Thread: The mother of all picture format converters

Thats a good link. I am a bit of a fan of image magick (.com). Its command line driven and free and has a lot of formats that it can do too. This is its format list :-

Code:

        A* rw+   Raw alpha samples
      ART* rw-   PFS: 1st Publisher Clip Art
      ARW  r--   Sony Alpha Raw Image Format
      AVI* r--   Microsoft Audio/Visual Interleaved
      AVS* rw+   AVS X image
        B* rw+   Raw blue samples
      BIE* rw-   Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange format (1.6)
      BMP* rw-   Microsoft Windows bitmap image
     BMP2* -w-   Microsoft Windows bitmap image v2
     BMP3* -w-   Microsoft Windows bitmap image v3
        C* rw+   Raw cyan samples
  CAPTION* r--   Image caption
      CIN* rw+   Cineon Image File
      CIP* -w-   Cisco IP phone image format
     CLIP* -w+   Image Clip Mask
CLIPBOARD* rw-   The system clipboard
     CMYK* rw+   Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples
    CMYKA* rw+   Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and opacity samples
      CR2  r--   Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format
      CRW  r--   Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format
      CUR* rw-   Microsoft icon
      CUT* r--   DR Halo
      DCM* r--   Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine image
           DICOM is used by the medical community for images like X-rays.  The
           specification, "Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
           (DICOM)", is available at http://medical.nema.org/.  In particular,
           see part 5 which describes the image encoding (RLE, JPEG, JPEG-LS),
           and supplement 61 which adds JPEG-2000 encoding.
      DCR  r--   Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image File
      DCX* rw+   ZSoft IBM PC multi-page Paintbrush
    DFONT* r--   Multi-face font package (Freetype 2.1.5)
      DNG  r--   Digital Negative
      DPS  ---   Display Postscript Interpreter
      DPX* rw+   SMPTE 268M-2003 (DPX 2.0)
           Digital Moving Picture Exchange Bitmap, Version 2.0.
           See SMPTE 268M-2003 specification at http://www.smtpe.org
           
