 GRAPHICS FILE FORMATS
 =====================

   Within the computer world there are many different ways of
   handling and processing graphics electronically. There are also
   many more variations of graphic file formats for saving these
   permanently to disk.

   So lets start with some basic details about common machine-internal
   ways of representing computer graphics.

   NOTE:
   Vectorgraphics support in PMPro (Postscript, EPS, FIG
   and CGM) will interpret Postscript files with help from
   Ghostscript, so that these may be directly displayed, printed and
   of course also converted to bitmap formats (see also chapter
   "vector graphics support"). But for this ability, a working installation
   of Ghostscript is needed. Unfortunately we cannot offer support for
   problems concerning Ghostscript, since we have no influence on
   it's development.


   Computer graphics in general
   ----------------------------
   In general, it is necessary to represent the colour values of
   computer graphics in the form of their single components (red,
   green and blue or maybe others).
   These may be either RGB-, HSV-, YUV/YCbCr- or also CMYK values,
   but outside Desktop Publishing perhaps only RGB values are actually
   used and YUV/YCbCr is only significantly used for video processing
   (similarities to the PAL/NTSC systems).

   For the number of colour scales which can be represented by
   RGB-values, the digital "bandwidth" which is available for the
   single components is important.
   Since these single or complemented values need to be represented
   internally as either 8, 16 or 24 Bit, the resolutions that mainly
   occur are between 4 and 8 for home and semi-professional usage.
   Within the professional area even more bits per vector are used.

   It is perhaps important to mention one of the largest restrictions
   for computer graphics on home computers. With common computers
   and graphic cards it would be a waste of valuable CPU time
   and memory to store the complete colour values for any pixel on the
   screen. Sometimes for example not more than 16 Colours of the number of
   all possible colours are needed which suggests a more simple way of
   administration. Because of that, and also because of the highend status
   of TrueColour processing in the home business, the spectrum of
   representations for computer graphics is mainly split into two
   categories: palette-based and TrueColour data representation.

   Palette graphics are used for up to 256 Colours since one Byte
   may contain values from 0-255 which in this case would
   represent the number of a colour palette entry for each pixel.
   This would then actually contain the real RGB valuesof the
   colour (each one represented by either 4, 6 or 8 Bit for R, G and B).

   The byte data may either be available as Bitmap (planar or interleaved
   planar organisation) or chunky (which means as a chunk
   in a single byte).

   TrueColour graphics directly contain RGB values for each pixel.
   When making assumptions on how much memory would be needed to access
   these numbers of colours via a palette, it can be seen that the
   jump to the next higher type of variable to contain the number of the
   palette entry (Word) would simply double the required amount of memory.
   If you take a word (0-65535), for example, for storing
   the colour register number and also storing the actual
   RGB values as words, the result would be the opposite of saving memory.

   After having just discussed TrueColour representations, here are some
   of the most common types (even with 24 Bit graphics sometimes
   semi or fully planar representations are used):


         Common name                  R  G  B  values

         (DCTV)                       4  4  4  0..16

         Highcolour 15 Bit (from 16)   5  5  5  0..32     1 Bit unused
         Highcolour 15 Bit (from 16)   5  5  5  0..32     1 masking bit
         Highcolour 16 Bit (from 16)   5  6  5  0..32/64

         TrueColour 24 Bit (from 32)   8  8  8  0..255    1 Byte unused
         TrueColour 32 Bit (from 32)   8  8  8  0..255    1 Byte alpha ch.

   Additionally, it has to be mentioned that the order of R, G and B
   may differ from system to system and that even the use of
   24 Bit RGB values for colour space determination, although
   claiming to be 8:8:8, sometimes actually only
   results in 6:6:6 (mainly with old or low-cost cards with VGA
   chips on board).



   SVObjects - File formats of the PMPro
   =====================================

   The following overview indicates which graphics file formats
   are supported by PMPro.
   Not all of these formats may also be written (converted). The
   following table shows whether the single modules are able to not only
   read but also able to write these formats.


