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Image File Types and Associated Attributes

Attributes for Reading Image Files

The table below describes the attributes that you can specify for the image readers.

When you are reading images, include the FORMAT= attribute in the method if any of the following conditions are true:

FORMAT= is not required in other cases, but it is always more efficient to specify it.

Image Formats for Reading
File Type Reader Attributes Comment
BMP FORMAT=BMP

COMPRESS=NONE

COMPRESS=RLE


is the default.

sets compression to run-length encoded.

CAT FORMAT=CAT
DIB FORMAT=DIB is supported only by Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT.
EMF FORMAT=EMF is supported only by Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.
EPSI FORMAT=EPSI

DPI=num

When read with the Image Editor, the SAS/AF Image DataModel, or IMGOP, EPSI files are displayed using a low-resolution, monochrome preview of the actual image.

specifies the number of dots per inch when the output file is created.

GIF FORMAT=GIF
JFIF FORMAT=JFIF is required for reading JPEG files that use JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF).

DCT=mode selects the specific type of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) to use when processing the image; mode can be
  • INT -- an integer DCT

  • FAST -- a faster and less accurate integer DCT

  • FLOAT -- a slightly more accurate method that can be slower unless the host has very fast floating-point hardware.


GRAYSCALE produces a gray-scale image even if the JPEG file is in color. This is useful for viewing on monochrome displays. The reader runs noticeably faster in this mode.

VERSION prints the version number and copyright messages for the Independent JPE Group's JFIF software to the log.

FAST enables certain recommended processing options for fast, low quality output; equivalent to enabling ONEPASS, DITHER=ORDERED, COLORS=216, NOSMOOTH, and DCT=FAST.

NOSMOOTH uses a faster, lower quality, upsampling routine.

ONEPASS uses a one-pass color quantization instead of the standard two-pass quantization. The one-pass method is faster and needs less memory, but it produces a lower-quality image. This attribute is ignored unless you also specify the COLORS attribute. ONEPASS is always enabled for gray-scale output.

COLORS=n reduces the number of colors in the image to at most n colors; n must be in the range 2...256.

SCALE_RATIO=n scales the output image by a factor of 1/n. Currently the scale factor must be 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8. This is useful when processing a large image and only a smaller version is needed, because the reader is much faster when scaling down the output.

DITHER=mode selects the specific type of dithering to use color quantization; mode can be
  • FS -- Floyd-Steinberg dithering

  • ORDERED -- ordered dithering

  • NONE -- no dithering.

PBM FORMAT=PBM
PCD FORMAT=PCD specifies photo CD format. FORMAT=PCD RES= specifies the image resolution to be read. Photo CD images have multiple resolution images in each image. Values are:
BASE/64

64x96

BASE/16

128x192

BASE/4

256x384

BASE

512x768 (default)

4BASE

1024x1536

16BASE

2048x3072.

PCX FORMAT=PCX is not supported for writing.
PNG FORMAT=PNG
TGA FORMAT=TGA
TIFF FORMAT=TIFF
XBM FORMAT=XBM
XPM FORMAT=XPM is supported only under the X Windows System under UNIX.
XWD FORMAT=XWD

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