ABSTRACT
If you should open a bitmap image file in a textual editor to read through its contents, it is difficult to perceive the information as an image. The image data itself generally consists of a list of values of the colours of individual pixels, and associated instructions for computing applications regarding how this data should be displayed. To ensure that image data can be stored, accessed, shared and rendered on a computer screen or output device as a visible image, the information must be structured to some known, defined specification or ‘file format’. Image formats can be viewed as files that store any type of persistent graphical data (as opposed to text, spreadsheet or numerical information) that is intended for eventual rendering and display. The values and instructions contained within an image file allow computers to paint a representation onto the output device for the human eye to see, provided that the image data is stored in a known way according to a format specification, and that the application developer has included instructions in the program which will allow it to process data in that format.
