1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> 2<html lang="en"> 3<head> 4 <title>Extending LibTiff library with support for the new BigTIFF format</title> 5 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> 6 <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en"> 7</head> 8<body lang="en" text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff" link="#0000ff" alink="#0000ff" vlink="#0000ff"> 9 <h1>Extending LibTiff library with support for the new BigTIFF format</h1> 10 <p> 11 <a href="http://www.simplesystems.org/libtiff//">LibTiff</a> maintainers have started work on LibTiff 4.0, 12 the next major upgrade of the time-proven <a href="http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff.html">TIFF</a> 13 codec. This upgrade will include support for the new BigTIFF file format. It is planned a preliminary 14 version (LibTiff 4.0alpha1) will be operational by June 15, 2007. Testing and final release improvements 15 for LibTiff 4.0 will be completed by July 30, 2007. 16 </p> 17 <p> 18 BigTIFF logically extends the original TIFF file format (referred to as 'ClassicTIFF' from now on), 19 breaking the 4 gigabyte boundary, with 64bit offsets allowing files up to 18,000 petabytes in size. The 20 BigTIFF specification is the result of work by a variety of parties on the LibTiff mailing list, including 21 the current LibTiff maintainers, Joris Van Damme and Adobe staff. The BigTIFF specification has not yet 22 been officially approved by the TIFF specification owner (Adobe), but implementation within LibTiff 23 could accelerate that process. For more information on the BigTIFF file format, we recommend AWare Systems' 24 <a href="http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/bigtiff.html">BigTIFF page</a>. 25 </p> 26 <p> 27 BigTIFF will be especially useful for people and vendors that are confronted with very large images, and 28 still seek to use an open, simple, and extendable format. This requirement is frequently encountered in the 29 geospatial field, but also concerns large format scanners, medical imaging and other fields. 30 </p> 31 <p> 32 The LibTiff BigTIFF upgrade is made possible by four sponsors funding the project. The programming work will 33 primarily be done by <a href="http://www.awaresystems.be/index.html">Joris Van Damme (AWare Systems)</a>. 34 LibTiff's licensing agreement will remain unchanged. More details on the project itself, are available from 35 the <a href="http://www.simplesystems.org/libtiff//BigTIFFProposal.html">BigTIFF in LibTiff project page</a>. 36 </p> 37 <p> 38 The sponsors are, in alphabetical order: 39 </p> 40 <table cellspacing="4" cellpadding="4" border="0"> 41 <tbody> 42 <tr> 43 <td><img src="bigtiffpr_images/esri.png" width="128" height="78" alt="ESRI" border="0"></td> 44 <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/">ESRI</a> has been giving customers around the world the power to 45 think and plan geographically since 1969. As the leader in GIS, ESRI applies innovative technologies to help 46 organizations create, analyze, and visualize information for more informed decisions. Running on more than 47 a million desktops and thousands of servers, ESRI applications are the foundation of the world's mapping and 48 spatial analysis infrastructure.</td> 49 </tr> 50 <tr> 51 <td><img src="bigtiffpr_images/leica.png" width="128" height="85" alt="Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging" border="0"></td> 52 <td><a href="http://gi.leica-geosystems.com/default.aspx">Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging</a> offers a 53 range of workflow solutions for photogrammetry, mapping, remote sensing, catalog management and exploitation 54 of geospatial imagery. Enterprise organizations use this imagery as the basis for generating information for 55 both education and decision making processes. Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them 56 for their precision, seamless integration, interoperability and superior customer support.</td> 57 </tr> 58 <tr> 59 <td><img src="bigtiffpr_images/safe.png" width="128" height="53" alt="Safe Software" border="0"></td> 60 <td><a href="http://www.safe.com/">Safe Software</a> is the maker of FME, a powerful spatial ETL (Extract, 61 Transform and Load) tool that enables true data interoperability. FME manages the translation, 62 transformation, integration and web-based distribution of geospatial data in 200 GIS, CAD, raster and 63 database formats. Safe Software's FME technology is also embedded in numerous market-leading GIS and 64 ETL applications.</td> 65 </tr> 66 <tr> 67 <td><img src="bigtiffpr_images/weogeo.png" width="128" height="37" alt="WeoGeo" border="0"></td> 68 <td><a href="http://www.weogeo.com/">WeoGeo</a> is a web-based data management resource for the geospatial 69 industry that allows the free market exchange of mapping related imagery products, featuring an innovative 70 solution that efficiently manages digital mapping files of any size. With an intuitive user interface 71 and the scalable power of Amazon Web Services (AWS), geospatial professionals can view, sort, search, 72 and share complex, high volume maps quickly and effectively.</td> 73 </tr> 74 </tbody> 75 </table> 76</body> 77</html>
