The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software ========================================== README for release 5beta2 of 20-Aug-94 ====================================== This distribution contains a BETA TEST release of the Independent JPEG Group's free JPEG software. You are welcome to redistribute this software and to use it for any purpose, subject to the conditions under LEGAL ISSUES, below. Serious users of this software (particularly those incorporating it into larger programs) should contact jpeg-info@uunet.uu.net to be added to our electronic mailing list. Mailing list members are notified of updates and have a chance to participate in technical discussions, etc. This software is the work of Tom Lane, Philip Gladstone, Luis Ortiz, Jim Boucher, Lee Crocker, George Phillips, Davide Rossi, Ge' Weijers, and other members of the Independent JPEG Group. IJG is not associated with the official ISO JPEG standards committee. DOCUMENTATION ROADMAP ===================== Please read at least the files install.doc (installation instructions) and usage.doc (usage instructions). Useful information can also be found in the JPEG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article; see ARCHIVE LOCATIONS below to find out where to obtain the FAQ article. This file contains the following sections: OVERVIEW General description of JPEG and the IJG software. LEGAL ISSUES Copyright, lack of warranty, terms of distribution. (READ THIS) REFERENCES Where to learn more about JPEG. ARCHIVE LOCATIONS Where to find newer versions of this software. RELATED SOFTWARE Other stuff you should get. FILE FORMAT WARS Software *not* to get. TO DO Plans for future IJG releases. Other documentation files in the distribution are: User documentation: install.doc How to configure and install the IJG software. usage.doc Usage instructions for cjpeg, djpeg, rdjpgcom, wrjpgcom. *.1 Unix-style man pages for programs (same info as usage.doc). change.log Version-to-version change highlights. Programmer and internal documentation: libjpeg.doc How to use the JPEG library in your own programs. example.c Sample code for calling JPEG library. structure.doc Overview of the JPEG library's internal structure. filelist.doc Road map of IJG files. coderules.doc Coding style rules. Please read if you contribute code to IJG. If you want to understand how the JPEG code works, we suggest reading one or more of the REFERENCES, then looking at the documentation files (in roughly the order listed) before diving into the code. OVERVIEW ======== This package contains C software to implement JPEG image compression and decompression. JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized compression method for full-color and gray-scale images. JPEG is intended for compressing "real-world" scenes; cartoons and other non-realistic images are not its strong suit. JPEG is lossy, meaning that the output image is not necessarily identical to the input image. Hence you must not use JPEG if you have to have identical output bits. However, on typical images of real-world scenes, very good compression levels can be obtained with no visible change, and amazingly high compression levels are possible if you can tolerate a low-quality image. For more details, see the references, or just experiment with various compression settings. We provide a set of library routines for reading and writing JPEG image files, plus two simple applications "cjpeg" and "djpeg", which use the library to perform conversion between JPEG and some other popular image file formats. The library is intended to be reused in other applications. This software implements JPEG baseline and extended-sequential compression processes. Provision is made for supporting all variants of these processes, although some uncommon parameter settings aren't implemented yet. For legal reasons, we are not distributing code for the arithmetic-coding process; see LEGAL ISSUES. At present we have made no provision for supporting the progressive, hierarchical, or lossless processes defined in the standard. (Support for progressive mode may be offered in a future release.) In order to support file conversion and viewing software, we have included considerable functionality beyond the bare JPEG coding/decoding capability; for example, the color quantization modules are not strictly part of JPEG decoding, but they are essential for output to colormapped file formats or colormapped displays. These extra functions can be compiled out of the library if not required for a particular application. The emphasis in designing this software has been on achieving portability and flexibility, while also making it fast enough to be useful. In particular, the software is not intended to be read as a tutorial on JPEG. (See the REFERENCES section for introductory material.) While we hope that the entire package will someday be industrial-strength code, much remains to be done in performance tuning and in improving the capabilities of individual modules. We welcome the use of this software as a component of commercial products. No royalty is required, but we do ask for an acknowledgement in product documentation, as described under LEGAL ISSUES. LEGAL ISSUES ============ The authors make NO WARRANTY or representation, either express or implied, with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy. This software is copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, Thomas G. Lane. All Rights Reserved except as specified below. Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software (or portions thereof) for any purpose, without fee, subject to these conditions: (1) If any part of the source code for this software is distributed, then this README file must be included, with this copyright and no-warranty notice unaltered; and any additions, deletions, or changes to the original files must be clearly indicated in accompanying documentation. (2) If only executable code is distributed, then the accompanying documentation must state that "this software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". (3) Permission for use of this software is granted only if the user accepts full responsibility for any undesirable consequences; the authors accept NO LIABILITY for damages of any kind. These conditions apply to any software derived from or based on the IJG code, not only to use of the unmodified library. If you use our work, you ought to acknowledge us. Permission is NOT granted for the use of any IJG author's name or company name in advertising or publicity relating to this software or products derived from it. This software may be referred to only as "the Independent JPEG Group's software". We specifically permit and encourage the use of this software as the basis of commercial products, provided that all warranty or liability claims are assumed by the product vendor. ansi2knr.c is included in this distribution by permission of L. Peter Deutsch, sole proprietor of its copyright holder, Aladdin Enterprises of Menlo Park, CA. ansi2knr.c is NOT covered by the above copyright and conditions, but instead by the usual distribution terms of the Free Software Foundation; principally, that you must include source code if you redistribute it. (See the file ansi2knr.c for full details.) However, since ansi2knr.c is not needed as part of any program generated from the IJG code, this does not limit you more than the foregoing paragraphs do. The configuration script "configure" was produced by GNU Autoconf. Again, the FSF copyright terms apply only to configure, not to the IJG code. It appears that the arithmetic coding option of the JPEG spec is covered by patents owned by IBM, AT&T, and Mitsubishi. Hence arithmetic coding cannot legally be used without obtaining one or more licenses. For this reason, support for arithmetic coding has been removed from the free JPEG software. (Since arithmetic coding provides only a marginal gain over the unpatented Huffman mode, it is unlikely that very many implementations will support it.) So far as we are aware, there are no patent restrictions on the remaining code. We are required to state that "The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated." REFERENCES ========== We highly recommend reading one or more of these references before trying to understand the innards of any JPEG software. The best short technical introduction to the JPEG compression algorithm is Wallace, Gregory K. "The JPEG Still Picture Compression Standard", Communications of the ACM, April 1991 (vol. 34 no. 4), pp. 30-44. (Adjacent articles in that issue discuss MPEG motion picture compression, applications of JPEG, and related topics.) If you don't have the CACM issue handy, a PostScript file containing a revised version of the article is available at ftp.uu.net, graphics/jpeg/wallace.ps.gz. The file (actually a preprint for an article to appear in IEEE Trans. Consumer Electronics) omits the sample images that appeared in CACM, but it includes corrections and some added material. Note: the Wallace article is copyright ACM and IEEE, and it may not be used for commercial purposes. A somewhat less technical, more leisurely introduction to JPEG can be found in "The Data Compression Book" by Mark Nelson, published by M&T Books (Redwood City, CA), 1991, ISBN 1-55851-216-0. This book provides good explanations and example C code for a multitude of compression methods including JPEG. It is an excellent source if you are comfortable reading C code but don't know much about data compression in general. The book's JPEG sample code is far from industrial-strength, but when you are ready to look at a full implementation, you've got one here... The best full description of JPEG is the textbook "JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard" by William B. Pennebaker and Joan L. Mitchell, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993, ISBN 0-442-01272-1. Price US$59.95, 638 pp. The book includes the complete text of the ISO JPEG standards (DIS 10918-1 and draft DIS 10918-2). This is by far the most complete exposition of JPEG in existence, and we highly recommend it. The JPEG standard itself is not available electronically; you must order a paper copy through ISO. (Unless you feel a need to own a certified official copy, we recommend buying the Pennebaker and Mitchell book instead; it's much cheaper and includes a great deal of useful explanatory material.) In the US, copies of the standard may be ordered from ANSI Sales at (212) 642-4900, or from Global Engineering Documents at (800) 854-7179. (Global will take credit card orders, ANSI won't.) It's not cheap: as of 1992, ANSI was charging $95 for Part 1 and $47 for Part 2, plus 7% shipping/handling. The standard is divided into two parts, Part 1 being the actual specification, while Part 2 covers compliance testing methods. Part 1 is titled "Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images, Part 1: Requirements and guidelines" and has document number ISO/IEC IS 10918-1. As of late 1993, Part 2 is still at Draft International Standard status. It is titled "Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images, Part 2: Compliance testing" and has document number ISO/IEC DIS 10918-2. (The document number will change to IS 10918-2 when final approval is obtained.) A Part 3, covering extensions, is likely to appear in draft form in late 1994. The JPEG standard does not specify all details of an interchangeable file format. For the omitted details we follow the "JFIF" conventions, revision 1.02. A copy of the JFIF spec is available from: Literature Department C-Cube Microsystems, Inc. 