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Supported file formats

This section describes the image file formats supported for loading and/or saving images when the ImageFormats module (Module.ImageFormats) is enabled.

The BMP file format, also known as bitmap image file or device independent bitmap (DIB) file format, is a raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images, independently of the display device.[1]
The BMP file format is supported for both input (loading) and output (saving), with some limitations related to compression modes.

Table 1. BMP format

CapabilityLoadSave
Color mode
Black & white
Grayscale
Color
Compression
BI_RGB (no compression)
BI_RLE8
BI_RLE4
BI_BITFIELDS
BI_JPEG
BI_PNG

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression.[2]
The PNG file format is supported for both input (loading) and output (saving).

Table 2. PNG format

Color modeLoadSave
Black & white
Grayscale
Color

JPEG is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital photography (image). The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality.[3]
The JPEG file format is supported for both input (loading) and output (saving), with some limitations related to color modes.

Table 3. JPEG format

Color modeLoadSave
Grayscale
Color

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a file format for storing images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry and both amateur and professional photographers in general. The TIFF format is widely supported by image-manipulation applications, by publishing and page layout applications, by scanning, faxing, word processing, optical character recognition and other applications.[4]

Table 4. TIFF format

CapabilityLoadSave
Color mode
Black & white
Grayscale
Color
Color with alpha channel
Compression
No compression
Packbits
CCITT T.4
CCITT Group 3
JPEG
LZW
CCITT T.6x
Page number
Single page
Multi-page

JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method.[5]
The JPEG2000 file format is supported for output (saving) only.

JBIG2 is an image compression standard for bi-level images. It is suitable for both lossless and lossy compression.[6]
The JBIG2 file format is supported for output (saving) only.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format used to represent documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems.[7]

The PDF file format is supported for both input (loading) and output (saving). However, the output PDF file contains only images. If you want to save images and editable text, you should use the Document Output module.
Using PDF files as input is currently available via extension PdfInput of ImageFormats module.

Table 5. PDF format

FormatLoadSave
PDF✔ See Loading a PDF with its content✔ PDF-image only - PDF 1.4 version

Table 6. Documents formats (created via CDocumentWriter.Save)

Output/Save formatSpecifications
PDFFor more details on the available options, go to PDF options.
DOCXFor more details on the available options, go to DOCX options.
XLSXFor more details on the available options, go to XLSX options.
PPTXImage and text, similar to the ImageOverText display in PDFs.
HTMLSame options as DOCX options minus the PageLayout::Editable.
RTFSame options as DOCX options.
TXTEncoding option: the supported Unicode encodings are UTF-8 and UTF-16.
ODTSame options as DOCX options.
EPUB

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format

2. http://libpng.org/pub/png/

3. https://jpeg.org/jpeg/

4. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000022.shtml

5. https://jpeg.org/jpeg2000/

6. https://jpeg.org/jbig/

7. Adobe Systems Incorporated, PDF Reference, Sixth edition, version 1.23 (30 MB), Nov 2006, p. 33.