TIFF Developement In Java

This blog only contains my own work experience in R&D and development related to TIFF image files using Java technology. It contains only some basic information and operations. This post provides basic idea about Tagged Image File Format. I spend lots of time for completion of this task and I think this is very useful for new java image developer. Adobe provides you everything related to TIFF image (specification, developer resources, libraries etc.), only thing you need to do is code as per your requirement. Later on I will add the development and implementation part of TIFF extraction and TIFF creation. For detail specification, you can visit the official links present in reference section at the end of this document.

Tiff (Tagged Image File Format):
One of the most popular and flexible image file formats used in web world is TIFF. This format is originally developed by company Aldus (now Adobe System). Adobe System now holds the official copyright to the TIFF image specification. The TIFF format is the standard in DMS (document management systems) using its most popular compression scheme CCITT Group IV 2D compression, which supports black and white images.

To save the storage capacity in high volume storage scanning, documents are scanned in bitonal format (black and white) rather than color or gray scale. Suitable file format with different and lossless compression scheme for today’s World Wide Web. Tiff is supported by the number of imaging software, applications and word processors. It can save multi-page documents to a single TIFF file rather than saving separate files. Tiff formats are also useful for transporting image files from one application to another or from one machine to another as they are designed to be independent of any particular hardware or software.

File Format Information:
(Image File Format)
- Code : TIFF
- File Extension : .tiff, .tif
- Media type : image/tiff, image/tiff-fx
- Compression : lossless
- Pixel Supported : a. 1 – 64 bit integer, signed/unsigned.
b. 32/64 bit IEEE floating point.
- Capability : black and white, grayscale, palette color and full color image data
- Developed by : Aldus (now Adobe Systems)

Why TIFF Development:
As per the development point of view-
- Flexible and platform-independent image format for development and storage.
- TIFF provides lossless image creation and compressions.
- Supported by the number of image manipulation software.
- Developers can use their private (own) tags in TIFF.
- Developers can include the own information inside the TIFF file.
- Saves storage space when required to store huge scanned data.
- Ignore developers’ private tags whenever not recognized by TIFF reader.
- Store multiple images within a single file.
- Developer can choose the best color scheme as per requirement.
- Don’t need a license from Adobe for Implementation of TIFF reading & writing applicaiton.
- Adobe provides full TIFF specification for download.

Color space and compression scheme:
TIFF allows for a wide range of different compression schemes and color spaces.
TIFF ImageWriter contain following compression types:
CCITT RLE
- Only applicable for Black and White Images (i.e. bilevel/binary images)
Modified Huffman compression
CCITT T.4
- Only applicable for Black and White Images (i.e. bilevel/binary images)
CCITT T.6
- Only applicable for Black and White Images (i.e. bilevel/binary images).
LZW
- Lossless Compression
- Use for maintain quality of image not for compression
JPEG
- Lossy compression
- Reduced file size to minimum
- Applicable for grayscale (1-band) and RGB (3-band) images only
ZLib
- Deflate compression except value.
PackBits
- Default lossless compression with RGB color space.
Deflate
- Lossless compression (same as LZW)
- Use for maintain quality of image not for compression
EXIF JPEG
- Regular JPEG compressed image
TIFF_NO_COMPRESSION
- TIFF with no compression.

Main Advantages and Disadvantage:
Advantages:
- Lossless Compression
- Platform independent
- Good compression types
- Less space required for storage
Disadvantages:
- Difficult to store
- Large file format
- Ambiguity in some compression types (e.g. JPEG compression)

Reference:
- For TIFF Specification, TIFF Registration and TIFF developer resources:
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/tiff/index.html
- LibTIFF Home Page: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
- For future development: http://www.adobe.com


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