1USAGE instructions for the Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software
2=================================================================
3
4This file describes usage of the JPEG conversion programs cjpeg and djpeg,
5as well as the utility programs jpegtran, rdjpgcom and wrjpgcom.  (See
6the other documentation files if you wish to use the JPEG library within
7your own programs.)
8
9If you are on a Unix machine you may prefer to read the Unix-style manual
10pages in files cjpeg.1, djpeg.1, jpegtran.1, rdjpgcom.1, wrjpgcom.1.
11
12
13INTRODUCTION
14
15These programs implement JPEG image encoding, decoding, and transcoding.
16JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized compression method for
17full-color and gray-scale images.
18
19
20GENERAL USAGE
21
22We provide two programs, cjpeg to compress an image file into JPEG format,
23and djpeg to decompress a JPEG file back into a conventional image format.
24
25On Unix-like systems, you say:
26	cjpeg [switches] [imagefile] >jpegfile
27or
28	djpeg [switches] [jpegfile]  >imagefile
29The programs read the specified input file, or standard input if none is
30named.  They always write to standard output (with trace/error messages to
31standard error).  These conventions are handy for piping images between
32programs.
33
34On most non-Unix systems, you say:
35	cjpeg [switches] imagefile jpegfile
36or
37	djpeg [switches] jpegfile  imagefile
38i.e., both the input and output files are named on the command line.  This
39style is a little more foolproof, and it loses no functionality if you don't
40have pipes.  (You can get this style on Unix too, if you prefer, by defining
41TWO_FILE_COMMANDLINE when you compile the programs; see install.txt.)
42
43You can also say:
44	cjpeg [switches] -outfile jpegfile  imagefile
45or
46	djpeg [switches] -outfile imagefile  jpegfile
47This syntax works on all systems, so it is useful for scripts.
48
49The currently supported image file formats are: PPM (PBMPLUS color format),
50PGM (PBMPLUS gray-scale format), BMP, Targa, and RLE (Utah Raster Toolkit
51format).  (RLE is supported only if the URT library is available.)
52cjpeg recognizes the input image format automatically, with the exception
53of some Targa-format files.  You have to tell djpeg which format to generate.
54
55JPEG files are in the defacto standard JFIF file format.  There are other,
56less widely used JPEG-based file formats, but we don't support them.
57
58All switch names may be abbreviated; for example, -grayscale may be written
59-gray or -gr.  Most of the "basic" switches can be abbreviated to as little as
60one letter.  Upper and lower case are equivalent (-BMP is the same as -bmp).
61British spellings are also accepted (e.g., -greyscale), though for brevity
62these are not mentioned below.
63
64
65CJPEG DETAILS
66
67The basic command line switches for cjpeg are:
68
69	-quality N[,...]  Scale quantization tables to adjust image quality.
70			Quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best); default is 75.
71			(See below for more info.)
72
73	-grayscale	Create monochrome JPEG file from color input.
74			Be sure to use this switch when compressing a grayscale
75			BMP file, because cjpeg isn't bright enough to notice
76			whether a BMP file uses only shades of gray.  By
77			saying -grayscale, you'll get a smaller JPEG file that
78			takes less time to process.
79
80	-optimize	Perform optimization of entropy encoding parameters.
81			Without this, default encoding parameters are used.
82			-optimize usually makes the JPEG file a little smaller,
83			but cjpeg runs somewhat slower and needs much more
84			memory.  Image quality and speed of decompression are
85			unaffected by -optimize.
86
87	-progressive	Create progressive JPEG file (see below).
88
89	-scale M/N	Scale the output image by a factor M/N.  Currently
90			supported scale factors are 8/N with all N from 1 to
91			16.
92
93	-targa		Input file is Targa format.  Targa files that contain
94			an "identification" field will not be automatically
95			recognized by cjpeg; for such files you must specify
96			-targa to make cjpeg treat the input as Targa format.
