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| -rw-r--r-- | README | 41 |
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 17 deletions
@@ -8,9 +8,28 @@ WHAT IS FARBFELD? Farbfeld is a lossless image-format designed to be - parsed and piped easily. - It can be compressed easily and beats PNG's filesize + parsed and piped easily. It is probably the simplest + image-format you can find (see FORMAT). + It does not have integrated compression, but allows + compression algorithms to work with it easily by adding + little entropy to the image data itself. This beats PNG in many cases. + Given the free choice of compression algorithms, it + is trivial to switch to better and faster ones as they + show up in the future. + +HOW DO I USE THE TOOLS? + encoding: + png2ff < example.png > example.ff + png2ff < example.png | bzip2 > example.ff.bz2 + + decoding: + ff2png < example.ff > example.png + bzcat example.ff.bz2 | ff2png > example.png + + bzip2 is used in this example and a recommended + compression algorithm. Of course you are free + to use something else. WHY FARBFELD? Current image-formats have integrated compression, @@ -32,13 +51,13 @@ WHY FARBFELD? and farbfeld. HOW DOES IT WORK? - In Farbfeld, pattern resolution is not done while + In farbfeld, pattern resolution is not done while converting, but while compressing the image. For example, farbfeld always stores the alpha-channel, even if the image doesn't have alpha-variation. This may sound like a big waste at first, but as soon as you compress an image of this kind, the - compression-algorithm (e.g. bz2) recognizes the + compression-algorithm (e.g. bzip2) recognizes the pattern that every 48 bits the 16 bits store the same information. And the compression-algorithms get better and better @@ -49,19 +68,7 @@ HOW DOES IT WORK? the same value, which is recognized by the compression algorithm easily. This effectively leads to filesizes you'd normally only - reach with paletted images, and in some cases bz2 even + reach with paletted images, and in some cases bzip2 even beats png's compression, for instance when you're dealing with grayscale data, line drawings, decals and even photographs. - -HOW DO I USE THE TOOLS? - encoding: - png2ff < example.png > example.ff - png2ff < example.png | bzip2 > example.ff.bz2 - - decoding: - ff2png < example.ff > example.png - bzcat example.ff.bz2 | ff2png > example.png - - bz2 is recommended for compression, but you can use - any algorithm you want. |