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1USAGE instructions for the Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software
2=================================================================
3
4This file describes usage of the JPEG conversion programs cjpeg and djpeg,
5as well as the utility programs jpegtran, rdjpgcom and wrjpgcom.  (See
6the other documentation files if you wish to use the JPEG library within
7your own programs.)
8
9If you are on a Unix machine you may prefer to read the Unix-style manual
10pages in files cjpeg.1, djpeg.1, jpegtran.1, rdjpgcom.1, wrjpgcom.1.
11
12
13INTRODUCTION
14
15These programs implement JPEG image encoding, decoding, and transcoding.
16JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized compression method for
17full-color and gray-scale images.
18
19
20GENERAL USAGE
21
22We provide two programs, cjpeg to compress an image file into JPEG format,
23and djpeg to decompress a JPEG file back into a conventional image format.
24
25On Unix-like systems, you say:
26        cjpeg [switches] [imagefile] >jpegfile
27or
28        djpeg [switches] [jpegfile]  >imagefile
29The programs read the specified input file, or standard input if none is
30named.  They always write to standard output (with trace/error messages to
31standard error).  These conventions are handy for piping images between
32programs.
33
34On most non-Unix systems, you say:
35        cjpeg [switches] imagefile jpegfile
36or
37        djpeg [switches] jpegfile  imagefile
38i.e., both the input and output files are named on the command line.  This
39style is a little more foolproof, and it loses no functionality if you don't
40have pipes.  (You can get this style on Unix too, if you prefer, by defining
41TWO_FILE_COMMANDLINE when you compile the programs; see install.txt.)
42
43You can also say:
44        cjpeg [switches] -outfile jpegfile  imagefile
45or
46        djpeg [switches] -outfile imagefile  jpegfile
47This syntax works on all systems, so it is useful for scripts.
48
49The currently supported image file formats are: PPM (PBMPLUS color format),
50PGM (PBMPLUS gray-scale format), BMP, Targa, and RLE (Utah Raster Toolkit
51format).  (RLE is supported only if the URT library is available.)
52cjpeg recognizes the input image format automatically, with the exception
53of some Targa-format files.  You have to tell djpeg which format to generate.
54
55JPEG files are in the defacto standard JFIF file format.  There are other,
56less widely used JPEG-based file formats, but we don't support them.
57
58All switch names may be abbreviated; for example, -grayscale may be written
59-gray or -gr.  Most of the "basic" switches can be abbreviated to as little as
60one letter.  Upper and lower case are equivalent (-BMP is the same as -bmp).
61British spellings are also accepted (e.g., -greyscale), though for brevity
62these are not mentioned below.
63
64
65CJPEG DETAILS
66
67The basic command line switches for cjpeg are:
68
69        -quality N[,...]  Scale quantization tables to adjust image quality.
70                        Quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best); default is 75.
71                        (See below for more info.)
72
73        -grayscale      Create monochrome JPEG file from color input.
74                        Be sure to use this switch when compressing a grayscale
75                        BMP file, because cjpeg isn't bright enough to notice
76                        whether a BMP file uses only shades of gray.  By
77                        saying -grayscale, you'll get a smaller JPEG file that
78                        takes less time to process.
79
80        -optimize       Perform optimization of entropy encoding parameters.
81                        Without this, default encoding parameters are used.
82                        -optimize usually makes the JPEG file a little smaller,
83                        but cjpeg runs somewhat slower and needs much more
84                        memory.  Image quality and speed of decompression are
85                        unaffected by -optimize.
86
87        -progressive    Create progressive JPEG file (see below).
88
89        -scale M/N      Scale the output image by a factor M/N.  Currently
90                        supported scale factors are 8/N with all N from 1 to
91                        16.
92
93        -targa          Input file is Targa format.  Targa files that contain
94                        an "identification" field will not be automatically
95                        recognized by cjpeg; for such files you must specify
96                        -targa to make cjpeg treat the input as Targa format.