97			For most Targa files, you won't need this switch.
98
99The -quality switch lets you trade off compressed file size against quality of
100the reconstructed image: the higher the quality setting, the larger the JPEG
101file, and the closer the output image will be to the original input.  Normally
102you want to use the lowest quality setting (smallest file) that decompresses
103into something visually indistinguishable from the original image.  For this
104purpose the quality setting should be between 50 and 95; the default of 75 is
105often about right.  If you see defects at -quality 75, then go up 5 or 10
106counts at a time until you are happy with the output image.  (The optimal
107setting will vary from one image to another.)
108
109-quality 100 will generate a quantization table of all 1's, minimizing loss
110in the quantization step (but there is still information loss in subsampling,
111as well as roundoff error).  This setting is mainly of interest for
112experimental purposes.  Quality values above about 95 are NOT recommended for
113normal use; the compressed file size goes up dramatically for hardly any gain
114in output image quality.
115
116In the other direction, quality values below 50 will produce very small files
117of low image quality.  Settings around 5 to 10 might be useful in preparing an
118index of a large image library, for example.  Try -quality 2 (or so) for some
119amusing Cubist effects.  (Note: quality values below about 25 generate 2-byte
120quantization tables, which are considered optional in the JPEG standard.
121cjpeg emits a warning message when you give such a quality value, because some
122other JPEG programs may be unable to decode the resulting file.  Use -baseline
123if you need to ensure compatibility at low quality values.)
124
125The -quality option has been extended in IJG version 7 for support of separate
126quality settings for luminance and chrominance (or in general, for every
127provided quantization table slot).  This feature is useful for high-quality
128applications which cannot accept the damage of color data by coarse
129subsampling settings.  You can now easily reduce the color data amount more
130smoothly with finer control without separate subsampling.  The resulting file
131is fully compliant with standard JPEG decoders.
132Note that the -quality ratings refer to the quantization table slots, and that
133the last value is replicated if there are more q-table slots than parameters.
134The default q-table slots are 0 for luminance and 1 for chrominance with
135default tables as given in the JPEG standard.  This is compatible with the old
136behaviour in case that only one parameter is given, which is then used for
137both luminance and chrominance (slots 0 and 1).  More or custom quantization
138tables can be set with -qtables and assigned to components with -qslots
139parameter (see the "wizard" switches below).
140CAUTION: You must explicitly add -sample 1x1 for efficient separate color
141quality selection, since the default value used by library is 2x2!
142
143The -progressive switch creates a "progressive JPEG" file.  In this type of
144JPEG file, the data is stored in multiple scans of increasing quality.  If the
145file is being transmitted over a slow communications link, the decoder can use
146the first scan to display a low-quality image very quickly, and can then
147improve the display with each subsequent scan.  The final image is exactly
148equivalent to a standard JPEG file of the same quality setting, and the total
149file size is about the same --- often a little smaller.
150
151Switches for advanced users:
152
153	-dct int	Use integer DCT method (default).
154	-dct fast	Use fast integer DCT (less accurate).
155	-dct float	Use floating-point DCT method.
156			The float method is very slightly more accurate than
157			the int method, but is much slower unless your machine
158			has very fast floating-point hardware.  Also note that
159			results of the floating-point method may vary slightly
160			across machines, while the integer methods should give
161			the same results everywhere.  The fast integer method
162			is much less accurate than the other two.
163
164	-nosmooth	Don't use high-quality downsampling.
165
166	-restart N	Emit a JPEG restart marker every N MCU rows, or every
167			N MCU blocks if "B" is attached to the number.
168			-restart 0 (the default) means no restart markers.
169
170	-smooth N	Smooth the input image to eliminate dithering noise.
171			N, ranging from 1 to 100, indicates the strength of
172			smoothing.  0 (the default) means no smoothing.
173
174	-maxmemory N	Set limit for amount of memory to use in processing
175			large images.  Value is in thousands of bytes, or
176			millions of bytes if "M" is attached to the number.
177			For example, -max 4m selects 4000000 bytes.  If more
178			space is needed, temporary files will be used.
179
180	-verbose	Enable debug printout.  More -v's give more printout.
181	or  -debug	Also, version information is printed at startup.
