[imager.git] / fileformatdocs / sgiimage-1.00.html

<html><head><title>SGI Image File Format Specification</title></head><body bgcolor="#ffffff">\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">\r
</font><center>\r
<h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The SGI Image File Format</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">Version 1.00\r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">Paul Haeberli<br>\r
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems<br>\r
paulhaeberli@yahoo.com<br>\r
</font></p></center>\r
<h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">Introduction</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">This is the definitive document describing the SGI image file format.  This \r
is a low level spec that describes the actual byte level format of SGI image\r
files.  On SGI machines the preferred way of reading and writing SGI image\r
files is to use the image library -limage.  This library provides a set\r
of functions that make it easy to read and write SGI images.  If you are \r
on an SGI workstation you can get info on -limage by doing:\r
</font></p><blockquote><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">% man 4 rgb\r
</font></pre></blockquote>\r
<h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">A note on byte order of values in the SGI image files</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">In the following description a notation like bits[7..0] is used to denote\r
a range of bits in a binary value.   Bit 0 is the lowest order bit in\r
the value.\r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">All short values are represented by 2 bytes.  The first byte stores the\r
high order 8 bits of the value: bits[15..8].  The second byte stores\r
the low order 8 bits of the value: bits[7..0].  \r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">So this function will read a short value from the file:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    unsigned short getshort(inf)\r
    FILE *inf;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char buf[2];\r
\r
	fread(buf,2,1,inf);\r
	return (buf[0]&lt;&lt;8)+(buf[1]&lt;&lt;0);\r
    }\r
</font></pre>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">All long values are represented by 4 bytes.  The first byte stores the\r
high order 8 bits of the value: bits[31..24].  The second byte stores\r
bits[23..16].  The third byte stores bits[15..8]. The forth byte stores\r
the low order 8 bits of the value: bits[7..0].  \r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">And this function will read a long value from the file:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    static long getlong(inf)\r
    FILE *inf;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char buf[4];\r
\r
	fread(buf,4,1,inf);\r
	return (buf[0]&lt;&lt;24)+(buf[1]&lt;&lt;16)+(buf[2]&lt;&lt;8)+(buf[3]&lt;&lt;0);\r
    }\r
</font></pre>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font><p>\r
</p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The general structure of an SGI image file</font></h3>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     The header indicates whether the image is run length encoded (RLE).\r
</font><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     If the image is not run length encoded, this is the structure:\r
</font></p><blockquote>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> 	The Header<br>\r
 	The Image Data\r
</font></blockquote>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     If the image is run length encoded, this is the structure:\r
</font><blockquote>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> 	The Header<br>\r
 	The Offset Tables<br>\r
 	The Image Data\r
</font></blockquote>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The Header</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The header consists of the following:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">        Size  | Type   | Name      | Description   \r
 \r
      2 bytes | short  | MAGIC     | IRIS image file magic number\r
      1 byte  | char   | STORAGE   | Storage format\r
      1 byte  | char   | BPC       | Number of bytes per pixel channel \r
      2 bytes | ushort | DIMENSION | Number of dimensions\r
      2 bytes | ushort | XSIZE     | X size in pixels \r
      2 bytes | ushort | YSIZE     | Y size in pixels \r
      2 bytes | ushort | ZSIZE     | Number of channels\r
      4 bytes | long   | PIXMIN    | Minimum pixel value\r
      4 bytes | long   | PIXMAX    | Maximum pixel value\r
      4 bytes | char   | DUMMY     | Ignored\r
     80 bytes | char   | IMAGENAME | Image name\r
      4 bytes | long   | COLORMAP  | Colormap ID\r
    404 bytes | char   | DUMMY     | Ignored\r
</font></pre>\r
<blockquote>\r
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
Here is a description of each field in the image file header:\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	MAGIC - This is the decimal value 474 saved as a short. This\r