97                        For most Targa files, you won't need this switch.
98
99The -quality switch lets you trade off compressed file size against quality of
100the reconstructed image: the higher the quality setting, the larger the JPEG
101file, and the closer the output image will be to the original input.  Normally
102you want to use the lowest quality setting (smallest file) that decompresses
103into something visually indistinguishable from the original image.  For this
104purpose the quality setting should be between 50 and 95; the default of 75 is
105often about right.  If you see defects at -quality 75, then go up 5 or 10
106counts at a time until you are happy with the output image.  (The optimal
107setting will vary from one image to another.)
108
109-quality 100 will generate a quantization table of all 1's, minimizing loss
110in the quantization step (but there is still information loss in subsampling,
111as well as roundoff error).  This setting is mainly of interest for
112experimental purposes.  Quality values above about 95 are NOT recommended for
113normal use; the compressed file size goes up dramatically for hardly any gain
114in output image quality.
115
116In the other direction, quality values below 50 will produce very small files
117of low image quality.  Settings around 5 to 10 might be useful in preparing an
118index of a large image library, for example.  Try -quality 2 (or so) for some
119amusing Cubist effects.  (Note: quality values below about 25 generate 2-byte
120quantization tables, which are considered optional in the JPEG standard.
121cjpeg emits a warning message when you give such a quality value, because some
122other JPEG programs may be unable to decode the resulting file.  Use -baseline
123if you need to ensure compatibility at low quality values.)
124
125The -quality option has been extended in IJG version 7 for support of separate
126quality settings for luminance and chrominance (or in general, for every
127provided quantization table slot).  This feature is useful for high-quality
128applications which cannot accept the damage of color data by coarse
129subsampling settings.  You can now easily reduce the color data amount more
130smoothly with finer control without separate subsampling.  The resulting file
131is fully compliant with standard JPEG decoders.
132Note that the -quality ratings refer to the quantization table slots, and that
133the last value is replicated if there are more q-table slots than parameters.
134The default q-table slots are 0 for luminance and 1 for chrominance with
135default tables as given in the JPEG standard.  This is compatible with the old
136behaviour in case that only one parameter is given, which is then used for
137both luminance and chrominance (slots 0 and 1).  More or custom quantization
138tables can be set with -qtables and assigned to components with -qslots
139parameter (see the "wizard" switches below).
140CAUTION: You must explicitely add -sample 1x1 for efficient separate color
141quality selection, since the default value used by library is 2x2!
142
143The -progressive switch creates a "progressive JPEG" file.  In this type of
144JPEG file, the data is stored in multiple scans of increasing quality.  If the
145file is being transmitted over a slow communications link, the decoder can use
146the first scan to display a low-quality image very quickly, and can then
147improve the display with each subsequent scan.  The final image is exactly
148equivalent to a standard JPEG file of the same quality setting, and the total
149file size is about the same --- often a little smaller.
150
151Switches for advanced users:
152
153        -dct int        Use integer DCT method (default).
154        -dct fast       Use fast integer DCT (less accurate).
155        -dct float      Use floating-point DCT method.
156                        The float method is very slightly more accurate than
157                        the int method, but is much slower unless your machine
158                        has very fast floating-point hardware.  Also note that
159                        results of the floating-point method may vary slightly
160                        across machines, while the integer methods should give
161                        the same results everywhere.  The fast integer method
162                        is much less accurate than the other two.
163
164        -nosmooth       Don't use high-quality downsampling.
165
166        -restart N      Emit a JPEG restart marker every N MCU rows, or every
167                        N MCU blocks if "B" is attached to the number.
168                        -restart 0 (the default) means no restart markers.
169
170        -smooth N       Smooth the input image to eliminate dithering noise.
171                        N, ranging from 1 to 100, indicates the strength of
172                        smoothing.  0 (the default) means no smoothing.
173
174        -maxmemory N    Set limit for amount of memory to use in processing
175                        large images.  Value is in thousands of bytes, or
176                        millions of bytes if "M" is attached to the number.
177                        For example, -max 4m selects 4000000 bytes.  If more
178                        space is needed, temporary files will be used.