   File Format           SVObject   Colour Depth Read    Depth Write
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

   IFF-ILBM              ILBM       up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   IFF-ACBM              ACBM       up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   IFF-DEEP              DEEP       24 Bit Files          24 Bit Files
   IFF-YUVN              YUVN       24 Bit Files          24 Bit Files
   OS3-DataTypes        (DATATYPES) all graphics         (not available)
   PCX up to V3.0        PCX        up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   GIF up to 89a         GIF        up to 8 Bit files     up to 8 Bit
   BMP (W*nd*ws)         BMP        up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   Icon (W*nd*ws)        WinIcon    16 Colour Icons      (not available)
   FBM (*nix)            FBM        up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   PNM (*nix)            PNM        up to 8/24 Bit files  always as 24 Bit
   C64 (Koala, Doodle)   C64        up to 4 Bit Files    (not available)
   IMG (GEM/Ventura)     IMG        up to 8 Bit files    (not available)
   TIFF (V5.0)           TIFF       up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   EPS                   EPS        (various)            (not available)
   Targa                 Targa      up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   WPG (W*rdP*rf*ct)     WPG        up to 8 Bit files    (not available)
   SGI                   SGI        up to 8/24 Bit files  24 Bit Files
   SunRaster (RAS)       SunRaster  up to 8/24 Bit files  up to 8/24 Bit
   Pictor/PCPaint/PIC    Pictor     up to 8 Bit files    (not available)
   MAC (MacPaint)        MAC        up to 1 Bit Files    (not available)
   Mac PICT-2 Metafile   PICT       all (as 24 Bit)      (not available)
   JPEG (JFIF)           JPEG       up to 8/24 Bit files  always as 24 Bit
   PCD                   PCD        24 Bit Files         (not available)
   QRT/POV               QRT        24 Bit Files          24 Bit Files
   PNG (Network Gfx)     PNG        8/24Bit Files         8/24Bit Files
   CDR                   CDR        Preview Header       (not available) 
   Deegas (Atari)        Deegas     2/4/8 Bit            (not available) 
   FIG (Amifig)          AmiFIG     (various)            (not available)
   Ghostscript           GhostScipt 8/24Bit              (not available)
   CGM (GPlot)           GPlot      (various)            (not available)
   C-Source              CSource    (not available)      8/24 Bit Files
   WMF                   MetaView   (various)            (not available)   



   REFERENCE:
   ----------

   IFF-ILBM
   --------
   Standard AMIGA graphic file format.

    Reading:

     - IFF-ILBM uncompressed            1..24 Bit
     - IFF-ILBM CmpByteRun1 compressed  1..24 Bit

    Writing:

     - IFF-ILBM uncompressed            1..24 Bit
     - IFF-ILBM CmpByteRun1 compressed  1..24 Bit

    Reading/writing from/to Clipboard possible.


    Memory usage   (RAM):  - uncompressed: medium
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - uncompressed: medium
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    speed          :       - medium


   IFF-ACBM
   --------
   Standard graphic file format for AmigaBASIC.

    Reading:

     - IFF-ACBM uncompressed
       (no 24 Bit)

    Writing:

     - IFF-ACBM uncompressed
       (no 24 Bit)

    Reading/writing from/to Clipboard possible.


    Memory usage   (RAM):  - uncompressed: medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - uncompressed: medium
    speed          :       - medium


   IFF-DEEP
   --------
   24 Bit format for the video market.

    Reading:

     - IFF-DEEP 24 Bit RGB 8:8:8, uncompressed
     - IFF-DEEP 24 Bit RGB 8:8:8, RLE-encoded
     - IFF-DEEP 32 Bit

    Writing:

     - IFF-DEEP 24 Bit RGB 8:8:8, uncompressed

    Reading/writing from/to Clipboard possible.


    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium to high
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - medium
    speed          :       - fast


   IFF-YUVN
   --------
   24 Bit format for the video market.

    Reading:

     - IFF-YUVN 24 Bit (Y, 1/4 U, 1/4 V)

    Writing:

     - IFF-YUVN 24 Bit (Y, 1/4 U, 1/4 V)

    Reading/writing from/to Clipboard possible.


    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium to high
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - medium
    speed          :       - medium


   DATATYPES
   ---------
   file format drivers of Amiga OS 3.x

    Reading:

     - any PICTURE-Datatypes
       (with ANYDATATYPES also all the other datatypes)

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - variable
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - variable
    speed          :        - variable


   PCX
   ---
   Format of the PC program Paintbrush.

    Reading:

     2-256 Colours, 24 Bit.

      - PCX V2.5  up to  16 Colours
      - PCX V2.8a up to  16 Colours
      - PCX V2.8b up to  16 Greyscales
      - PCX V3.00 up to 256 Colours
      - PCX V2.5 - V3.00 with 24 Bit data

    Writing:

      Dependant on the colour depth of the source the following
      is written:

      source colours    version      type              destination col.

       2 ..  16        PCX V2.8a    planar bitmap      16
      32 .. 256        PCX V3.00    chunky pixel      256
      (24 Bit)         PCX V3.00    RGB planar        (24 Bit)

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - uncompressed: medium to high
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - uncompressed: medium to high
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    speed          :       - medium



   GIF
   ---
   Previous standard file format of Compuserve; now replaced by PNG.

