TIFF file compressed with LZW method, but you can not save the file with same compression method.

GIF
is very popular file format extensively used for web publishing. It supports maximum of 255 colors, and it can be in two subformats GIF87a and GIF89a, interlaced or noninterlaced, saved with transparency information or not. This file format uses LZW compression, although you can read and save this format as uncompressed. Because of Unisys patent on LZW compression, further support of this format depends on achieving a fair license agreement with Unisys Corp.