179
180        -verbose        Enable debug printout.  More -v's give more printout.
181        or  -debug      Also, version information is printed at startup.
182
183The -restart option inserts extra markers that allow a JPEG decoder to
184resynchronize after a transmission error.  Without restart markers, any damage
185to a compressed file will usually ruin the image from the point of the error
186to the end of the image; with restart markers, the damage is usually confined
187to the portion of the image up to the next restart marker.  Of course, the
188restart markers occupy extra space.  We recommend -restart 1 for images that
189will be transmitted across unreliable networks such as Usenet.
190
191The -smooth option filters the input to eliminate fine-scale noise.  This is
192often useful when converting dithered images to JPEG: a moderate smoothing
193factor of 10 to 50 gets rid of dithering patterns in the input file, resulting
194in a smaller JPEG file and a better-looking image.  Too large a smoothing
195factor will visibly blur the image, however.
196
197Switches for wizards:
198
199        -arithmetic     Use arithmetic coding.  CAUTION: arithmetic coded JPEG
200                        is not yet widely implemented, so many decoders will
201                        be unable to view an arithmetic coded JPEG file at
202                        all.
203
204        -baseline       Force baseline-compatible quantization tables to be
205                        generated.  This clamps quantization values to 8 bits
206                        even at low quality settings.  (This switch is poorly
207                        named, since it does not ensure that the output is
208                        actually baseline JPEG.  For example, you can use
209                        -baseline and -progressive together.)
210
211        -qtables file   Use the quantization tables given in the specified
212                        text file.
213
214        -qslots N[,...] Select which quantization table to use for each color
215                        component.
216
217        -sample HxV[,...]  Set JPEG sampling factors for each color component.
218
219        -scans file     Use the scan script given in the specified text file.
220
221The "wizard" switches are intended for experimentation with JPEG.  If you
222don't know what you are doing, DON'T USE THEM.  These switches are documented
223further in the file wizard.txt.
224
225
226DJPEG DETAILS
227
228The basic command line switches for djpeg are:
229
230        -colors N       Reduce image to at most N colors.  This reduces the
231        or -quantize N  number of colors used in the output image, so that it
232                        can be displayed on a colormapped display or stored in
233                        a colormapped file format.  For example, if you have
234                        an 8-bit display, you'd need to reduce to 256 or fewer
235                        colors.  (-colors is the recommended name, -quantize
236                        is provided only for backwards compatibility.)
237
238        -fast           Select recommended processing options for fast, low
239                        quality output.  (The default options are chosen for
240                        highest quality output.)  Currently, this is equivalent
241                        to "-dct fast -nosmooth -onepass -dither ordered".
242
243        -grayscale      Force gray-scale output even if JPEG file is color.
244                        Useful for viewing on monochrome displays; also,
245                        djpeg runs noticeably faster in this mode.
246
247        -scale M/N      Scale the output image by a factor M/N.  Currently
248                        supported scale factors are M/8 with all M from 1 to
249                        16.  If the /N part is omitted, then M specifies the
250                        DCT scaled size to be applied on the given input,
251                        which is currently equivalent to M/8 scaling, since
252                        the source DCT size is currently always 8.
253                        Scaling is handy if the image is larger than your
254                        screen; also, djpeg runs much faster when scaling
255                        down the output.
256
257        -bmp            Select BMP output format (Windows flavor).  8-bit
258                        colormapped format is emitted if -colors or -grayscale
259                        is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale;
260                        otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is emitted.
261
262        -gif            Select GIF output format.  Since GIF does not support
263                        more than 256 colors, -colors 256 is assumed (unless
264                        you specify a smaller number of colors).  If you
265                        specify -fast, the default number of colors is 216.
266
267        -os2            Select BMP output format (OS/2 1.x flavor).  8-bit
268                        colormapped format is emitted if -colors or -grayscale
269                        is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale;
270                        otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is emitted.