1778 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035 phone (408) 944-6300, fax (408) 944-6314 A PostScript version of this document is available at ftp.uu.net, file graphics/jpeg/jfif.ps.gz. It can also be obtained by e-mail from the C-Cube mail server, netlib@c3.pla.ca.us. Send the message "send jfif_ps from jpeg" to the server to obtain the JFIF document; send the message "help" if you have trouble. The TIFF 6.0 file format specification can be obtained by FTP from sgi.com (192.48.153.1), file graphics/tiff/TIFF6.ps.Z; or you can order a printed copy from Aldus Corp. at (206) 628-6593. It should be noted that the TIFF 6.0 spec of 3-June-92 has a number of serious problems in its JPEG features. A redesign effort is currently underway to correct these problems; it is expected to result in a new, incompatible, spec. IJG intends to support the corrected version of TIFF when the new spec is issued. ARCHIVE LOCATIONS ================= [Note that this version is a beta-test release. It should soon be replaced by an "official" v5 release. Future releases will be archived in the same places, with file names changed to include the proper version numbers.] The "official" archive site for this software is ftp.uu.net (Internet address 192.48.96.9). The most recent released version can always be found there in directory graphics/jpeg. This particular version will be archived as graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v5beta2.tar.gz. If you are on the Internet, you can retrieve files from UUNET by standard anonymous FTP. If you don't have FTP access, UUNET's archives are also available via UUCP; contact postmaster@uunet.uu.net for information on retrieving files that way. Numerous Internet sites maintain copies of the UUNET files; in particular, you can probably find a copy at any site that archives comp.sources.misc submissions. However, only ftp.uu.net is guaranteed to have the latest official version. You can also obtain this software from CompuServe, in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO GRAPHSUP); this version will be file jpg5b2.zip in library 15. Again, CompuServe is not guaranteed to have the very latest version. The JPEG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article is a useful source of general information about JPEG. It is updated constantly and therefore is not included in this distribution. The FAQ is posted every two weeks to Usenet newsgroups comp.graphics, news.answers, and other groups. You can always obtain the latest version from the news.answers archive at rtfm.mit.edu (18.181.0.24). By FTP, fetch /pub/usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq. If you don't have FTP, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with body "send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq". RELATED SOFTWARE ================ Numerous viewing and image manipulation programs now support JPEG. (Quite a few of them use this library to do so.) The JPEG FAQ described above lists some of the more popular free and shareware viewers, and tells where to obtain them on Internet. If you are on a Unix machine, we highly recommend Jef Poskanzer's free PBMPLUS image software, which provides many useful operations on PPM-format image files. In particular, it can convert PPM images to and from a wide range of other formats. You can obtain this package by FTP from ftp.x.org (contrib/pbmplus*.tar.Z) or ftp.ee.lbl.gov (pbmplus*.tar.Z). There is also a newer update of this package called NETPBM, available from wuarchive.wustl.edu under directory /graphics/graphics/packages/NetPBM/. Unfortunately PBMPLUS/NETPBM is not nearly as portable as the IJG software is; you are likely to have difficulty making it work on any non-Unix machine. A different free JPEG implementation, written by the PVRG group at Stanford, is available from havefun.stanford.edu in directory pub/jpeg. This program is designed for research and experimentation rather than production use; it is slower, harder to use, and less portable than the IJG code, but it implements a larger subset of the JPEG standard. In particular, it supports lossless JPEG. FILE FORMAT WARS ================ Some JPEG programs produce files that are not compatible with our library. The root of the problem is that the ISO JPEG committee failed to specify a concrete file format. Some vendors "filled in the blanks" on their own, creating proprietary formats that no one else could read. (For example, none of the early commercial JPEG implementations for the Macintosh were able to exchange compressed files.) The file format we have adopted is called JFIF (see REFERENCES). This format has been agreed to by a number of major commercial JPEG vendors, and it has become the de facto standard. JFIF is a minimal or "low end" representation. Work is also going forward to incorporate JPEG compression into the TIFF standard, for use in "high end" applications that need to record a lot of additional data about an image. We intend to support TIFF in the future. We hope that these two formats will be sufficient and that other, incompatible JPEG file formats will not proliferate. Indeed, part of the reason for developing and releasing this free software is to help force rapid convergence to de facto standards for JPEG file formats. SUPPORT STANDARD, NON-PROPRIETARY FORMATS: demand JFIF or TIFF/JPEG! TO DO ===== This version contains all of the functionality intended for the official version 5 release, but it may also contain bugs. Please report any problems, installation difficulties, crummy documentation, or anything else that needs to be improved. In future versions, we are considering supporting progressive JPEG compression, the upcoming JPEG Part 3 extensions, and other improvements. Please send bug reports, offers of help, etc. to jpeg-info@uunet.uu.net.