 	identifies the file as an SGI image file.\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	STORAGE - specifies whether the image is stored using run\r
 	length encoding (RLE) or not (VERBATIM).   If RLE is used, the value \r
        of this byte will be 1.  Otherwise the value of this byte will be 0.\r
 	The only allowed values for this field are 0 or 1.\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	BPC - describes the precision that is used to store each\r
 	channel of an image.  This is the number of bytes per pixel\r
 	component.  The majority of SGI image files use 1 byte per \r
 	pixel component, giving 256 levels.  Some SGI image files use \r
 	2 bytes per component.  The only allowed values for this field \r
 	are 1 or 2.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	DIMENSION - described the number of dimensions in the data stored\r
 	in the image file.  The only allowed values are 1, 2, or 3.  If\r
 	this value is 1, the image file consists of only 1 channel and \r
 	only 1 scanline (row).  The length of this scanline is given by the \r
 	value of XSIZE below.  If this value is 2, the file consists of a \r
 	single channel with a number of scanlines. The width and height\r
 	of the image are given by the values of XSIZE and YSIZE below.\r
 	If this value is 3, the file consists of a number of channels.\r
 	The width and height of the image are given by the values of \r
 	XSIZE and YSIZE below.  The number of channels is given by the \r
 	value of ZSIZE below.  \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	XSIZE - The width of the image in pixels\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 \r
 	YSIZE - The height of the image in pixels\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 \r
 	ZSIZE - The number of channels in the image.  B/W (greyscale) images \r
 	are stored as 2 dimensional images with a ZSIZE or 1.  RGB color \r
 	images are stored as 3 dimensional images with a ZSIZE of 3.  An RGB \r
 	image with an ALPHA channel is stored as a 3 dimensional image with \r
 	a ZSIZE of 4.  There are no inherent limitations in the SGI image \r
 	file format that would preclude the creation of image files with more \r
 	than 4 channels.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	PINMIN - The minimum pixel value in the image.  The value of\r
 	0 may be used if no pixel has a value that is smaller than 0.\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 \r
 	PINMAX - The maximum pixel value in the image.  The value of\r
 	255 may be used if no pixel has a value that is greater than 255.\r
 	This is the value that is considered to be full brightness in \r
 	the image.  \r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	DUMMY - This 4 bytes of data should be set to 0. \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 \r
 	IMAGENAME - An null terminated ascii string of up to 79 characters \r
 	terminated by a null may be included here.  This is not commonly\r
 	used.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	COLORMAP - This controls how the pixel values in the file should be\r
 	interpreted.  It can have one of these four values:\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	    0:  NORMAL - The data in the channels represent B/W values\r
 		for images with 1 channel, RGB values for images with 3\r
 		channels, and RGBA values for images with 4 channels.\r
 		Almost all the SGI image files are of this type. \r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	    1:  DITHERED - The image will have only 1 channel of data.\r
 		For each pixel, RGB data is packed into one 8 bit value.\r
 		3 bits are used for red and green, while blue uses 2 bits.\r
 		Red data is found in bits[2..0], green data in bits[5..3],\r
 		and blue data in bits[7..6].  This format is obsolete.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	    2:  SCREEN - The image will have only 1 channel of data.\r
 		This format was used to store color-indexed pixels.\r
 		To convert the pixel values into RGB values a colormap\r
 		must be used.  The appropriate color map varies from\r
 		image to image.  This format is obsolete.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	    3:  COLORMAP - The image is used to store a color map from\r
 		an SGI machine.  In this case the image is not displayable\r
 		in the conventional sense.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	DUMMY - This 404 bytes of data should be set to 0. This makes the\r
 	header exactly 512 bytes. \r
</font></p></blockquote>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The Image Data (if not RLE)</font></h3>\r
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     If the image is stored verbatim (without RLE), then image data directly\r
     follows the 512 byte header.  The data for each scanline of the first\r
     channel is written first.  If the image has more than 1 channel, all\r
     the data for the first channel is written, followed by the remaining\r
