Page 203 - MATLAB Recipes for Earth Sciences

198 8 Image Processing

The GIF format uses compression without loss of data. It was designed
for fast transfer rates in the internet. The limited number of colors makes
it not the right format for smooth color transitions such as a cloudy sky
and human faces. In contrast, it is often used for line art, maps, cartoons
and logos (http://www.compuserve.com/).

2. Microsoft Windows Bitmap Format ( BMP) – This is the native bitmap
format for computers running Microsoft Windows as the operating sys-
tem. However, numerous converters exist to read and write BMP fi les
also on other platforms. Various modifications of the BMP format are

available, some of them without compressions, others with effective and
fast compression (http://www.microsoft.com/).

3. Tagged Image File Format ( TIFF) – This format was designed by the
Aldus Corporation and Microsoft in 1986 to become an industry standard

for image-fi le exchange. A TIFF file includes an image file header, a di-

rectory and the data in all available graphics and image file formats. Some

TIFF file even contain vector and raster versions of the same picture, and
images in different resolution and colormap. The most important advan-
tage of TIFF was portability. TIFF should perform on all computer plat-

forms. Unfortunately, numerous modifications of TIFF evolved in the fol-
lowing years, causing incompatibilities. Therefore TIFF is often referred
to as Thousands of Incompatible File Formats.

4. Postscript ( PS) and Encapsulated PostScript ( EPS) – The PS format
has been developed by John Warnock at Parc, the research institute of
Xerox. J. Warnock was co-founder of Adobe Systems, where the EPS
format has been created. The vector format PostScript would have never
become an industry standard without Apple Computers. In 1985, Apple
needed a typesetter-quality controller for the new printer LaserWriter
and the operating system Macintosh. The third partner in the history
of PostScript was the company Aldus – now a part of Adobe Systems
–, the developer of the software PageMaker. The combination of Aldus
PageMaker, the PS format and the Apple LaserWriter were the founders
of Desktop Publishing. The EPS format was then developed by Adobe
Systems as a standard file format for importing and exporting PS fi les.

Whereas the PS file generally is a single-page format, containing an il-

lustration of a text, the purpose of an EPS file is to be included in other
pages, i.e., it can contain any combination of text, graphics and images
(http://www.adobe.com/).