      EMF  r--   Windows WIN32 API rendered Enhanced Meta File
     EPDF  rw-   Encapsulated Portable Document Format
      EPI  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format
      EPS  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript
     EPS2* -w-   Level II Encapsulated PostScript
     EPS3* -w+   Level III Encapsulated PostScript
     EPSF  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript
     EPSI  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format
      EPT  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript with TIFF preview
     EPT2  rw-   Encapsulated PostScript Level II with TIFF preview
     EPT3  rw+   Encapsulated PostScript Level III with TIFF preview
      FAX* rw+   Group 3 FAX
     FITS* rw-   Flexible Image Transport System
  FRACTAL* r--   Plasma fractal image
      FTS* rw-   Flexible Image Transport System
        G* rw+   Raw green samples
       G3* rw-   Group 3 FAX
      GIF* rw+   CompuServe graphics interchange format
    GIF87* rw-   CompuServe graphics interchange format (version 87a)
 GRADIENT* r--   Gradual passing from one shade to another
     GRAY* rw+   Raw gray samples
HISTOGRAM* -w-   Histogram of the image
      HTM* -w-   Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
     HTML* -w-   Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
      ICB* rw+   Truevision Targa image
      ICO* rw+   Microsoft icon
     ICON* rw-   Microsoft icon
     INFO  -w+   The image format and characteristics
      IPL* rw+   IPL Image Sequence
      JBG* rw+   Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange format (1.6)
     JBIG* rw+   Joint Bi-level Image experts Group interchange format (1.6)
      JNG* rw-   JPEG Network Graphics
      JP2* rw-   JPEG-2000 File Format Syntax
      JPC* rw-   JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax
     JPEG* rw-   Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format (62)
      JPG* rw-   Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format
      JPX* rw-   JPEG-2000 File Format Syntax
        K* rw+   Raw black samples
      K25  r--   Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image Format
      KDC  r--   Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image Format
    LABEL* r--   Image label
        M* rw+   Raw magenta samples
      M2V  rw+   MPEG Video Stream
      MAP* rw-   Colormap intensities and indices
      MAT* rw+   MATLAB image format
    MATTE* -w+   MATTE format
     MIFF* rw+   Magick Image File Format
      MNG* rw+   Multiple-image Network Graphics (libpng 1.2.18)
     MONO* rw-   Raw bi-level bitmap
      MPC* rw+   Magick Persistent Cache image format
     MPEG  rw+   MPEG Video Stream
      MPG  rw+   MPEG Video Stream
      MRW  r--   Sony (Minolta) Raw Image File
      MSL* rw+   Magick Scripting Language
     MSVG* rw+   ImageMagick's own SVG internal renderer
      MTV* rw+   MTV Raytracing image format
      MVG* rw-   Magick Vector Graphics
      NEF  r--   Nikon Digital SLR Camera Raw Image File
     NULL* rw-   Constant image of uniform color
        O* rw+   Raw opacity samples
      ORF  r--   Olympus Digital Camera Raw Image File
      OTB* rw-   On-the-air bitmap
      OTF* r--   Open Type font (Freetype 2.1.5)
      PAL* rw-   16bit/pixel interleaved YUV
     PALM* rw+   Palm pixmap
      PAM* rw+   Common 2-dimensional bitmap format
  PATTERN* r--   Predefined pattern
      PBM* rw+   Portable bitmap format (black and white)
      PCD* rw-   Photo CD
     PCDS* rw-   Photo CD
      PCL  rw-   Printer Control Language
      PCT* rw-   Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT
      PCX* rw-   ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush
      PDB* rw+   Palm Database ImageViewer Format
      PDF  rw+   Portable Document Format
      PEF  r--   Pentax Electronic File
      PFA* r--   Postscript Type 1 font (ASCII) (Freetype 2.1.5)
      PFB* r--   Postscript Type 1 font (binary) (Freetype 2.1.5)
      PFM* rw+   Portable float format
      PGM* rw+   Portable graymap format (gray scale)
      PGX* r--   JPEG-2000 VM Format
    PICON* rw-   Personal Icon
     PICT* rw-   Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT
      PIX* r--   Alias/Wavefront RLE image format
    PJPEG* rw-   Progessive Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF
   PLASMA* r--   Plasma fractal image
      PNG* rw-   Portable Network Graphics (libpng 1.2.18)
    PNG24* rw-   opaque 24-bit RGB (zlib 1.2.3)
    PNG32* rw-   opaque or transparent 32-bit RGBA
     PNG8* rw-   8-bit indexed with optional binary transparency
      PNM* rw+   Portable anymap
      PPM* rw+   Portable pixmap format (color)
  PREVIEW* -w-   Show a preview an image enhancement, effect, or f/x
       PS  rw+   PostScript
      PS2* -w+   Level II PostScript
      PS3* -w+   Level III PostScript
      PSD* rw+   Adobe Photoshop bitmap
     PTIF* rw-   Pyramid encoded TIFF
      PWP* r--   Seattle Film Works
        R* rw+   Raw red samples
      RAF  r--   Fuji CCD-RAW Graphic File
      RAS* rw+   SUN Rasterfile
      RGB* rw+   Raw red, green, and blue samples
     RGBA* rw+   Raw red, green, blue, and alpha samples
     RGBO* rw+   Raw red, green, blue, and opacity samples
      RLA* r--   Alias/Wavefront image
      RLE* r--   Utah Run length encoded image
      SCR* r--   ZX-Spectrum SCREEN$
      SCT* r--   Scitex HandShake
      SFW* r--   Seattle Film Works
      SGI* rw+   Irix RGB image
    SHTML* -w-   Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
      SR2  r--   Sony Raw Format 2
      SRF  r--   Sony Raw Format
  STEGANO* r--   Steganographic image
      SUN* rw+   SUN Rasterfile
      SVG* rw+   Scalable Vector Graphics (XML 2.4.19)
     SVGZ* rw+   Compressed Scalable Vector Graphics (XML 2.4.19)
     TEXT* rw+   Text
      TGA* rw+   Truevision Targa image
THUMBNAIL* -w+   EXIF Profile Thumbnail
     TIFF* rw+   Tagged Image File Format (LIBTIFF, Version 3.8.2)
   TIFF64* ---   Tagged Image File Format (64-bit) (LIBTIFF, Version 3.8.2)
     TILE* r--   Tile image with a texture
      TIM* r--   PSX TIM
      TTC* r--   TrueType font collection (Freetype 2.1.5)
      TTF* r--   TrueType font (Freetype 2.1.5)
      TXT* rw+   Text
      UIL* -w-   X-Motif UIL table
     UYVY* rw-   16bit/pixel interleaved YUV
      VDA* rw+   Truevision Targa image
    VICAR* rw-   VICAR rasterfile format
      VID* rw+   Visual Image Directory
     VIFF* rw+   Khoros Visualization image
      VST* rw+   Truevision Targa image
     WBMP* rw-   Wireless Bitmap (level 0) image
      WMF* r--   Windows Meta File
 WMFWIN32  r--   Windows WIN32 API rendered Meta File
      WMZ* r--   Compressed Windows Meta File
      WPG* r--   Word Perfect Graphics
        X* rw+   X Image
      X3F  r--   Sigma Camera RAW Picture File
      XBM* rw-   X Windows system bitmap (black and white)
       XC* r--   Constant image uniform color
      XCF* r--   GIMP image
      XPM* rw-   X Windows system pixmap (color)
       XV* rw+   Khoros Visualization image
      XWD* rw-   X Windows system window dump (color)
        Y* rw+   Raw yellow samples
    YCbCr* rw+   Raw Y, Cb, and Cr samples
   YCbCrA* rw+   Raw Y, Cb, Cr, and opacity samples
      YUV* rw-   CCIR 601 4:1:1 or 4:2:2