     channels.  If the BPC value is 1, then each scanline is written as XSIZE\r
     bytes.  If the BPC value is 2, then each scanline is written as XSIZE \r
     shorts.  These shorts are stored in the byte order described above.\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The Offset Tables (if RLE)</font></h3>\r
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     If the image is stored using run length encoding, offset tables\r
     follow the header that describe what the file offsets are to the \r
     RLE for each scanline.  This information only applies if the value \r
     for STORAGE above is 1.\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">         Size  | Type   | Name      | Description   \r
\r
  tablen longs | long   | STARTTAB  | Start table\r
  tablen longs | long   | LENGTHTAB | Length table\r
</font></pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     One entry in each table is needed for each scanline of RLE data.  The \r
     total number of scanlines in the image (tablen) is determined by the\r
     product of the YSIZE and ZSIZE.  There are two tables of longs that \r
     are written. Each consists of tablen longs of data.  The first\r
     table has the file offsets to the RLE data for each scanline in the\r
     image.  In a file with more than 1 channel (ZSIZE &gt; 1) this table first \r
     has all the offsets for the scanlines in the first channel, followed\r
     be offsets for the scanlines in the second channel, etc.  The second \r
     table has the RLE data length for each scanline in the image.  In a \r
     file with more than 1 channel (ZSIZE &gt; 1) this table first has all the \r
     RLE data lengths for the scanlines in the first channel, followed\r
     be RLE data lengths for the scanlines in the second channel, etc.\r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     To find the the file offset, and the number of bytes in the RLE data \r
     for a particular scanline, these two arrays may be read in and indexed as\r
     follows: \r
 \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	To read in the tables:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    unsigned long *starttab, *lengthtab;\r
\r
    tablen = YSIZE*ZSIZE*sizeof(long);\r
    starttab = (unsigned long *)mymalloc(tablen);\r
    lengthtab = (unsigned long *)mymalloc(tablen);\r
    fseek(inf,512,SEEK_SET);\r
    readlongtab(inf,starttab);\r
    readlongtab(ing,lengthtab);\r
</font></pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
\r
</font><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	To find the file offset and RLE data length for a scanline:\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	    rowno is an integer in the range 0 to YSIZE-1\r
 	    channo is an integer in the range 0 to ZSIZE-1\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    rleoffset = starttab[rowno+channo*YSIZE]\r
    rlelength = lengthtab[rowno+channo*YSIZE]\r
</font></pre>\r
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     It is possible for two identical rows (scanlines) to share compressed \r
     data.  A completely white image could be written as a single compressed \r
     row and having all table entries point to that row.  Another little hack \r
     that should work is if you are writing out a RGB RLE file, and a \r
     particular scanline is achromatic (greyscale), you could just make the \r
     r, g and b rows point to the same data!!\r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">The Image Data (if RLE)</font></h3>\r
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     This information only applies if the value for STORAGE above is 1.  If\r
     the image is stored using run length encoding, the image data follows\r
     the offset tables above.  The RLE data is not in any particular order.\r
     The offset tables above are used to locate the rle data for any scanline.\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     The RLE data must be read in from the file and expanded into pixel \r
     data in the following manner:\r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
     If BPC is 1, then there is one byte per pixel.  In this case the \r
     RLE data should be read into an array of chars.  To expand\r
     data, the low order seven bits of the first byte: bits[6..0]\r
     are used to form a count.  If the high order bit of the first\r
     byte is 1: bit[7], then the count is used to specify how many\r
     bytes to copy from the RLE data buffer to the destination.\r
     Otherwise, if the high order bit of the first byte is 0: bit[7],\r
     then the count is used to specify how many times to repeat the \r
     value of the following byte, in the destination.  This process\r
     continues until a count of 0 is found.  This should decompress\r
     exactly XSIZE pixels.  \r
</font></p><p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
 	Here is example code to decompress a scanline:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    expandrow(optr,iptr,z)\r
