O'Reilly's new edition of the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats is a wonderfully diverse kind of product--it's a book, a CD-ROM, and a World Wide Web product, all in one. You'll find printed information in convenient book form. You'll be able to access text files, images, and code locally on the CD-ROM provided with the book.What's in this product--and why does its book/CD-ROM/online format work so well as a means of presenting information?It's all about graphics file formats. As any graphics programmer or illustrator knows, there are many different file formats used for storing graphics data -- data such as vector graphics, ray tracing, black-and-white photographs, truecolor images, animation data, motion video, and multimedia data. TheEncyclopedia of Graphics File Formats is the definitive reference to all of these formats--from major, standardized formats, like GIF, TIFF, TGA, and BMP, to newer or specialized formats, like PNG, SPIFF, SGI YAODL, and Facesaver. The first edition of the book has already become a classic for programmers on all platforms--Windows, MS-DOS, OS/2, the Macintosh, UNIX, and others.What type of information is available in the book and through its online links?Whether you are a graphics programmer who needs to know the precise contents of every bit in a file, a graphics illustrator who needs to know how to convert a file from one format to another, or anyone else who needs to deal with the low-level technical details of graphics files, this product is for you. For each of more than 100 formats, the product provides quick summary information--How many colors are supported by the format? What type of compression does it use? What's the maximum image size? What's the platform, the numerical format, and the supporting applications? It also provides extensive text detailing how graphics files are constructed in a particular format.In addition to describing the details of the file formats, theEncyclopedia of Graphics File Formats contains a good deal of general graphics information, including:A detailed discussion of graphics concepts and programming, covering such topics as palettes, color (its perception, conversion, and quantization), and the various types of graphics file formats (e.g., vector, bitmap, metafile, scene description, animation, multimedia, 3D, font, audio, virtual reality modeling language [VRML], and page description language [PDL]).Detailed descriptions of different methods of compressing graphics data (e.g., run-length encoding, LZW, CCITT, JPEG, JBIG, ART, fractal).Discussions of ways of converting from one type of file format to another.Information on emerging graphics initiatives, including JPEG (an image data compression standard of particular interest in multimedia technology) and MPEG (a set of digital and audio compression standards for sound and motion picture data).The second edition of the book contains hundreds of pages of new content. For example, you'll find:Articles on additional graphics file formats not covered in the first edition, like PNG (Portable Network Graphics), SPIFF (Still Picture Interchange File Format), DPX (SMTPE Digital Picture Exchange), SAF (Standard Archive Format), and 3DS (3D Studio).Descriptions of new data compression methods -- extensions to JPEG compression, and the new JBIG, ART, and fractal compression methods.New sections on encrypting graphics files, detecting viruses in graphics files, dealing with corrupt graphics files, and writing your own file formats and file format specs.A discussion of the Unisys patent claim on the LZW compression method -- and its impact on your use of GIF files and software.A new appendix on dealing with graphics files on the Internet and the World Wide Web--how to download and convert files, how to post information, how to handle the Read Less