blob: 921095d823cefbe085a8a2f660ca5dd75b6e4f9a [file] [log] [blame]
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +00001libjpeg-turbo note: This file is mostly taken from the libjpeg v8b README
2file, and it is included only for reference. Some parts of it may not apply to
3libjpeg-turbo. Please see README-turbo.txt for information specific to the
4turbo version.
DRC03c3c9b2010-02-21 15:45:00 +00005
6
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +00007The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software
8==========================================
9
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +000010This distribution contains a release of the Independent JPEG Group's free JPEG
11software. You are welcome to redistribute this software and to use it for any
12purpose, subject to the conditions under LEGAL ISSUES, below.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000013
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000014This software is the work of Tom Lane, Guido Vollbeding, Philip Gladstone,
15Bill Allombert, Jim Boucher, Lee Crocker, Bob Friesenhahn, Ben Jackson,
16Julian Minguillon, Luis Ortiz, George Phillips, Davide Rossi, Ge' Weijers,
17and other members of the Independent JPEG Group.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000018
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000019IJG is not affiliated with the official ISO JPEG standards committee.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000020
21
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000022DOCUMENTATION ROADMAP
23=====================
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000024
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000025This file contains the following sections:
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000026
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000027OVERVIEW General description of JPEG and the IJG software.
28LEGAL ISSUES Copyright, lack of warranty, terms of distribution.
29REFERENCES Where to learn more about JPEG.
30ARCHIVE LOCATIONS Where to find newer versions of this software.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000031FILE FORMAT WARS Software *not* to get.
32TO DO Plans for future IJG releases.
33
34Other documentation files in the distribution are:
35
36User documentation:
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000037 install.txt How to configure and install the IJG software.
38 usage.txt Usage instructions for cjpeg, djpeg, jpegtran,
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000039 rdjpgcom, and wrjpgcom.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000040 *.1 Unix-style man pages for programs (same info as usage.txt).
41 wizard.txt Advanced usage instructions for JPEG wizards only.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000042 change.log Version-to-version change highlights.
43Programmer and internal documentation:
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000044 libjpeg.txt How to use the JPEG library in your own programs.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000045 example.c Sample code for calling the JPEG library.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000046 structure.txt Overview of the JPEG library's internal structure.
47 filelist.txt Road map of IJG files.
48 coderules.txt Coding style rules --- please read if you contribute code.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000049
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000050Please read at least the files install.txt and usage.txt. Some information
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000051can also be found in the JPEG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article. See
52ARCHIVE LOCATIONS below to find out where to obtain the FAQ article.
53
54If you want to understand how the JPEG code works, we suggest reading one or
55more of the REFERENCES, then looking at the documentation files (in roughly
56the order listed) before diving into the code.
Thomas G. Lanebd543f01991-12-13 00:00:00 +000057
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000058
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000059OVERVIEW
60========
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000061
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000062This package contains C software to implement JPEG image encoding, decoding,
63and transcoding. JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized compression
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +000064method for full-color and gray-scale images. JPEG's strong suit is compressing
65photographic images or other types of images which have smooth color and
66brightness transitions between neighboring pixels. Images with sharp lines or
67other abrupt features may not compress well with JPEG, and a higher JPEG
68quality may have to be used to avoid visible compression artifacts with such
69images.
70
71JPEG is lossy, meaning that the output pixels are not necessarily identical to
72the input pixels. However, on photographic content and other "smooth" images,
73very good compression ratios can be obtained with no visible compression
74artifacts, and extremely high compression ratios are possible if you are
75willing to sacrifice image quality (by reducing the "quality" setting in the
76compressor.)
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000077
78This software implements JPEG baseline, extended-sequential, and progressive
79compression processes. Provision is made for supporting all variants of these
80processes, although some uncommon parameter settings aren't implemented yet.
81For legal reasons, we are not distributing code for the arithmetic-coding
82variants of JPEG; see LEGAL ISSUES. We have made no provision for supporting
83the hierarchical or lossless processes defined in the standard.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000084
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000085We provide a set of library routines for reading and writing JPEG image files,
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000086plus two sample applications "cjpeg" and "djpeg", which use the library to
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000087perform conversion between JPEG and some other popular image file formats.
88The library is intended to be reused in other applications.
89
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +000090In order to support file conversion and viewing software, we have included
91considerable functionality beyond the bare JPEG coding/decoding capability;
92for example, the color quantization modules are not strictly part of JPEG
93decoding, but they are essential for output to colormapped file formats or
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000094colormapped displays. These extra functions can be compiled out of the
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000095library if not required for a particular application.
96
97We have also included "jpegtran", a utility for lossless transcoding between
98different JPEG processes, and "rdjpgcom" and "wrjpgcom", two simple
99applications for inserting and extracting textual comments in JFIF files.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000100
101The emphasis in designing this software has been on achieving portability and
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +0000102flexibility, while also making it fast enough to be useful. In particular,
103the software is not intended to be read as a tutorial on JPEG. (See the
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000104REFERENCES section for introductory material.) Rather, it is intended to
105be reliable, portable, industrial-strength code. We do not claim to have
106achieved that goal in every aspect of the software, but we strive for it.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000107
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000108We welcome the use of this software as a component of commercial products.