182
183The -restart option inserts extra markers that allow a JPEG decoder to
184resynchronize after a transmission error.  Without restart markers, any damage
185to a compressed file will usually ruin the image from the point of the error
186to the end of the image; with restart markers, the damage is usually confined
187to the portion of the image up to the next restart marker.  Of course, the
188restart markers occupy extra space.  We recommend -restart 1 for images that
189will be transmitted across unreliable networks such as Usenet.
190
191The -smooth option filters the input to eliminate fine-scale noise.  This is
192often useful when converting dithered images to JPEG: a moderate smoothing
193factor of 10 to 50 gets rid of dithering patterns in the input file, resulting
194in a smaller JPEG file and a better-looking image.  Too large a smoothing
195factor will visibly blur the image, however.
196
197Switches for wizards:
198
199	-arithmetic	Use arithmetic coding.  CAUTION: arithmetic coded JPEG
200			is not yet widely implemented, so many decoders will
201			be unable to view an arithmetic coded JPEG file at
202			all.
203
204	-baseline	Force baseline-compatible quantization tables to be
205			generated.  This clamps quantization values to 8 bits
206			even at low quality settings.  (This switch is poorly
207			named, since it does not ensure that the output is
208			actually baseline JPEG.  For example, you can use
209			-baseline and -progressive together.)
210
211	-qtables file	Use the quantization tables given in the specified
212			text file.
213
214	-qslots N[,...] Select which quantization table to use for each color
215			component.
216
217	-sample HxV[,...]  Set JPEG sampling factors for each color component.
218
219	-scans file	Use the scan script given in the specified text file.
220
221The "wizard" switches are intended for experimentation with JPEG.  If you
222don't know what you are doing, DON'T USE THEM.  These switches are documented
223further in the file wizard.txt.
224
225
226DJPEG DETAILS
227
228The basic command line switches for djpeg are:
229
230	-colors N	Reduce image to at most N colors.  This reduces the
231	or -quantize N	number of colors used in the output image, so that it
232			can be displayed on a colormapped display or stored in
233			a colormapped file format.  For example, if you have
234			an 8-bit display, you'd need to reduce to 256 or fewer
235			colors.  (-colors is the recommended name, -quantize
236			is provided only for backwards compatibility.)
237
238	-fast		Select recommended processing options for fast, low
239			quality output.  (The default options are chosen for
240			highest quality output.)  Currently, this is equivalent
241			to "-dct fast -nosmooth -onepass -dither ordered".
242
243	-grayscale	Force gray-scale output even if JPEG file is color.
244			Useful for viewing on monochrome displays; also,
245			djpeg runs noticeably faster in this mode.
246
247	-scale M/N	Scale the output image by a factor M/N.  Currently
248			supported scale factors are M/N with all M from 1 to
249			16, where N is the source DCT size, which is 8 for
250			baseline JPEG.  If the /N part is omitted, then M
251			specifies the DCT scaled size to be applied on the
252			given input.  For baseline JPEG this is equivalent to
253			M/8 scaling, since the source DCT size for baseline
254			JPEG is 8.  Scaling is handy if the image is larger
255			than your screen; also, djpeg runs much faster when
256			scaling down the output.
257
258	-bmp		Select BMP output format (Windows flavor).  8-bit
259			colormapped format is emitted if -colors or -grayscale
260			is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale;
261			otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is emitted.
262
263	-gif		Select GIF output format.  Since GIF does not support
264			more than 256 colors, -colors 256 is assumed (unless
265			you specify a smaller number of colors).  If you
266			specify -fast, the default number of colors is 216.
267
268	-os2		Select BMP output format (OS/2 1.x flavor).  8-bit
269			colormapped format is emitted if -colors or -grayscale
270			is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale;
271			otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is emitted.
272
273	-pnm		Select PBMPLUS (PPM/PGM) output format (this is the
274			default format).  PGM is emitted if the JPEG file is
275			gray-scale or if -grayscale is specified; otherwise
276			PPM is emitted.
277
278	-rle		Select RLE output format.  (Requires URT library.)