271
272        -pnm            Select PBMPLUS (PPM/PGM) output format (this is the
273                        default format).  PGM is emitted if the JPEG file is
274                        gray-scale or if -grayscale is specified; otherwise
275                        PPM is emitted.
276
277        -rle            Select RLE output format.  (Requires URT library.)
278
279        -targa          Select Targa output format.  Gray-scale format is
280                        emitted if the JPEG file is gray-scale or if
281                        -grayscale is specified; otherwise, colormapped format
282                        is emitted if -colors is specified; otherwise, 24-bit
283                        full-color format is emitted.
284
285Switches for advanced users:
286
287        -dct int        Use integer DCT method (default).
288        -dct fast       Use fast integer DCT (less accurate).
289        -dct float      Use floating-point DCT method.
290                        The float method is very slightly more accurate than
291                        the int method, but is much slower unless your machine
292                        has very fast floating-point hardware.  Also note that
293                        results of the floating-point method may vary slightly
294                        across machines, while the integer methods should give
295                        the same results everywhere.  The fast integer method
296                        is much less accurate than the other two.
297
298        -dither fs      Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering in color quantization.
299        -dither ordered Use ordered dithering in color quantization.
300        -dither none    Do not use dithering in color quantization.
301                        By default, Floyd-Steinberg dithering is applied when
302                        quantizing colors; this is slow but usually produces
303                        the best results.  Ordered dither is a compromise
304                        between speed and quality; no dithering is fast but
305                        usually looks awful.  Note that these switches have
306                        no effect unless color quantization is being done.
307                        Ordered dither is only available in -onepass mode.
308
309        -map FILE       Quantize to the colors used in the specified image
310                        file.  This is useful for producing multiple files
311                        with identical color maps, or for forcing a predefined
312                        set of colors to be used.  The FILE must be a GIF
313                        or PPM file.  This option overrides -colors and
314                        -onepass.
315
316        -nosmooth       Don't use high-quality upsampling.
317
318        -onepass        Use one-pass instead of two-pass color quantization.
319                        The one-pass method is faster and needs less memory,
320                        but it produces a lower-quality image.  -onepass is
321                        ignored unless you also say -colors N.  Also,
322                        the one-pass method is always used for gray-scale
323                        output (the two-pass method is no improvement then).
324
325        -maxmemory N    Set limit for amount of memory to use in processing
326                        large images.  Value is in thousands of bytes, or
327                        millions of bytes if "M" is attached to the number.
328                        For example, -max 4m selects 4000000 bytes.  If more
329                        space is needed, temporary files will be used.
330
331        -verbose        Enable debug printout.  More -v's give more printout.
332        or  -debug      Also, version information is printed at startup.
333
334
335HINTS FOR CJPEG
336
337Color GIF files are not the ideal input for JPEG; JPEG is really intended for
338compressing full-color (24-bit) images.  In particular, don't try to convert
339cartoons, line drawings, and other images that have only a few distinct
340colors.  GIF works great on these, JPEG does not.  If you want to convert a
341GIF to JPEG, you should experiment with cjpeg's -quality and -smooth options
342to get a satisfactory conversion.  -smooth 10 or so is often helpful.
343
344Avoid running an image through a series of JPEG compression/decompression
345cycles.  Image quality loss will accumulate; after ten or so cycles the image
346may be noticeably worse than it was after one cycle.  It's best to use a
347lossless format while manipulating an image, then convert to JPEG format when
348you are ready to file the image away.
349
350The -optimize option to cjpeg is worth using when you are making a "final"
351version for posting or archiving.  It's also a win when you are using low
352quality settings to make very small JPEG files; the percentage improvement
353is often a lot more than it is on larger files.  (At present, -optimize
354mode is always selected when generating progressive JPEG files.)
355
356GIF input files are no longer supported, to avoid the Unisys LZW patent.
357(Conversion of GIF files to JPEG is usually a bad idea anyway.)
358
359
360HINTS FOR DJPEG
361
362To get a quick preview of an image, use the -grayscale and/or -scale switches.
