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DRCd211eff2013-01-12 07:28:35 +00001libjpeg-turbo note: This file has been modified by The libjpeg-turbo Project
2to include only information relevant to libjpeg-turbo, to wordsmith certain
3sections, and to remove impolitic language that existed in the libjpeg v8
DRC7e3acc02015-10-10 10:25:46 -05004README. It is included only for reference. Please see README.md for
DRCd211eff2013-01-12 07:28:35 +00005information specific to libjpeg-turbo.
DRC03c3c9b2010-02-21 15:45:00 +00006
DRC6b638a62013-01-12 07:29:53 +00007
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +00008The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software
9==========================================
10
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +000011This distribution contains a release of the Independent JPEG Group's free JPEG
12software. You are welcome to redistribute this software and to use it for any
13purpose, subject to the conditions under LEGAL ISSUES, below.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000014
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000015This software is the work of Tom Lane, Guido Vollbeding, Philip Gladstone,
16Bill Allombert, Jim Boucher, Lee Crocker, Bob Friesenhahn, Ben Jackson,
17Julian Minguillon, Luis Ortiz, George Phillips, Davide Rossi, Ge' Weijers,
18and other members of the Independent JPEG Group.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000019
Guido Vollbeding5829cb22012-01-15 00:00:00 +000020IJG is not affiliated with the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG1 standards committee
21(also known as JPEG, together with ITU-T SG16).
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000022
23
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000024DOCUMENTATION ROADMAP
25=====================
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000026
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000027This file contains the following sections:
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000028
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000029OVERVIEW General description of JPEG and the IJG software.
30LEGAL ISSUES Copyright, lack of warranty, terms of distribution.
31REFERENCES Where to learn more about JPEG.
32ARCHIVE LOCATIONS Where to find newer versions of this software.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000033FILE FORMAT WARS Software *not* to get.
34TO DO Plans for future IJG releases.
35
36Other documentation files in the distribution are:
37
38User documentation:
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000039 usage.txt Usage instructions for cjpeg, djpeg, jpegtran,
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000040 rdjpgcom, and wrjpgcom.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000041 *.1 Unix-style man pages for programs (same info as usage.txt).
42 wizard.txt Advanced usage instructions for JPEG wizards only.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000043 change.log Version-to-version change highlights.
44Programmer and internal documentation:
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000045 libjpeg.txt How to use the JPEG library in your own programs.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000046 example.c Sample code for calling the JPEG library.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000047 structure.txt Overview of the JPEG library's internal structure.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000048 coderules.txt Coding style rules --- please read if you contribute code.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000049
DRC6842c7c2014-12-19 18:07:04 +000050Please read at least usage.txt. Some information can also be found in the JPEG
51FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article. See ARCHIVE LOCATIONS below to find
52out where to obtain the FAQ article.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000053
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
DRC90d6c382014-05-12 09:08:39 +000064method for full-color and grayscale images. JPEG's strong suit is compressing
DRC80803ae2011-12-15 13:12:59 +000065photographic images or other types of images that have smooth color and
DRC39ea5622010-10-12 01:55:31 +000066brightness 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.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000081We have made no provision for supporting the hierarchical or lossless
82processes defined in the standard.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000083
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000084We provide a set of library routines for reading and writing JPEG image files,
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +000085plus two sample applications "cjpeg" and "djpeg", which use the library to
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000086perform conversion between JPEG and some other popular image file formats.
87The library is intended to be reused in other applications.
88
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +000089In order to support file conversion and viewing software, we have included
90considerable functionality beyond the bare JPEG coding/decoding capability;
91for example, the color quantization modules are not strictly part of JPEG
92decoding, but they are essential for output to colormapped file formats or
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +000093colormapped displays. These extra functions can be compiled out of the
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +000094library if not required for a particular application.
95
96We have also included "jpegtran", a utility for lossless transcoding between
97different JPEG processes, and "rdjpgcom" and "wrjpgcom", two simple
98applications for inserting and extracting textual comments in JFIF files.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +000099
100The emphasis in designing this software has been on achieving portability and
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +0000101flexibility, while also making it fast enough to be useful. In particular,
102the software is not intended to be read as a tutorial on JPEG. (See the
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000103REFERENCES section for introductory material.) Rather, it is intended to
104be reliable, portable, industrial-strength code. We do not claim to have
105achieved that goal in every aspect of the software, but we strive for it.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000106
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000107We welcome the use of this software as a component of commercial products.
