Pco Edge 3.1, User Manual

Page: 53 / 59

53
A7 IMAGE FILE FORMATS
A7 IMAGE FILE FORMATS
There are several file formats available for saving camera images with
pco.camware.
b16
The b16 16 bit format is similar to the bmp format. However, 16 bit
pixel values are used instead of 8 bit pixel values.
The file format consists either of a Basic Header (6 Long-parameter)
or an Extended Header (32 Long-parameter), the latter is optional for
additional information. It might follow a variable comment field (ASCII
code). Finally, there is the actual data set that is saved linearly (as in
the case of BMP files).
With the exception of the first value, all parameters are Long Integers
(4 Byte). The first 6 parameters must always exist. The rest of the
parameters, as well as the comment field, are optional.
PCO recommends that all images should be saved first in the b16 or
TIFF format. The advantage is to have the b16 or tiff images available
all the time, having the maximum 16 bit information. Note that not all
image analysis programs can accommodate 16 bit data. The 8 bit
forma
t saves only the information displayed on the monitor screen.
The 16 bit information will be lost and cannot be recovered.
pcoraw
This 16 bit pco file format is based on the new BigTIFF format, thus
allowing for file size > 4GB. A new pco proprietary compression
scheme is added if it is necessary.
Parameter Function
1 pco- the first 4 byte are the characters pco-
2 file size file size in byte
3 header length header size + comment field in byte
4 image width image width in pixel
5 image height image height in pixel
6 extended
header
-1 (true), extended header follows
7 color mode 0 = monochrome camera, 1 = color camera
8 b/w min black/white LUT-setting, minimum value
9 b/w max black/white LUT-setting, maximum value
10 b/w linlog black/white LUT-setting,
0 = linear, 1 = logarithmic
11 red min red LUT-setting, minimum value
12 red max red LUT-setting, maximum value
13 green min green LUT-setting, minimum value
14 green max green LUT-setting, maximum value
15 blue min blue LUT-setting, minimum value
16 blue max blue LUT-setting, maximum value
17 color linlog color LUT-setting, 0 = linear, 1 = logarithmic
18-266 internal use
Comment file in ASCII characters with variable length of 0…XX.
The length of the comment field must be documented in the header length
field.
16 bit pixel data
line 1, pixel 1 value of the first pixel
line 1, pixel 2 value of the second pixel
… …