    unsigned char *optr, *iptr;\r
    int z;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char pixel, count;\r
    \r
	optr += z;\r
	while(1) {\r
	    pixel = *iptr++;\r
	    if ( !(count = (pixel &amp; 0x7f)) )\r
		return;\r
	    if(pixel &amp; 0x80) {\r
		while(count--) \r
		    *optr++ = *iptr++;\r
	    } else {\r
		pixel = *iptr++;\r
		while(count--) \r
		    *optr++ = pixel;\r
	    }\r
	}\r
    }\r
</font></pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1"> \r
</font><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     If BPC is 2, there is one short (2 bytes) per pixel.  In this \r
     case the RLE data should be read into an array of shorts.  To \r
     expand data, the low order seven bits of the first short: bits[6..0]\r
     are used to form a count.  If bit[7] of the first short is 1, then \r
     the count is used to specify how many shorts to copy from the RLE \r
     data buffer to the destination.  Otherwise, if bit[7] of the first \r
     short is 0, then the count is used to specify how many times to \r
     repeat the value of the following short, in the destination.  This \r
     process proceeds until a count of 0 is found.  This should decompress\r
     exactly XSIZE pixels.  Note that the byte order of short data in\r
     the input file should be used, as described above.\r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">Implementation notes</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     Implementation of both RLE and VERBATIM format for images with\r
     BPC of 1 is required since the great majority of SGI images are in\r
     this format.  Support for images with a 2 BPC is encouraged.\r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     If the ZSIZE of an image is 1, it is assumed to represent B/W\r
     values.  If the ZSIZE is 3, it is assumed to represent RGB data,\r
     and if ZSIZE is 4, it is assumed to contain RGB data with alpha.\r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     The origin for all SGI images is the lower left hand corner.  The\r
     first scanline (row 0) is always the bottom row of the image.   \r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">Naming Conventions</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     On SGI systems, SGI image files end with the extension .bw if\r
     they are B/W images, they end in .rgb if they contain RGB image\r
     data, and end in .rgba if they are RGB images with alpha channel.\r
</font></p><p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">     Sometimes the .sgi extension is used as well.\r
</font></p><h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">An example</font></h3>\r
<p>\r
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">This program will write out a valid B/W SGI image file:\r
</font></p><pre><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="-1">    #include "stdio.h"\r
     \r
    #define IXSIZE      (23)\r
    #define IYSIZE      (15)\r
     \r
    putbyte(outf,val)\r
    FILE *outf;\r
    unsigned char val;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char buf[1];\r
     \r
	buf[0] = val;\r
	fwrite(buf,1,1,outf);\r
    }\r
     \r
    putshort(outf,val)\r
    FILE *outf;\r
    unsigned short val;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char buf[2];\r
     \r
	buf[0] = (val&gt;&gt;8);\r
	buf[1] = (val&gt;&gt;0);\r
	fwrite(buf,2,1,outf);\r
    }\r
     \r
    static int putlong(outf,val)\r
    FILE *outf;\r
    unsigned long val;\r
    {\r
	unsigned char buf[4];\r
     \r
	buf[0] = (val&gt;&gt;24);\r
	buf[1] = (val&gt;&gt;16);\r
	buf[2] = (val&gt;&gt;8);\r
	buf[3] = (val&gt;&gt;0);\r
	return fwrite(buf,4,1,outf);\r
    }\r
     \r
    main()\r
    {\r
	FILE *of;\r
	char iname[80];\r
	unsigned char outbuf[IXSIZE];\r
	int i, x, y;\r
     \r
	of = fopen("example.rgb","w");\r
	if(!of) {\r
	    fprintf(stderr,"sgiimage: can't open output file\n");\r
	    exit(1);\r
	}\r
	putshort(of,474);       /* MAGIC               */\r
	putbyte(of,0);          /* STORAGE is VERBATIM */\r
	putbyte(of,1);          /* BPC is 1            */\r
	putshort(of,2);         /* DIMENSION is 2      */\r
	putshort(of,IXSIZE);    /* XSIZE               */\r
	putshort(of,IYSIZE);    /* YSIZE               */\r
	putshort(of,1);         /* ZSIZE               */\r
	putlong(of,0);          /* PIXMIN is 0         */\r
	putlong(of,255);        /* PIXMAX is 255       */\r
	for(i=0; i&lt;4; i++)      /* DUMMY 4 bytes       */\r
	    putbyte(of,0);\r
	strcpy(iname,"No Name");\r
	fwrite(iname,80,1,of);  /* IMAGENAME           */\r
	putlong(of,0);          /* COLORMAP is 0       */\r
	for(i=0; i&lt;404; i++)    /* DUMMY 404 bytes     */\r
	    putbyte(of,0);\r
     \r
	for(y=0; y&lt;IYSIZE; y++) {\r
	    for(x=0; x&lt;IXSIZE; x++) \r
            outbuf[x] = (255*x)/(IXSIZE-1);\r
	    fwrite(outbuf,IXSIZE,1,of);\r
	}\r
	fclose(of);\r
    }\r
</font></pre>\r
\r
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