    Reading:

      - GIF 87a
      - GIF 89a

    Writing:

      - GIF 87a
      - GIF 89a

      source colours    version      type              destination colours

      2 .. 256          GIF 87/89a   chunky pixel      2 .. 256

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - slow to medium
    speed          :        - medium to slow


   BMP
   ---
   Standard Windows graphic file format.

    Reading:

     - unencoded   in 1, 4, 8 or 24 Bit colour depth
     - RLE-encoded in       8       Bit colour depth

    Writing:

      source colours    version      type              destination colours

              2        BMP V3.00    packed chk. pix.      2
       4 ..  16        BMP V3.00    packed chk. pix.     16
      32 .. 256        BMP V3.00    chunky pixel        256
      (24 Bit)         BMP V3.00    RGB pixel         (24 Bit)


    Memory usage   (RAM):  - uncompressed: medium
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - uncompressed: medium
                           - compressed:   medium to high
    speed          :       - fast to medium


   WinIcon
   -------
   Standard Windows Icon format.

    Reading:

     - WinIcons with exactly 16 Colours

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - low
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - low
    speed          :       - fast


   FBM
   ---
   Unix graphics file format.

    Reading:

     FBM 8 Bit, 1 Bitplane               FBM 8 Bit, 3 Planes
     2..256 Colours; 256 Greyscales      24 Bit

    Writing:

     FBM 8 Bit, 1 Bitplane               FBM 8 Bit, 3 Planes
     2..256 Colours; 256 Greyscales      24 Bit

     8 Bit will always be written, even for 2..128 colours.

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - low
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - high
    speed          :       - fast


   PNM
   ---
   Unix graphic file format.

    Reading:

     All binary variations (non-ASCII) of the PNM format will be
     read (P4/P5/P6), non-binary (ASCII) variations are not
     supported (P1/P2/P3).

     PBM (P4)          PGM (P5)         PPM (P6)
     black & white     256 Greyscales   24 Bit TrueColour

    Writing:

     At the moment any input data no matter which colour depth it
     has will be written as 24 Bit PPM data (P6).

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - high
    speed          :       - fast


   C64
   ---
   Various C64 standard formats.

    Reading:

     Format   Size       Colours  Changed to

     Doodle   320x200    2/16    320x200
     Koala    160x200    4/16    320x200

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - low
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - low
    speed          :       - fast


   IMG
   ---
   Standard graphic format for the GUI system GEM.

    Reading:

     - IMG, 2..256 Greyscales

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - medium
    speed          :       - medium


   TIFF
   ----
   Graphic standard for the printing society (scanner, etc.)

    Reading:

     Compression   Code      Bytes  Planes    Max. Depth   Int. Repres.

     None          1         1      (system)  1*(System)   BITPLANE
     None          1         8      1,3       8 / 24       ONEPLANE
     Mac PackBits  32773     1      (system)  1*(System)   BITPLANE
     Mac PackBits  32773     4      1         4            ONEPLANE
     Mac PackBits  32773     8      1         8            ONEPLANE
     LZW           5         8      1,3       8 / 24       ONEPLANE

    Writing:

     Depth               Written as

     up to 256 Colours   Motorola (MM), uncompressed, 8, 1, ONEPLANE
     (24 Bit)            Motorola (MM), uncompressed, 8, 3, ONEPLANE

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - uncompressed: variabe
                           - compressed:   variable
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - uncompressed: varaible
                           - compressed:   variable
    speed          :       - variable


   EPS
   ---
   Most common format for the printing society (laser printers, etc.)

    Reading:

      Dependent upon the accompanying previews/thumbnails
      (most often in TIFF format)

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - variable
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - variable
    speed          :       - variable


   Targa
   -----
   Proprietary graphic standard for 24 Bit data (also 8, 16 and 32).

    Reading:

     Colours Depth    Organisation                   RLE-Compression

       1      1       planar monochrome              supported
       256    8       chunky pixel (Colours/grey)    supported
      (24  Bit)       BGR-Pixel                      supported

    Writing:

      source colours    version        type              destination col.

       2 .. 256         uncompressed   chunky pixel      256
       (24 Bit)         uncompressed   BGR              (24 Bit)

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - uncompressed: medium
                            - compressed:   medium
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - uncompressed: medium
                            - compressed:   medium
    speed          :        - fast

   WPG
   ---
   WordPerfect graphic file format.

    Reading:

     - WPG BitMap (Greyscales) with 1, 2, 4 or 8 Bit colour depth.
     - WPG BitMap (Palette)    with 1, 2, 4 or 8 Bit colour depth.