363"-grayscale -scale 1/8" is the fastest case.
364
365Several options are available that trade off image quality to gain speed.
366"-fast" turns on the recommended settings.
367
368"-dct fast" and/or "-nosmooth" gain speed at a small sacrifice in quality.
369When producing a color-quantized image, "-onepass -dither ordered" is fast but
370much lower quality than the default behavior.  "-dither none" may give
371acceptable results in two-pass mode, but is seldom tolerable in one-pass mode.
372
373If you are fortunate enough to have very fast floating point hardware,
374"-dct float" may be even faster than "-dct fast".  But on most machines
375"-dct float" is slower than "-dct int"; in this case it is not worth using,
376because its theoretical accuracy advantage is too small to be significant
377in practice.
378
379Two-pass color quantization requires a good deal of memory; on MS-DOS machines
380it may run out of memory even with -maxmemory 0.  In that case you can still
381decompress, with some loss of image quality, by specifying -onepass for
382one-pass quantization.
383
384To avoid the Unisys LZW patent, djpeg produces uncompressed GIF files.  These
385are larger than they should be, but are readable by standard GIF decoders.
386
387
388HINTS FOR BOTH PROGRAMS
389
390If more space is needed than will fit in the available main memory (as
391determined by -maxmemory), temporary files will be used.  (MS-DOS versions
392will try to get extended or expanded memory first.)  The temporary files are
393often rather large: in typical cases they occupy three bytes per pixel, for
394example 3*800*600 = 1.44Mb for an 800x600 image.  If you don't have enough
395free disk space, leave out -progressive and -optimize (for cjpeg) or specify
396-onepass (for djpeg).
397
398On MS-DOS, the temporary files are created in the directory named by the TMP
399or TEMP environment variable, or in the current directory if neither of those
400exist.  Amiga implementations put the temp files in the directory named by
401JPEGTMP:, so be sure to assign JPEGTMP: to a disk partition with adequate free
402space.
403
404The default memory usage limit (-maxmemory) is set when the software is
405compiled.  If you get an "insufficient memory" error, try specifying a smaller
406-maxmemory value, even -maxmemory 0 to use the absolute minimum space.  You
407may want to recompile with a smaller default value if this happens often.
408
409On machines that have "environment" variables, you can define the environment
410variable JPEGMEM to set the default memory limit.  The value is specified as
411described for the -maxmemory switch.  JPEGMEM overrides the default value
412specified when the program was compiled, and itself is overridden by an
413explicit -maxmemory switch.
414
415On MS-DOS machines, -maxmemory is the amount of main (conventional) memory to
416use.  (Extended or expanded memory is also used if available.)  Most
417DOS-specific versions of this software do their own memory space estimation
418and do not need you to specify -maxmemory.
419
420
421JPEGTRAN
422
423jpegtran performs various useful transformations of JPEG files.
424It can translate the coded representation from one variant of JPEG to another,
425for example from baseline JPEG to progressive JPEG or vice versa.  It can also
426perform some rearrangements of the image data, for example turning an image
427from landscape to portrait format by rotation.
428
429jpegtran works by rearranging the compressed data (DCT coefficients), without
430ever fully decoding the image.  Therefore, its transformations are lossless:
431there is no image degradation at all, which would not be true if you used
432djpeg followed by cjpeg to accomplish the same conversion.  But by the same
433token, jpegtran cannot perform lossy operations such as changing the image
434quality.
435
436jpegtran uses a command line syntax similar to cjpeg or djpeg.
437On Unix-like systems, you say:
438        jpegtran [switches] [inputfile] >outputfile
439On most non-Unix systems, you say:
440        jpegtran [switches] inputfile outputfile
441where both the input and output files are JPEG files.
442
443To specify the coded JPEG representation used in the output file,
444jpegtran accepts a subset of the switches recognized by cjpeg:
445        -optimize       Perform optimization of entropy encoding parameters.
446        -progressive    Create progressive JPEG file.