108No royalty is required, but we do ask for an acknowledgement in product
109documentation, as described under LEGAL ISSUES.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000110
111
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000112LEGAL ISSUES
113============
114
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000115In plain English:
116
1171. We don't promise that this software works. (But if you find any bugs,
118 please let us know!)
1192. You can use this software for whatever you want. You don't have to pay us.
1203. You may not pretend that you wrote this software. If you use it in a
121 program, you must acknowledge somewhere in your documentation that
122 you've used the IJG code.
123
124In legalese:
125
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000126The authors make NO WARRANTY or representation, either express or implied,
127with respect to this software, its quality, accuracy, merchantability, or
128fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you,
129its user, assume the entire risk as to its quality and accuracy.
130
Guido Vollbeding5829cb22012-01-15 00:00:00 +0000131This software is copyright (C) 1991-2012, Thomas G. Lane, Guido Vollbeding.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000132All Rights Reserved except as specified below.
133
134Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
135software (or portions thereof) for any purpose, without fee, subject to these
136conditions:
137(1) If any part of the source code for this software is distributed, then this
138README file must be included, with this copyright and no-warranty notice
139unaltered; and any additions, deletions, or changes to the original files
140must be clearly indicated in accompanying documentation.
141(2) If only executable code is distributed, then the accompanying
142documentation must state that "this software is based in part on the work of
143the Independent JPEG Group".
144(3) Permission for use of this software is granted only if the user accepts
145full responsibility for any undesirable consequences; the authors accept
146NO LIABILITY for damages of any kind.
147
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000148These conditions apply to any software derived from or based on the IJG code,
149not just to the unmodified library. If you use our work, you ought to
150acknowledge us.
151
Thomas G. Lane88aeed41992-12-10 00:00:00 +0000152Permission is NOT granted for the use of any IJG author's name or company name
153in advertising or publicity relating to this software or products derived from
154it. This software may be referred to only as "the Independent JPEG Group's
155software".
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000156
157We specifically permit and encourage the use of this software as the basis of
158commercial products, provided that all warranty or liability claims are
159assumed by the product vendor.
160
161
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000162The Unix configuration script "configure" was produced with GNU Autoconf.
163It is copyright by the Free Software Foundation but is freely distributable.
164The same holds for its supporting scripts (config.guess, config.sub,
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000165ltmain.sh). Another support script, install-sh, is copyright by X Consortium
166but is also freely distributable.
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000167
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000168The IJG distribution formerly included code to read and write GIF files.
169To avoid entanglement with the Unisys LZW patent, GIF reading support has
170been removed altogether, and the GIF writer has been simplified to produce
171"uncompressed GIFs". This technique does not use the LZW algorithm; the
172resulting GIF files are larger than usual, but are readable by all standard
173GIF decoders.
Thomas G. Lanea8b67c41995-03-15 00:00:00 +0000174
Thomas G. Lanebd543f01991-12-13 00:00:00 +0000175We are required to state that
176 "The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
177 CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
178 CompuServe Incorporated."
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000179
180
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000181REFERENCES
182==========
183
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000184We recommend reading one or more of these references before trying to
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000185understand the innards of the JPEG software.
186
187The best short technical introduction to the JPEG compression algorithm is
188 Wallace, Gregory K. "The JPEG Still Picture Compression Standard",
189 Communications of the ACM, April 1991 (vol. 34 no. 4), pp. 30-44.
190(Adjacent articles in that issue discuss MPEG motion picture compression,
191applications of JPEG, and related topics.) If you don't have the CACM issue
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000192handy, a PostScript file containing a revised version of Wallace's article is
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000193available at http://www.ijg.org/files/wallace.ps.gz. The file (actually
Thomas G. Lane9ba2f5e1994-12-07 00:00:00 +0000194a preprint for an article that appeared in IEEE Trans. Consumer Electronics)
195omits the sample images that appeared in CACM, but it includes corrections
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000196and some added material. Note: the Wallace article is copyright ACM and IEEE,
197and it may not be used for commercial purposes.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000198
199A somewhat less technical, more leisurely introduction to JPEG can be found in
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000200"The Data Compression Book" by Mark Nelson and Jean-loup Gailly, published by
201M&T Books (New York), 2nd ed. 1996, ISBN 1-55851-434-1. This book provides
202good explanations and example C code for a multitude of compression methods
203including JPEG. It is an excellent source if you are comfortable reading C
204code but don't know much about data compression in general. The book's JPEG
205sample code is far from industrial-strength, but when you are ready to look
206at a full implementation, you've got one here...