109No royalty is required, but we do ask for an acknowledgement in product
110documentation, as described under LEGAL ISSUES.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000111
112
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000113LEGAL ISSUES
114============
115
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000116In plain English:
117
1181. We don't promise that this software works. (But if you find any bugs,
119 please let us know!)
1202. You can use this software for whatever you want. You don't have to pay us.
1213. You may not pretend that you wrote this software. If you use it in a
122 program, you must acknowledge somewhere in your documentation that
123 you've used the IJG code.
124
125In legalese:
126
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000127The authors make NO WARRANTY or representation, either express or implied,
128with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or
129fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you,
130its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy.
131
Guido Vollbeding989630f2010-01-10 00:00:00 +0000132This software is copyright (C) 1991-2010, Thomas G. Lane, Guido Vollbeding.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000133All Rights Reserved except as specified below.
134
135Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
136software (or portions thereof) for any purpose, without fee, subject to these
137conditions:
138(1) If any part of the source code for this software is distributed, then this
139README file must be included, with this copyright and no-warranty notice
140unaltered; and any additions, deletions, or changes to the original files
141must be clearly indicated in accompanying documentation.
142(2) If only executable code is distributed, then the accompanying
143documentation must state that "this software is based in part on the work of
144the Independent JPEG Group".
145(3) Permission for use of this software is granted only if the user accepts
146full responsibility for any undesirable consequences; the authors accept
147NO LIABILITY for damages of any kind.
148
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000149These conditions apply to any software derived from or based on the IJG code,
150not just to the unmodified library. If you use our work, you ought to
151acknowledge us.
152
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +0000153Permission is NOT granted for the use of any IJG author's name or company name
154in advertising or publicity relating to this software or products derived from
155it. This software may be referred to only as "the Independent JPEG Group's
156software".
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000157
158We specifically permit and encourage the use of this software as the basis of
159commercial products, provided that all warranty or liability claims are
160assumed by the product vendor.
161
162
163ansi2knr.c is included in this distribution by permission of L. Peter Deutsch,
164sole proprietor of its copyright holder, Aladdin Enterprises of Menlo Park, CA.
165ansi2knr.c is NOT covered by the above copyright and conditions, but instead
166by the usual distribution terms of the Free Software Foundation; principally,
167that you must include source code if you redistribute it. (See the file
168ansi2knr.c for full details.) However, since ansi2knr.c is not needed as part
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000169of any program generated from the IJG code, this does not limit you more than
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000170the foregoing paragraphs do.
171
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000172The Unix configuration script "configure" was produced with GNU Autoconf.
173It is copyright by the Free Software Foundation but is freely distributable.
174The same holds for its supporting scripts (config.guess, config.sub,
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000175ltmain.sh). Another support script, install-sh, is copyright by X Consortium
176but is also freely distributable.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000177
178It appears that the arithmetic coding option of the JPEG spec is covered by
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000179patents owned by IBM, AT&T, and Mitsubishi. Hence arithmetic coding cannot
180legally be used without obtaining one or more licenses. For this reason,
181support for arithmetic coding has been removed from the free JPEG software.
182(Since arithmetic coding provides only a marginal gain over the unpatented
183Huffman mode, it is unlikely that very many implementations will support it.)
Thomas G. Lanebd543f01991-12-13 00:00:00 +0000184So far as we are aware, there are no patent restrictions on the remaining
185code.
186
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000187The IJG distribution formerly included code to read and write GIF files.
188To avoid entanglement with the Unisys LZW patent, GIF reading support has
189been removed altogether, and the GIF writer has been simplified to produce
190"uncompressed GIFs". This technique does not use the LZW algorithm; the
191resulting GIF files are larger than usual, but are readable by all standard
192GIF decoders.
Thomas G. Lanea8b67c41995-03-15 00:00:00 +0000193
Thomas G. Lanebd543f01991-12-13 00:00:00 +0000194We are required to state that
195 "The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
196 CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
197 CompuServe Incorporated."
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000198
199
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000200REFERENCES
201==========
202
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000203We recommend reading one or more of these references before trying to
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000204understand the innards of the JPEG software.