279
280	-targa		Select Targa output format.  Gray-scale format is
281			emitted if the JPEG file is gray-scale or if
282			-grayscale is specified; otherwise, colormapped format
283			is emitted if -colors is specified; otherwise, 24-bit
284			full-color format is emitted.
285
286Switches for advanced users:
287
288	-dct int	Use integer DCT method (default).
289	-dct fast	Use fast integer DCT (less accurate).
290	-dct float	Use floating-point DCT method.
291			The float method is very slightly more accurate than
292			the int method, but is much slower unless your machine
293			has very fast floating-point hardware.  Also note that
294			results of the floating-point method may vary slightly
295			across machines, while the integer methods should give
296			the same results everywhere.  The fast integer method
297			is much less accurate than the other two.
298
299	-dither fs	Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering in color quantization.
300	-dither ordered	Use ordered dithering in color quantization.
301	-dither none	Do not use dithering in color quantization.
302			By default, Floyd-Steinberg dithering is applied when
303			quantizing colors; this is slow but usually produces
304			the best results.  Ordered dither is a compromise
305			between speed and quality; no dithering is fast but
306			usually looks awful.  Note that these switches have
307			no effect unless color quantization is being done.
308			Ordered dither is only available in -onepass mode.
309
310	-map FILE	Quantize to the colors used in the specified image
311			file.  This is useful for producing multiple files
312			with identical color maps, or for forcing a predefined
313			set of colors to be used.  The FILE must be a GIF
314			or PPM file.  This option overrides -colors and
315			-onepass.
316
317	-nosmooth	Don't use high-quality upsampling.
318
319	-onepass	Use one-pass instead of two-pass color quantization.
320			The one-pass method is faster and needs less memory,
321			but it produces a lower-quality image.  -onepass is
322			ignored unless you also say -colors N.  Also,
323			the one-pass method is always used for gray-scale
324			output (the two-pass method is no improvement then).
325
326	-maxmemory N	Set limit for amount of memory to use in processing
327			large images.  Value is in thousands of bytes, or
328			millions of bytes if "M" is attached to the number.
329			For example, -max 4m selects 4000000 bytes.  If more
330			space is needed, temporary files will be used.
331
332	-verbose	Enable debug printout.  More -v's give more printout.
333	or  -debug	Also, version information is printed at startup.
334
335
336HINTS FOR CJPEG
337
338Color GIF files are not the ideal input for JPEG; JPEG is really intended for
339compressing full-color (24-bit) images.  In particular, don't try to convert
340cartoons, line drawings, and other images that have only a few distinct
341colors.  GIF works great on these, JPEG does not.  If you want to convert a
342GIF to JPEG, you should experiment with cjpeg's -quality and -smooth options
343to get a satisfactory conversion.  -smooth 10 or so is often helpful.
344
345Avoid running an image through a series of JPEG compression/decompression
346cycles.  Image quality loss will accumulate; after ten or so cycles the image
347may be noticeably worse than it was after one cycle.  It's best to use a
348lossless format while manipulating an image, then convert to JPEG format when
349you are ready to file the image away.
350
351The -optimize option to cjpeg is worth using when you are making a "final"
352version for posting or archiving.  It's also a win when you are using low
353quality settings to make very small JPEG files; the percentage improvement
354is often a lot more than it is on larger files.  (At present, -optimize
355mode is always selected when generating progressive JPEG files.)
356
357GIF input files are no longer supported, to avoid the Unisys LZW patent.
358(Conversion of GIF files to JPEG is usually a bad idea anyway.)
359
360
361HINTS FOR DJPEG
362
363To get a quick preview of an image, use the -grayscale and/or -scale switches.
364"-grayscale -scale 1/8" is the fastest case.
365
366Several options are available that trade off image quality to gain speed.
367"-fast" turns on the recommended settings.
368
369"-dct fast" and/or "-nosmooth" gain speed at a small sacrifice in quality.
370When producing a color-quantized image, "-onepass -dither ordered" is fast but
371much lower quality than the default behavior.  "-dither none" may give
372acceptable results in two-pass mode, but is seldom tolerable in one-pass mode.