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000207
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000208The best currently available description of JPEG is the textbook "JPEG Still
209Image Data Compression Standard" by William B. Pennebaker and Joan L.
210Mitchell, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993, ISBN 0-442-01272-1.
211Price US$59.95, 638 pp. The book includes the complete text of the ISO JPEG
212standards (DIS 10918-1 and draft DIS 10918-2).
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000213
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000214The original JPEG standard is divided into two parts, Part 1 being the actual
215specification, while Part 2 covers compliance testing methods. Part 1 is
216titled "Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone Still Images,
Thomas G. Lane489583f1996-02-07 00:00:00 +0000217Part 1: Requirements and guidelines" and has document numbers ISO/IEC IS
21810918-1, ITU-T T.81. Part 2 is titled "Digital Compression and Coding of
219Continuous-tone Still Images, Part 2: Compliance testing" and has document
220numbers ISO/IEC IS 10918-2, ITU-T T.83.
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000221
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000222The JPEG standard does not specify all details of an interchangeable file
223format. For the omitted details we follow the "JFIF" conventions, revision
Guido Vollbeding989630f2010-01-10 00:00:00 +00002241.02. JFIF 1.02 has been adopted as an Ecma International Technical Report
225and thus received a formal publication status. It is available as a free
226download in PDF format from
227http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/techreports/E-TR-098.htm.
228A PostScript version of the JFIF document is available at
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000229http://www.ijg.org/files/jfif.ps.gz. There is also a plain text version at
230http://www.ijg.org/files/jfif.txt.gz, but it is missing the figures.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000231
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000232The TIFF 6.0 file format specification can be obtained by FTP from
233ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/TIFF6.ps.gz. The JPEG incorporation scheme
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000234found in the TIFF 6.0 spec of 3-June-92 has a number of serious problems.
235IJG does not recommend use of the TIFF 6.0 design (TIFF Compression tag 6).
236Instead, we recommend the JPEG design proposed by TIFF Technical Note #2
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000237(Compression tag 7). Copies of this Note can be obtained from
238http://www.ijg.org/files/. It is expected that the next revision
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000239of the TIFF spec will replace the 6.0 JPEG design with the Note's design.
Thomas G. Lanebc79e061995-08-02 00:00:00 +0000240Although IJG's own code does not support TIFF/JPEG, the free libtiff library
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000241uses our library to implement TIFF/JPEG per the Note.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000242
243
244ARCHIVE LOCATIONS
245=================
246
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000247The "official" archive site for this software is www.ijg.org.
248The most recent released version can always be found there in
249directory "files". This particular version will be archived as
Guido Vollbeding5829cb22012-01-15 00:00:00 +0000250http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v8d.tar.gz, and in Windows-compatible
251"zip" archive format as http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsr8d.zip.
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000252
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000253The JPEG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article is a source of some
254general information about JPEG.
Thomas G. Lane5ead57a1998-03-27 00:00:00 +0000255It is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/
256and other news.answers archive sites, including the official news.answers
257archive at rtfm.mit.edu: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/.
258If 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 +0000259with body
260 send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/part1
261 send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq/part2
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000262
263
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000264FILE FORMAT WARS
265================
266
Guido Vollbeding5829cb22012-01-15 00:00:00 +0000267The ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG1 standards committee (also known as JPEG, together
268with ITU-T SG16) currently promotes different formats containing the name
DRCc137f0f2013-01-01 10:56:38 +0000269"JPEG" which are incompatible with original DCT-based JPEG. IJG therefore does
270not support these formats (see REFERENCES). Indeed, one of the original
271reasons for developing this free software was to help force convergence on
272common, interoperable format standards for JPEG files.
Guido Vollbeding5996a252009-06-27 00:00:00 +0000273Don't use an incompatible file format!
274(In any case, our decoder will remain capable of reading existing JPEG
275image files indefinitely.)
Thomas G. Lane36a4ccc1994-09-24 00:00:00 +0000276
277
Thomas G. Lane2cbeb8a1991-10-07 00:00:00 +0000278TO DO
279=====
280
Guido Vollbeding5829cb22012-01-15 00:00:00 +0000281Please send bug reports, offers of help, etc. to jpeg-info@jpegclub.org.