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - medium
    speed          :       - medium


   SGI
   ---
   Graphics file format for the SGI workstations.

    Reading:

       Num. of Colours   Organisation             Compression

       256 Colours       ( 8 Bit, chunky pixel)   uncompressed, RLE
       24 Bit            (24 Bit, R-G-B)          uncompressed, RLE

    Writing:

      source colours    compression    type         destination colours

       (24 Bit)         uncompressed   24 Bit RGB   (24 Bit)

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - medium
    speed          :       - fast


   SunRaster
   ---------
   Graphic file format for the SUN workstations.

    Reading:

       Colours         Organisation             Compression

       2 Colours       ( 1 Bit, planar)         uncompressed
       256 Colours     ( 8 Bit, chunky pixel)   uncompressed
       24 Bit          (24 Bit, R-G-B)          uncompressed

    Writing:

      source colours    compression    type              destination col.

       2..256           uncompressed   Chunky Pixel      256
       (24 Bit)         uncompressed   24 Bit RGB        (24 Bit)

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - medium
    speed          :        - fast


   Pictor
   ------
   Graphic file format of PC Paint.

    Reading:

     - files with 1, 4, or 8 Bit colour depth
       (monochrome or with EGA- or VGA-Palette).

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - medium
    speed          :        - medium


   MAC
   ---
   Graphic file format of MacPaint (MacIntosh).

    Reading:

     - MAC Black/White 576x720

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - slow
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - slow
    speed          :        - fast


   Mac PICT-2 (PICT, PCT)
   ----------------------
   Graphic file format of QuickDraw (MacIntosh) and others.

    Reading:

     - Mac PICT-2 with 1, 2, 4, 8 or 24 Bit colour depth,
       but always 24 Bit output.

    Memory usage   (RAM):   - slow to medium
    Memory usage   (Disk):  - slow to medium
    speed          :        - fast


   JPEG
   ----
   Standard graphic file format for lossy 24 Bit data compression
   (IJG-JFIF).
   Progressive JPEG is also supported. When saving graphics in
   JPEG format progressive JPEG may also be saved.

    Reading:

     - JPEG (IJG-JFIF), with output in 256 Colours or 24 Bit

    Writing:

     - JPEG (IJG-JFIF), from 256 Colours or 24 Bit

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - slow (virtual memory)
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - slow to high (variable compression)
    speed          :       - slow


   PCD
   ---
   Format of the pictures on Kodak-Photo-CDs.

    Reading:

     - BASE/16      BASE/4    BASE
       192x128      384x256   768x512

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - high
    speed          :       - medium


   QRT
   ---
   Raytracer format (Unix).

    Reading:

     - QRT Dump 24 Bit

    Writing:

     - QRT Dump 24 Bit

    Memory usage   (RAM):  - medium
    Memory usage   (Disk:  - high
    speed               :  - fast


   PNG
   ---

   It supports reading of Portable Network Graphics (PNG) files
   In detail these are :

   Reading :

    - 8 Bit color mapped files
    - True color files (16, 24, 32 Bit) as 24 Bit

   Writing : 8 / 24Bit Files


   C-Source
   ========
   This new saver module will allow you to save graphics as C-source code.


   Degas
   =====
   Had been widely used on the good old Atari computer!

    Read:

    - uncompressed Degas PI1 320x200: 16 colours
    - uncompressed Degas PI2 640x200: 4 colours
    - uncompressed Degas PI3 640x400: 2 colours


   CDR
   ===
   Vector graphics file format as used with PC program CorelDraw (TM).

    Read:

    - CDR Preview header, which are included with CDR files

    memory usage:               low
    speed:                      high


   CGM
   ===
   Vector graphics format from the PC. This modules requires Ghostscript
   3.53 and GPlot (aminet/gfx/conv/gplot.LHA).
   For more information see chapter "vector graphics support".


   WMF
   ===
   Vector graphics format from the PC. This modules requires Ghostscript
   3.53 and Metaview (aminet).
   For more information see chapter "vector graphics support".


   EPS
   ===
   The EPS-Module (Encapsulated Postscript) is now able to interpret
   EPS graphics in conjunction with Ghostscript. It is also now possible
   to save bitmapped graphics in EPS format!
   For more information see chapter "vector graphics support".


   FIG (Amifig)
   ============
   Vector graphics format used on Unix systems. This module requires
   Ghostscript 3.53+ and Amifig (aminet/gfx/edit/amifig.LHA).
   For more information see chapter "vector graphics support".


   Postscript (Ghostscript)
   ========================
   This module will allow you to display Postscript- and PDF-files and
   convert these into bitmapped formats using Ghostscript.
   For more information see chapter "vector graphics support".
