Java Advanced Imaging API Home Page

http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/iio.html

Sun

Java

Solaris

Communities

My SDN Account

SDN Home > Products & Technologies > Java Technology > J2SE > Desktop Java > JAI > Reference > Documentation >

Documentation

Java Advanced Imaging API Home Page

Print-friendly Version

Java Advanced Imaging API

What is Java Advanced Imaging? | Image I/O Issues | Download | FAQ | Interest Group | Documentation | Success | JAI 1.1 JSR

Image I/O in Java Advanced Imaging Overview

An important adjunct to the Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) API is a set of image encoder/decoder (codec) classes, which have been packaged with JAI since the release of JAI 1.0. The encoders and decoders for several popular image storage formats have been implemented. The image formats supported by these ancillary codec classes are: BMP, GIF (decoder only), FlashPix (decoder only), JPEG, PNG, PNM, TIFF, and WBMP. However, the actual codec classes are not a committed part of JAI, and they are released under the and packages. This means the codec classes might change in the future at the discretion of the JAI developers. Software developers should take this into consideration when writing any code directly against these classes. The preferred method for reading an image file of any format into a is:

or:

and for writing a

to an image file in a format whose encoder is supported by an ancillary codec, using the default encoding algorithm, is:

1 of 3

6/10/2011 1:38 PM

Java Advanced Imaging API Home Page

http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/iio.html

Many questions have been posted to the JAI mailing lists regarding each specific file format, and below are answers to some commonly raised issues. In addition, please read the JAI FAQ page for more answers to Image I/O related questions.

BMP
The Windows 95 version of BMP is supported. The bit depth of the encoded output is determined by that of the source image.

FlashPix
The decoder is only partially implemented. No encoder is available at this time.

GIF
The decoder supports animated GIF files and GIF files with transparent background. Only the first frame of an animated GIF file may be loaded via JAI; subsequent frames must be obtained via direct use of the ancillary codec classes.

JPEG
The JPEG support is currently implemented on top of the unofficial J2SE classes in the package, which may not exist in all Java 2 environments.

PNG
The PNG encoder automatically determines the type of the image to be encoded (RGB, Grayscale, or Palette) based on the source image. The setting has no effect on this.

PNM
PNM files may either have ASCII or raw (binary) data. The decoder automatically determines the data format and reads the data accordingly. By default the encoder stores the image data in raw format whenever possible. To request that the encoder store the data in ASCII format in JAI 1.0.2 or later, use the following encoder parameter argument:

TIFF
In addition to the baseline specification, the encoder and decoder support PackBits, modified Huffman and CCITT bilevel encodings (fax), JPEG-in-TIFF (per TIFF Technical Note #2), and DEFLATE compression schemes, can handle images with 16- and 32-bit integral samples and 32-bit floating point samples, and can read and write tiled images of all supported data types. The decoder in addition can decompress LZW-compressed imagery. Additional features may be addressed in the future.

2 of 3

6/10/2011 1:38 PM

Java Advanced Imaging API Home Page

http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/iio.html

A single page of a multi-page TIFF file may loaded most easily by using the parameter with the "TIFF" operator which is documented in the class comments of . A code sample is included here to show a means of loading a single page of a multi-page TIFF file using the ancillary codec classes directly.

WBMP
The WBMP codec reads and writes images in the Wireless Bitmap format described in chapter 6 and Appendix A of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Wireless Application Environment Specification, Version 1.3, 29 March 2000. The WBMP type supported is WBMP Type 0: B/W, Uncompressed Bitmap. There are no limitations on the image dimensions.

The Java Image I/O API

Due to the many requests for a comprehensive image I/O package the Java Image I/O API was developed. The Java Image I/O API is part of the JavaTM 2 Platform, Standard Edition, version 1.4 (J2SE1.4).

The Future of Image I/O in JAI

A package set called JAI-Image I/O Tools has been released and is available via the JAI home page. The package set includes image reader and writer plug-ins for the Java Image I/O API for numerous formats, image streams which use the Java New I/O API, and JAI operations for reading and writing images using the Java Image I/O API. In a future JAI release, the image I/O-related operators in JAI-Image I/O Tools will be propagated to JAI. It has not been definitively determined as yet, but it is likely that when the new I/O operators have been added to JAI the old operations will be deprecated. The classes currently in the and packages will most likely be removed concurrent with a JAI release subsequent to that in which the Java Image I/O API-based operators become available. However, Sun is making publicly available the source code of the and classes so that developers who have written code based on them will still be able to use them. Please note that no technical support may be provided for these classes once they have been superseded by the Java Image I/O API.

Oracle is reviewing the Sun product roadmap and will provide guidance to customers in accordance with Oracle's standard product communication policies. Any resulting features and timing of release of such features as determined by Oracle's review of roadmaps, are at the sole discretion of Oracle. All product roadmap information, whether communicated by Sun Microsystems or by Oracle, does not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract.

About Sun | About This Site | Newsletters | Contact Us | Employment | How to Buy | Licensing | Terms of Use | Privacy | Trademarks

A Sun Developer Network Site Unless otherwise licensed, code in all technical manuals herein (including articles, FAQs, samples) is provided under this License. Sun Developer RSS Feeds

2010, Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates

3 of 3

6/10/2011 1:38 PM