IMAGE FILE FORMATS |
The ViSTA program allows one to save and load images in different formats. There are four main sets :
1. Proprietary
2. Graphic
3. Scientific
4. Raw
The proprietary formats are IMG and DIMF/ DIF (DTA IMage Format). IMG is an obsolete DTA format we have dropped (it came from our old software running program called Vision) : ViSTA can only read it. DIMF is a format which includes the image as well as the instrumental parameters with whom it has been gathered. The minimum dynamics of the signal is 16 bit.The graphic formats that ViSTA can generate are : BMP, GIF, JPEG, TIF, etc. (see below for the complete list). These formats were not born for scientific purposes and their worst feature is to show tipically an 8-bit dynamics, thus losing much of the information. ViSTA produces these files by directly reading the bitmap on the video, not the numerical matrix in the memory. Because of this, it is necessary to optimize the visualization before saving the image in this format in order to draw out as much information as possible. Additionally, these formats lose the information about shooting.
The scientific formats used and internationally recognized are:
CDF (http://cdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/) . The National Space Science Data Center's (NSSDC) Common Data Format (CDF) is a self-describing data abstraction for the storage and manipulation of multidimensional data in a platform- and discipline-independent fashion. When one first hears the term "Common Data Format" one intuitively thinks of data formats in the traditional (i.e. messy/convoluted storage of data on disk or tape) sense of the word. Although CDF has its own internal self describing format, it consists of more than just a data format. CDF is a scientific data management package (known as the "CDF Library") which allows programmers and application developers to manage and manipulate scalar, vector, and multi-dimensional data arrays. The irony of the term "FORMAT" is that the actual data format which CDF utilizes is completely transparent to the user and accessible through a consistent set of interface (known as the "CDF Interface") routines. Therefore, programmers are not burdened with performing low level I/O's to physically format and unformat the data file. This is all done for them. The development of CDF arose out of the recognition by the NSSDC for a class of data models that is matched to the structure of scientific data and the applications (i.e. statistical and numerical methods, visualization, and management) they serve.
FITS ( http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/) . It has been designed by the astronomical community and it allows one to save images by keeping both the 16-bit dynamics (or even more) and a lot of essential information.
PDS (http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov) . (Originally Planetary Data System, now Portable Data Specification) The Planetary Data System (PDS) Data Model was presented at the Twelfth IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems. This data model is used to represent the metadata that describes entities within the planetary science community such as data sets, spacecraft, and targets, as well as the archive data products produced by the PDS such as images, spectra, series, and qubes.
Raw format provides the BINARY formats. The saved image is written according to the original FORMAT. This format keep the original dynamics but they do not carry any information about the shooting of the image itself.
VICAR (http://www-mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/vicar/vic_file_fmt.html) . VICAR, which stands for Video Image Communication And Retrieval, is a general purpose image processing software system that has been developed since 1966 to digitally process multi-dimensional imaging data. VICAR was developed primarily to process images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's unmanned planetary spacecraft. It is now used for a variety of other applications including biomedical image processing, cartography, earth resources, astronomy, and geological exploration. It is not only used by JPL but by several universities, NASA sites and other science/research institutions in the United States and Europe.
EXTENSION |
DESCRIPTION |
FIELD |
MODE |
COLOR |
MULTI IMAGES |
|
.pix |
Alias/Wavefront RLE image format |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.iff |
Amiga |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pict |
Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT file |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.avs |
AVS X image |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.mono |
Bi-level bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8 |
.crw |
Camera RAW format (see list) |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
RGB8, RGB16 |
.yuv |
CCIR 601 4:1:1 |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.cdf |
Common Data Format by NASA |
Scientific |
R |
Y |
Y |
All |
.gif |
CompuServe Graphics Interchange |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
Y |
U8, RGB8 |
.dcm .dic |
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine |
Scientific |
R |
Y |
Y |
U8, U16, RGB8, RGB16 |
.dpx |
Digital Moving Picture Exchange |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.dds |
Direct Draw Surface |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.cut |
Dr. Halo |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.dimf .dif |
DTA Image Format |
Scientific |
RW |
Y |
Y |
All |
.fax |
FAX Group 3 TIFF |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8 |
.fpx |
FlashPix Format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.fits .fts .fit |
Flexible Image Transport System by NASA |
Scientific |
RW |
N |
N |
All |
.sgi |
IRIX RGB Image |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.bie .jbg .jbig |
Joint Bi-level Image experts Group |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.jp2 .j2c .j2k .jpx .jpc |
JPEG 2000 compliant |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.jpg .jpeg |
JPEG compliant |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.jng |
JPEG Network Graphics |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
Y |
U8, RGB8 |
.cin |
Kodak Cineon Image Format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pcd |
Kodak Photo CD |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.viff |
Khoros Visualization Image File Format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.mat |
MATLAB Image Format |
Scientific |
R |
Y |
N |
All |
.miff |
MAGICK Image File Format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.avi |
Microsoft Audio/Visual Interleaved |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
Y |
U8, RGB8 |
.emf |
Microsoft Enhanced Metafile |
Graphic |
R |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.dib |
Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.mtv |
MTV Raytracing image format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.mng |
Multiple Network Graphics |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
Y |
U8, RGB8 |
.otb |
On-the-air Bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pdb |
Palm Database ImageViewer Format |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8 |
.palm |
Palm pixmap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.picon |
Personal Icon |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pcds |
Photo CD |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.psd |
PhotoShop |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pnm |
Portable anymap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.pbm |
Portable Bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8 |
|
Portable Document Format |
Graphic |
W |
N |
N |
U8 |
.img .imq |
Portable Data Specification by NASA |
Scientific |
R |
Y |
N |
All |
.pgm |
Portable Gray Map |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8 |
.png |
Portable Network Graphics |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.ppm |
Portable Pixel Map |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.raw |
Raw |
Scientific |
RW |
Y |
Y |
All |
.rgb |
Raw red, green, and blue samples |
Graphic |
W |
N |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.ras .sun |
Sun Raster File |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.tga |
Truevision Targa File |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.tif .tiff |
Tagged Image File Format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.txt |
Text format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.tga |
Truevision Targa Files |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.img .vicar |
VICAR by NASA |
Scientific |
RW |
N |
N |
All |
.ico |
Windows icon file |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.bmp |
Windows or OS/2 bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.wbmp |
Wireless bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
N |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.p7 |
Xv's Visual Schnauzer thumbnail format |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.xbm .bm |
X Windows bitmap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.xpm |
X Windows pixmap |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
.dcx .pcx |
Zsoft Paintbrush |
Graphic |
RW |
Y |
N |
U8, RGB8 |
Formats with the same extension name are automatically detected.