447        -restart N      Emit a JPEG restart marker every N MCU rows, or every
448                        N MCU blocks if "B" is attached to the number.
449        -arithmetic     Use arithmetic coding.
450        -scans file     Use the scan script given in the specified text file.
451See the previous discussion of cjpeg for more details about these switches.
452If you specify none of these switches, you get a plain baseline-JPEG output
453file.  The quality setting and so forth are determined by the input file.
454
455The image can be losslessly transformed by giving one of these switches:
456        -flip horizontal        Mirror image horizontally (left-right).
457        -flip vertical          Mirror image vertically (top-bottom).
458        -rotate 90              Rotate image 90 degrees clockwise.
459        -rotate 180             Rotate image 180 degrees.
460        -rotate 270             Rotate image 270 degrees clockwise (or 90 ccw).
461        -transpose              Transpose image (across UL-to-LR axis).
462        -transverse             Transverse transpose (across UR-to-LL axis).
463
464The transpose transformation has no restrictions regarding image dimensions.
465The other transformations operate rather oddly if the image dimensions are not
466a multiple of the iMCU size (usually 8 or 16 pixels), because they can only
467transform complete blocks of DCT coefficient data in the desired way.
468
469jpegtran's default behavior when transforming an odd-size image is designed
470to preserve exact reversibility and mathematical consistency of the
471transformation set.  As stated, transpose is able to flip the entire image
472area.  Horizontal mirroring leaves any partial iMCU column at the right edge
473untouched, but is able to flip all rows of the image.  Similarly, vertical
474mirroring leaves any partial iMCU row at the bottom edge untouched, but is
475able to flip all columns.  The other transforms can be built up as sequences
476of transpose and flip operations; for consistency, their actions on edge
477pixels are defined to be the same as the end result of the corresponding
478transpose-and-flip sequence.
479
480For practical use, you may prefer to discard any untransformable edge pixels
481rather than having a strange-looking strip along the right and/or bottom edges
482of a transformed image.  To do this, add the -trim switch:
483        -trim           Drop non-transformable edge blocks.
484Obviously, a transformation with -trim is not reversible, so strictly speaking
485jpegtran with this switch is not lossless.  Also, the expected mathematical
486equivalences between the transformations no longer hold.  For example,
487"-rot 270 -trim" trims only the bottom edge, but "-rot 90 -trim" followed by
488"-rot 180 -trim" trims both edges.
489
490If you are only interested in perfect transformation, add the -perfect switch:
491        -perfect        Fails with an error if the transformation is not
492                        perfect.
493For example you may want to do
494  jpegtran -rot 90 -perfect foo.jpg || djpeg foo.jpg | pnmflip -r90 | cjpeg
495to do a perfect rotation if available or an approximated one if not.
496
497We also offer a lossless-crop option, which discards data outside a given
498image region but losslessly preserves what is inside.  Like the rotate and
499flip transforms, lossless crop is restricted by the current JPEG format: the
500upper left corner of the selected region must fall on an iMCU boundary.  If
501this does not hold for the given crop parameters, we silently move the upper
502left corner up and/or left to make it so, simultaneously increasing the region
503dimensions to keep the lower right crop corner unchanged.  (Thus, the output
504image covers at least the requested region, but may cover more.)
505
506The image can be losslessly cropped by giving the switch:
507        -crop WxH+X+Y   Crop to a rectangular subarea of width W, height H
508                        starting at point X,Y.
509
510Another not-strictly-lossless transformation switch is:
511        -grayscale      Force grayscale output.
512This option discards the chrominance channels if the input image is YCbCr
513(ie, a standard color JPEG), resulting in a grayscale JPEG file.  The
514luminance channel is preserved exactly, so this is a better method of reducing
515to grayscale than decompression, conversion, and recompression.  This switch
516is particularly handy for fixing a monochrome picture that was mistakenly
517encoded as a color JPEG.  (In such a case, the space savings from getting rid
518of the near-empty chroma channels won't be large; but the decoding time for
519a grayscale JPEG is substantially less than that for a color JPEG.)