373
374If you are fortunate enough to have very fast floating point hardware,
375"-dct float" may be even faster than "-dct fast".  But on most machines
376"-dct float" is slower than "-dct int"; in this case it is not worth using,
377because its theoretical accuracy advantage is too small to be significant
378in practice.
379
380Two-pass color quantization requires a good deal of memory; on MS-DOS machines
381it may run out of memory even with -maxmemory 0.  In that case you can still
382decompress, with some loss of image quality, by specifying -onepass for
383one-pass quantization.
384
385To avoid the Unisys LZW patent, djpeg produces uncompressed GIF files.  These
386are larger than they should be, but are readable by standard GIF decoders.
387
388
389HINTS FOR BOTH PROGRAMS
390
391If more space is needed than will fit in the available main memory (as
392determined by -maxmemory), temporary files will be used.  (MS-DOS versions
393will try to get extended or expanded memory first.)  The temporary files are
394often rather large: in typical cases they occupy three bytes per pixel, for
395example 3*800*600 = 1.44Mb for an 800x600 image.  If you don't have enough
396free disk space, leave out -progressive and -optimize (for cjpeg) or specify
397-onepass (for djpeg).
398
399On MS-DOS, the temporary files are created in the directory named by the TMP
400or TEMP environment variable, or in the current directory if neither of those
401exist.  Amiga implementations put the temp files in the directory named by
402JPEGTMP:, so be sure to assign JPEGTMP: to a disk partition with adequate free
403space.
404
405The default memory usage limit (-maxmemory) is set when the software is
406compiled.  If you get an "insufficient memory" error, try specifying a smaller
407-maxmemory value, even -maxmemory 0 to use the absolute minimum space.  You
408may want to recompile with a smaller default value if this happens often.
409
410On machines that have "environment" variables, you can define the environment
411variable JPEGMEM to set the default memory limit.  The value is specified as
412described for the -maxmemory switch.  JPEGMEM overrides the default value
413specified when the program was compiled, and itself is overridden by an
414explicit -maxmemory switch.
415
416On MS-DOS machines, -maxmemory is the amount of main (conventional) memory to
417use.  (Extended or expanded memory is also used if available.)  Most
418DOS-specific versions of this software do their own memory space estimation
419and do not need you to specify -maxmemory.
420
421
422JPEGTRAN
423
424jpegtran performs various useful transformations of JPEG files.
425It can translate the coded representation from one variant of JPEG to another,
426for example from baseline JPEG to progressive JPEG or vice versa.  It can also
427perform some rearrangements of the image data, for example turning an image
428from landscape to portrait format by rotation.
429
430jpegtran works by rearranging the compressed data (DCT coefficients), without
431ever fully decoding the image.  Therefore, its transformations are lossless:
432there is no image degradation at all, which would not be true if you used
433djpeg followed by cjpeg to accomplish the same conversion.  But by the same
434token, jpegtran cannot perform lossy operations such as changing the image
435quality.
436
437jpegtran uses a command line syntax similar to cjpeg or djpeg.
438On Unix-like systems, you say:
439	jpegtran [switches] [inputfile] >outputfile
440On most non-Unix systems, you say:
441	jpegtran [switches] inputfile outputfile
442where both the input and output files are JPEG files.
443
444To specify the coded JPEG representation used in the output file,
445jpegtran accepts a subset of the switches recognized by cjpeg:
446	-optimize	Perform optimization of entropy encoding parameters.
447	-progressive	Create progressive JPEG file.
448	-restart N	Emit a JPEG restart marker every N MCU rows, or every
449			N MCU blocks if "B" is attached to the number.
450	-arithmetic	Use arithmetic coding.
451	-scans file	Use the scan script given in the specified text file.
452See the previous discussion of cjpeg for more details about these switches.
453If you specify none of these switches, you get a plain baseline-JPEG output
454file.  The quality setting and so forth are determined by the input file.
455
456The image can be losslessly transformed by giving one of these switches:
457	-flip horizontal	Mirror image horizontally (left-right).