205
206The best short technical introduction to the JPEG compression algorithm is
207 Wallace, Gregory K. "The JPEG Still Picture Compression Standard",
208 Communications of the ACM, April 1991 (vol. 34 no. 4), pp. 30-44.
209(Adjacent articles in that issue discuss MPEG motion picture compression,
210applications of JPEG, and related topics.) If you don't have the CACM issue
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000211handy, a PostScript file containing a revised version of Wallace's article is
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000212available at http://www.ijg.org/files/wallace.ps.gz. The file (actually
Thomas G. Lane9ba2f5e1994-12-07 00:00:00 +0000213a preprint for an article that appeared in IEEE Trans. Consumer Electronics)
214omits the sample images that appeared in CACM, but it includes corrections
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000215and some added material. Note: the Wallace article is copyright ACM and IEEE,
216and it may not be used for commercial purposes.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000217
218A somewhat less technical, more leisurely introduction to JPEG can be found in
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000219"The Data Compression Book" by Mark Nelson and Jean-loup Gailly, published by
220M&T Books (New York), 2nd ed. 1996, ISBN 1-55851-434-1. This book provides
221good explanations and example C code for a multitude of compression methods
222including JPEG. It is an excellent source if you are comfortable reading C
223code but don't know much about data compression in general. The book's JPEG
224sample code is far from industrial-strength, but when you are ready to look
225at a full implementation, you've got one here...
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000226
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000227The best currently available description of JPEG is the textbook "JPEG Still
228Image Data Compression Standard" by William B. Pennebaker and Joan L.
229Mitchell, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993, ISBN 0-442-01272-1.
230Price US$59.95, 638 pp. The book includes the complete text of the ISO JPEG
231standards (DIS 10918-1 and draft DIS 10918-2).
232Although this is by far the most detailed and comprehensive exposition of
233JPEG publicly available, we point out that it is still missing an explanation
234of the most essential properties and algorithms of the underlying DCT
235technology.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000236
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000237The original JPEG standard is divided into two parts, Part 1 being the actual
238specification, while Part 2 covers compliance testing methods. Part 1 is
239titled "Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images,
Thomas G. Lane489583f1996-02-07 00:00:00 +0000240Part 1: Requirements and guidelines" and has document numbers ISO/IEC IS
24110918-1, ITU-T T.81. Part 2 is titled "Digital Compression and Coding of
242Continuous-tone Still Images, Part 2: Compliance testing" and has document
243numbers ISO/IEC IS 10918-2, ITU-T T.83.
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000244
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000245The JPEG standard does not specify all details of an interchangeable file
246format. For the omitted details we follow the "JFIF" conventions, revision
Guido Vollbeding989630f2010-01-10 00:00:00 +00002471.02. JFIF 1.02 has been adopted as an Ecma International Technical Report
248and thus received a formal publication status. It is available as a free
249download in PDF format from
250http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/techreports/E-TR-098.htm.
251A PostScript version of the JFIF document is available at
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000252http://www.ijg.org/files/jfif.ps.gz. There is also a plain text version at
253http://www.ijg.org/files/jfif.txt.gz, but it is missing the figures.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000254
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000255The TIFF 6.0 file format specification can be obtained by FTP from
256ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/TIFF6.ps.gz. The JPEG incorporation scheme
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000257found in the TIFF 6.0 spec of 3-June-92 has a number of serious problems.
258IJG does not recommend use of the TIFF 6.0 design (TIFF Compression tag 6).
259Instead, we recommend the JPEG design proposed by TIFF Technical Note #2
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000260(Compression tag 7). Copies of this Note can be obtained from
261http://www.ijg.org/files/. It is expected that the next revision
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000262of the TIFF spec will replace the 6.0 JPEG design with the Note's design.
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000263Although IJG's own code does not support TIFF/JPEG, the free libtiff library
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000264uses our library to implement TIFF/JPEG per the Note.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000265
266
267ARCHIVE LOCATIONS
268=================
269
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000270The "official" archive site for this software is www.ijg.org.
271The most recent released version can always be found there in
272directory "files". This particular version will be archived as
Guido Vollbedinga4ecaac2010-05-16 00:00:00 +0000273http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v8b.tar.gz, and in Windows-compatible
274"zip" archive format as http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsr8b.zip.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000275
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000276The JPEG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article is a source of some
277general information about JPEG.
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000278It is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/
279and other news.answers archive sites, including the official news.answers
280archive at rtfm.mit.edu: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/.
281If you don't have Web or FTP access, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
Thomas G. Lane9ba2f5e1994-12-07 00:00:00 +0000282with body
283 send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/part1
284 send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/part2
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000285
286
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000287FILE FORMAT WARS
288================
289
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000290The ISO JPEG standards committee actually promotes different formats like
Guido Vollbeding989630f2010-01-10 00:00:00 +0000291"JPEG 2000" or "JPEG XR" which are incompatible with original DCT-based
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +0000292JPEG. IJG therefore does not support these formats (see REFERENCES). Indeed,
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000293one of the original reasons for developing this free software was to help
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000294force convergence on common, interoperable format standards for JPEG files.
295Don't use an incompatible file format!
296(In any case, our decoder will remain capable of reading existing JPEG
297image files indefinitely.)
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000298
299
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000300TO DO
301=====
302
Guido Vollbeding989630f2010-01-10 00:00:00 +0000303Please send bug reports, offers of help, etc. to jpeg-info@uc.ag.