[.ca] Compressed Image File Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, XBM, BMP (ISBN 0201604434)

From Amazon.com:
Compressed Image File Formats is an appealingly compact and useful guide to some of today's most popular file formats used for image data. For any programmer who needs to know how images are stored, this concise reference can serve as a really invaluable resource. Besides full coverage of the popular BMP, GIF, and PNG file formats, the book zeroes in on the JPEG standard, perhaps today's most popular (and most complicated) image format. In a series of short chapters, the book looks at JPEG in detail, from basic file organization (its format and marker fields), file compression techniques (like Huffman coding and DCT), and how to decode (read) and encode (write) JPEG images. By condensing hundreds of pages of specifications and documentation from the voluminous JPEG standard into this short volume, the author has created a worthwhile summary of key JPEG features and compression techniques useful to any graphics programmer. The book also includes C++ code for a simple JPEG encoder (on the accompanying CD-ROM). This example can get you started compressing images using the JPEG format. In addition, the book discusses techniques for creating and decoding progressive JPEGs (used for downloading images in stages, in progressively finer resolutions, over the Internet). Whether you are a programmer faced with decoding or encoding image data, or an interested Webmaster who wants to know the pros and cons of today's image file formats, Compressed Image File Formats provides a worthwhile and concise reference to what's inside image files. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: bitmap basics, color models, Windows BMP file format, XBM file format, JPEG basics and file format, JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), JPEG Huffman Coding, data unit encoding, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), matrix operations, JPEG decoding and encoding, progressive JPEG, GIF file format and compression, and PNG file format.

Waste of Time:
I was looking for a book on JPEG files so I could write a program to compress jpeg files for internet use. After reading this book I did come away with some insight on how JPEG compresssion works, however, the code examples in the book only work with JFIF JPEG files. The book says that JFIF format is the most commonly used, but I was unable to compress many of the pictures on my computer...

Very goof book for starters:
If you know very little about the technical aspects of file formats, and you want to write your own applications, then this is the book you are looking for. BUT, if you have limited experience in programming (visual C++ eg.) then this might not be the book for you. Don't expect full source code, it only shows you the way to do it (and adequatly at that). You really need to know the basics of data structures and dictionaries otherwise you won't go much further as reading/writing bitmaps. Also a bit of knowledge about discrete cosine (Fourier) transforms really helps, otherwise JPEG seems like a magic formulae (and I alway want to know what I'm doing :) But all in all this is a great book to start from, it really contains all the information you need to handle(read.write): -BMP -GIF -JPG -PNG files. Another reviewer complained about incompleteness of the JPEG section, but this standard is so vast that a complete volume could be written about it. The book covers the JFIF file format which 99.9% of the file on the web are. Enjoy this book! and no, I'm NOT the author!:)

Rating correction:
Not helpful that the author reviews his own book and gives himself 5 stars! Before he did so, the average rating was 3.33 stars. Afterwards it became 3.75 stars. My rating aims to rectify matters. I have not, however, read the book.

Learning what are the subjects covered by this book:
JPEG compression and decompression, PNG and GIF

Author Response:
I thought I would respond to the negative comment regarding JFIF files. As the reader points out, the sample source code on the CD checks for the JFIF header. This reason for this is to be an educational excercise in file formats. As the reader points out, this causes the source code not to work with JPEG files from digital cameras that do not use the JFIF format. The difference between these formats is simply the use of APPn markers (essentially comments). To make the book source code work with these files you simply need to comment out one line of code -- the place where it checks for the existance JFIF header.