520
521jpegtran also recognizes these switches that control what to do with "extra"
522markers, such as comment blocks:
523        -copy none      Copy no extra markers from source file.  This setting
524                        suppresses all comments and other excess baggage
525                        present in the source file.
526        -copy comments  Copy only comment markers.  This setting copies
527                        comments from the source file, but discards
528                        any other inessential (for image display) data.
529        -copy all       Copy all extra markers.  This setting preserves
530                        miscellaneous markers found in the source file, such
531                        as JFIF thumbnails, Exif data, and Photoshop settings.
532                        In some files these extra markers can be sizable.
533The default behavior is -copy comments.  (Note: in IJG releases v6 and v6a,
534jpegtran always did the equivalent of -copy none.)
535
536Additional switches recognized by jpegtran are:
537        -outfile filename
538        -maxmemory N
539        -verbose
540        -debug
541These work the same as in cjpeg or djpeg.
542
543
544THE COMMENT UTILITIES
545
546The JPEG standard allows "comment" (COM) blocks to occur within a JPEG file.
547Although the standard doesn't actually define what COM blocks are for, they
548are widely used to hold user-supplied text strings.  This lets you add
549annotations, titles, index terms, etc to your JPEG files, and later retrieve
550them as text.  COM blocks do not interfere with the image stored in the JPEG
551file.  The maximum size of a COM block is 64K, but you can have as many of
552them as you like in one JPEG file.
553
554We provide two utility programs to display COM block contents and add COM
555blocks to a JPEG file.
556
557rdjpgcom searches a JPEG file and prints the contents of any COM blocks on
558standard output.  The command line syntax is
559        rdjpgcom [-raw] [-verbose] [inputfilename]
560The switch "-raw" (or just "-r") causes rdjpgcom to also output non-printable
561characters in comments, which are normally escaped for security reasons.
562The switch "-verbose" (or just "-v") causes rdjpgcom to also display the JPEG
563image dimensions.  If you omit the input file name from the command line,
564the JPEG file is read from standard input.  (This may not work on some
565operating systems, if binary data can't be read from stdin.)
566
567wrjpgcom adds a COM block, containing text you provide, to a JPEG file.
568Ordinarily, the COM block is added after any existing COM blocks, but you
569can delete the old COM blocks if you wish.  wrjpgcom produces a new JPEG
570file; it does not modify the input file.  DO NOT try to overwrite the input
571file by directing wrjpgcom's output back into it; on most systems this will
572just destroy your file.
573
574The command line syntax for wrjpgcom is similar to cjpeg's.  On Unix-like
575systems, it is
576        wrjpgcom [switches] [inputfilename]
577The output file is written to standard output.  The input file comes from
578the named file, or from standard input if no input file is named.
579
580On most non-Unix systems, the syntax is
581        wrjpgcom [switches] inputfilename outputfilename
582where both input and output file names must be given explicitly.
583
584wrjpgcom understands three switches:
585        -replace                 Delete any existing COM blocks from the file.
586        -comment "Comment text"  Supply new COM text on command line.
587        -cfile name              Read text for new COM block from named file.
588(Switch names can be abbreviated.)  If you have only one line of comment text
589to add, you can provide it on the command line with -comment.  The comment
590text must be surrounded with quotes so that it is treated as a single
591argument.  Longer comments can be read from a text file.
592
593If you give neither -comment nor -cfile, then wrjpgcom will read the comment
594text from standard input.  (In this case an input image file name MUST be
595supplied, so that the source JPEG file comes from somewhere else.)  You can
596enter multiple lines, up to 64KB worth.  Type an end-of-file indicator
597(usually control-D or control-Z) to terminate the comment text entry.
598
599wrjpgcom will not add a COM block if the provided comment string is empty.
600Therefore -replace -comment "" can be used to delete all COM blocks from a
601file.
602
603These utility programs do not depend on the IJG JPEG library.  In
604particular, the source code for rdjpgcom is intended as an illustration of
605the minimum amount of code required to parse a JPEG file header correctly.
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