458	-flip vertical		Mirror image vertically (top-bottom).
459	-rotate 90		Rotate image 90 degrees clockwise.
460	-rotate 180		Rotate image 180 degrees.
461	-rotate 270		Rotate image 270 degrees clockwise (or 90 ccw).
462	-transpose		Transpose image (across UL-to-LR axis).
463	-transverse		Transverse transpose (across UR-to-LL axis).
464
465The transpose transformation has no restrictions regarding image dimensions.
466The other transformations operate rather oddly if the image dimensions are not
467a multiple of the iMCU size (usually 8 or 16 pixels), because they can only
468transform complete blocks of DCT coefficient data in the desired way.
469
470jpegtran's default behavior when transforming an odd-size image is designed
471to preserve exact reversibility and mathematical consistency of the
472transformation set.  As stated, transpose is able to flip the entire image
473area.  Horizontal mirroring leaves any partial iMCU column at the right edge
474untouched, but is able to flip all rows of the image.  Similarly, vertical
475mirroring leaves any partial iMCU row at the bottom edge untouched, but is
476able to flip all columns.  The other transforms can be built up as sequences
477of transpose and flip operations; for consistency, their actions on edge
478pixels are defined to be the same as the end result of the corresponding
479transpose-and-flip sequence.
480
481For practical use, you may prefer to discard any untransformable edge pixels
482rather than having a strange-looking strip along the right and/or bottom edges
483of a transformed image.  To do this, add the -trim switch:
484	-trim		Drop non-transformable edge blocks.
485Obviously, a transformation with -trim is not reversible, so strictly speaking
486jpegtran with this switch is not lossless.  Also, the expected mathematical
487equivalences between the transformations no longer hold.  For example,
488"-rot 270 -trim" trims only the bottom edge, but "-rot 90 -trim" followed by
489"-rot 180 -trim" trims both edges.
490
491If you are only interested in perfect transformation, add the -perfect switch:
492	-perfect	Fails with an error if the transformation is not
493			perfect.
494For example you may want to do
495  jpegtran -rot 90 -perfect foo.jpg || djpeg foo.jpg | pnmflip -r90 | cjpeg
496to do a perfect rotation if available or an approximated one if not.
497
498We also offer a lossless-crop option, which discards data outside a given
499image region but losslessly preserves what is inside.  Like the rotate and
500flip transforms, lossless crop is restricted by the current JPEG format: the
501upper left corner of the selected region must fall on an iMCU boundary.  If
502this does not hold for the given crop parameters, we silently move the upper
503left corner up and/or left to make it so, simultaneously increasing the region
504dimensions to keep the lower right crop corner unchanged.  (Thus, the output
505image covers at least the requested region, but may cover more.)
506
507The image can be losslessly cropped by giving the switch:
508	-crop WxH+X+Y	Crop to a rectangular subarea of width W, height H
509			starting at point X,Y.
510
511Other not-strictly-lossless transformation switches are:
512
513	-grayscale	Force grayscale output.
514This option discards the chrominance channels if the input image is YCbCr
515(ie, a standard color JPEG), resulting in a grayscale JPEG file.  The
516luminance channel is preserved exactly, so this is a better method of reducing
517to grayscale than decompression, conversion, and recompression.  This switch
518is particularly handy for fixing a monochrome picture that was mistakenly
519encoded as a color JPEG.  (In such a case, the space savings from getting rid
520of the near-empty chroma channels won't be large; but the decoding time for
521a grayscale JPEG is substantially less than that for a color JPEG.)
522
523	-scale M/N	Scale the output image by a factor M/N.
524Currently supported scale factors are M/N with all M from 1 to 16, where N is
525the source DCT size, which is 8 for baseline JPEG.  If the /N part is omitted,
526then M specifies the DCT scaled size to be applied on the given input.  For
527baseline JPEG this is equivalent to M/8 scaling, since the source DCT size
528for baseline JPEG is 8.  CAUTION: An implementation of the JPEG SmartScale
529extension is required for this feature.  SmartScale enabled JPEG is not yet
530widely implemented, so many decoders will be unable to view a SmartScale
531extended JPEG file at all.