* native blob support

Yeah, between ImageMagick and Fred's Image Magick Scripts I'm pretty well set. It works on Mac OS X!

Okay, I know I'm not completely computer literate, but can anyone tell me why I would want to convert file formats? Is this a specialized activity most users would never need/use? If this is a dumb question, I'm sorry--just curious.

Your right, I only use a few. I use PNG generally, JPG if its a photo and it needs to be compressed hard - like for this forum uploads. I use bmp sometimes if I need fast file load and save which is rare. There is iff which is also rare but occasionally I use a program that does not understand anything else. Sometimes I am given psd files and now and again I use raw RGB which has come from data not necessarily from image sources. There are also GeoTIFF images for height maps and the new 16 bit formats to mitigate quantization like TG2 and HF2 as well as 16 bit PNGs. Theres also GIF's for doing animations and image magick also does movie formats like mpeg and mjpeg. JPEG2000 has incredible compression but its loaded with patents so its not well supported. Format conversion is a chore but given that its necessary now and again its nice to have something that will do them all so you don't have to struggle with them.

Edit -- Actually I could add svg, pdf and icon files too to my list.

Originally Posted by pyrandon

Okay, I know I'm not completely computer literate, but can anyone tell me why I would want to convert file formats? Is this a specialized activity most users would never need/use? If this is a dumb question, I'm sorry--just curious.

About the only real use I can think of is recovering old graphics, or converting obscure/proprietary formats into something more modern/portable.

Personally, I don't think I'd ever have a need to turn something into BIE or an MRW or whatever.

Originally Posted by pyrandon

Okay, I know I'm not completely computer literate, but can anyone tell me why I would want to convert file formats? Is this a specialized activity most users would never need/use? If this is a dumb question, I'm sorry--just curious.

I interact with a large number of file formats with all the applications I use. However, for general web-based usage here's what I use.

GIF = simple animatics,transparent icons, images with few numbers of colors, maps
JPG = main image format for graphics
PNG = general usage with more advanced transparency capabilities (alpha channel)

For saving final photos, I go with JPG with no compression. However, if I'm working on an image I stick with a lossless format like BMP or TIFF.

Most normal computer users have no need for a large number of image formats. But once you start getting into graphics (both raster and vector) you will encounter a number of image formats simply for the fact of their overall capabilities.

In my former capacity as a church technical director, one of my jobs was to coordinate publications for inter-church events that we hosted. I'd receive promotional material from a variety of sources and be tasked with helping to produce event signage and advertising. I would often receive materials in a wide variety of formats and have to convert it to something useable.

Of course, sometimes what I received was just plain useless. A 95px X 100px compressed jpeg portrait of a preacher just isn't very useful for printing posters, no matter what the secretaries think. "Yes, it looks great on their website, but it won't work for the posters. See if they'll send you the original."