Hybrid image format
Hybrid image format techniques are described in which multiple resolution images are concatenated to a standard bitmap image to create a hybrid image file. The hybrid image file is created through combining a relatively low resolution image with the additional images in a multi-frame format having higher resolution. The hybrid image file may contain data detectable to signal that higher resolution images are available in the hybrid image file. A hybrid aware application may be configured to detect and output a higher resolution image from the hybrid image file based on detection of the data. A legacy application that is not configured to detect the data may be unaware of higher resolution images contained in the hybrid image file, and accordingly outputs the relatively low resolution image.
1. A method comprising:
defining a first portion of a hybrid image file to encode a bitmap image;
defining a second portion of the hybrid image file to encode a plurality of images according to a multi-frame format; and
concatenating the second portion to the first portion to create the hybrid image file that includes detectable data that is detectable to determine when the second portion encodes one or more alternate images to the bitmap image, wherein the first portion of the hybrid image file enables an application that is not configured to detect the second portion of the hybrid image file to output the bitmap image encoded in the first portion without awareness of the second portion of the hybrid image file.
2. A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising encoding the detectable data in the first portion to enable detection of the one or more alternate images in the second portion.
3. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the detectable data comprises attributes of the hybrid image file.
4. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the detectable data includes a size of the bitmap image encoded in one or more fields of the first portion, and wherein to determine when the second portion encodes the one or more alternate images, an application accessing the hybrid image file compares the size of the bitmap image to a size of the hybrid image file.
5. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the bitmap image has a resolution of 96 dots per inch (DPI).
6. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the multi-frame format is Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).
7. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first portion enables an application that does not support images encoded in the multi-frame format to output the bitmap image, wherein an application that is not configured to detect, use, and decode the images encoded in the multi-frame format does not support the images encoded in the multi-frame format.
8. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the detectable data is detectable by an application that supports images encoded in the multi-frame format to output one or more of said alternate images.
9. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the bitmap image has a first resolution and the one or more alternate images have resolutions greater than the first resolution.
10. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the concatenating comprises a binary concatenation of the second portion to the first portion.
11. One or more computer-readable memory devices embodying a hybrid image file created in accordance with the method of claim 1 .
12. A computing device comprising:
a processor;
a memory;
an image file having a first portion encoding a bitmap image and a second portion configured to encode one or more higher resolution images in a multi-frame format, wherein the first portion of the image file enables modules that are not configured to detect the second portion of the image file to output the bitmap image and the second portion of the image file enables modules that are configured to detect the second portion of the image file to output at least one of the higher resolution images; and
one or more modules stored in the memory and executable via the processor to interact with the image file to output at least one said image encoded in the image file.
13. A computing device as recited in claim 12 , wherein the image file includes data detectable by at least one of said one or more modules to determine when the second portion encodes the one or more higher resolution images.
14. A computing device as recited in claim 13 , wherein said one or more modules include:
a first module configured to:
obtain the image file;
process the detectable data to determine when the second portion encodes the one or more higher resolution images;
output the at least one of the higher resolution images when the second portion encodes the one or more higher resolution images; and
output the bitmap image when the second portion does not encode the one or more higher resolution images; and
a second module configured to:
obtain the image file; and
output the bitmap image, wherein the second module operates without awareness of the second portion.
15. A computing device as recited in claim 14 , wherein:
the detectable data includes a size of the bitmap portion; and
to process the detectable data, the first module compares the size of the bitmap portion to a size of the image file.