532
533jpegtran also recognizes these switches that control what to do with "extra"
534markers, such as comment blocks:
535	-copy none	Copy no extra markers from source file.  This setting
536			suppresses all comments and other excess baggage
537			present in the source file.
538	-copy comments	Copy only comment markers.  This setting copies
539			comments from the source file, but discards
540			any other inessential (for image display) data.
541	-copy all	Copy all extra markers.  This setting preserves
542			miscellaneous markers found in the source file, such
543			as JFIF thumbnails, Exif data, and Photoshop settings.
544			In some files these extra markers can be sizable.
545The default behavior is -copy comments.  (Note: in IJG releases v6 and v6a,
546jpegtran always did the equivalent of -copy none.)
547
548Additional switches recognized by jpegtran are:
549	-outfile filename
550	-maxmemory N
551	-verbose
552	-debug
553These work the same as in cjpeg or djpeg.
554
555
556THE COMMENT UTILITIES
557
558The JPEG standard allows "comment" (COM) blocks to occur within a JPEG file.
559Although the standard doesn't actually define what COM blocks are for, they
560are widely used to hold user-supplied text strings.  This lets you add
561annotations, titles, index terms, etc to your JPEG files, and later retrieve
562them as text.  COM blocks do not interfere with the image stored in the JPEG
563file.  The maximum size of a COM block is 64K, but you can have as many of
564them as you like in one JPEG file.
565
566We provide two utility programs to display COM block contents and add COM
567blocks to a JPEG file.
568
569rdjpgcom searches a JPEG file and prints the contents of any COM blocks on
570standard output.  The command line syntax is
571	rdjpgcom [-raw] [-verbose] [inputfilename]
572The switch "-raw" (or just "-r") causes rdjpgcom to also output non-printable
573characters in comments, which are normally escaped for security reasons.
574The switch "-verbose" (or just "-v") causes rdjpgcom to also display the JPEG
575image dimensions.  If you omit the input file name from the command line,
576the JPEG file is read from standard input.  (This may not work on some
577operating systems, if binary data can't be read from stdin.)
578
579wrjpgcom adds a COM block, containing text you provide, to a JPEG file.
580Ordinarily, the COM block is added after any existing COM blocks, but you
581can delete the old COM blocks if you wish.  wrjpgcom produces a new JPEG
582file; it does not modify the input file.  DO NOT try to overwrite the input
583file by directing wrjpgcom's output back into it; on most systems this will
584just destroy your file.
585
586The command line syntax for wrjpgcom is similar to cjpeg's.  On Unix-like
587systems, it is
588	wrjpgcom [switches] [inputfilename]
589The output file is written to standard output.  The input file comes from
590the named file, or from standard input if no input file is named.
591
592On most non-Unix systems, the syntax is
593	wrjpgcom [switches] inputfilename outputfilename
594where both input and output file names must be given explicitly.
595
596wrjpgcom understands three switches:
597	-replace		 Delete any existing COM blocks from the file.
598	-comment "Comment text"	 Supply new COM text on command line.
599	-cfile name		 Read text for new COM block from named file.
600(Switch names can be abbreviated.)  If you have only one line of comment text
601to add, you can provide it on the command line with -comment.  The comment
602text must be surrounded with quotes so that it is treated as a single
603argument.  Longer comments can be read from a text file.
604
605If you give neither -comment nor -cfile, then wrjpgcom will read the comment
606text from standard input.  (In this case an input image file name MUST be
607supplied, so that the source JPEG file comes from somewhere else.)  You can
608enter multiple lines, up to 64KB worth.  Type an end-of-file indicator
609(usually control-D or control-Z) to terminate the comment text entry.
610
611wrjpgcom will not add a COM block if the provided comment string is empty.
612Therefore -replace -comment "" can be used to delete all COM blocks from a
613file.
614
615These utility programs do not depend on the IJG JPEG library.  In
616particular, the source code for rdjpgcom is intended as an illustration of
617the minimum amount of code required to parse a JPEG file header correctly.
618