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djpeg - decompress a JPEG file to an image file
djpeg [
options ] [ filename ]
djpeg decompresses the named JPEG
file, or the standard input if no file is named, and produces an image
file on the standard output. PBMPLUS (PPM/PGM), BMP, GIF, Targa, or RLE
(Utah Raster Toolkit) output format can be selected. (RLE is supported
only if the URT library is available.)
All switch names may be
abbreviated; for example, -grayscale may be written -gray or -gr. Most of
the "basic" switches can be abbreviated to as little as one letter. Upper
and lower case are equivalent (thus -BMP is the same as -bmp). British spellings
are also accepted (e.g., -greyscale), though for brevity these are not mentioned
below.
The basic switches are:
- -colors N
- Reduce image to at most N colors.
This reduces the number of colors used in the output image, so that it
can be displayed on a colormapped display or stored in a colormapped file
format. For example, if you have an 8-bit display, you'd need to reduce
to 256 or fewer colors.
- -quantize N
- Same as -colors. -colors is the recommended
name, -quantize is provided only for backwards compatibility.
- -fast
- Select
recommended processing options for fast, low quality output. (The default
options are chosen for highest quality output.) Currently, this is equivalent
to -dct fast -nosmooth -onepass -dither ordered .
- -grayscale
- Force gray-scale
output even if JPEG file is color. Useful for viewing on monochrome displays;
also, djpeg runs noticeably faster in this mode.
- -scale M/N
- Scale the output
image by a factor M/N. Currently the scale factor must be 1/1, 1/2, 1/4,
or 1/8. Scaling is handy if the image is larger than your screen; also,
djpeg runs much faster when scaling down the output.
- -bmp
- Select BMP output
format (Windows flavor). 8-bit colormapped format is emitted if -colors
or -grayscale is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale; otherwise,
24-bit full-color format is emitted.
- -gif
- Select GIF output format. Since
GIF does not support more than 256 colors, -colors 256 is assumed (unless
you specify a smaller number of colors).
- -os2
- Select BMP output format
(OS/2 1.x flavor). 8-bit colormapped format is emitted if -colors or -grayscale
is specified, or if the JPEG file is gray-scale; otherwise, 24-bit full-color
format is emitted.
- -pnm
- Select PBMPLUS (PPM/PGM) output format (this is
the default format). PGM is emitted if the JPEG file is gray-scale or if
-grayscale is specified; otherwise PPM is emitted.
- -rle
- Select RLE output
format. (Requires URT library.)
- -targa
- Select Targa output format. Gray-scale
format is emitted if the JPEG file is gray-scale or if -grayscale is specified;
otherwise, colormapped format is emitted if -colors is specified; otherwise,
24-bit full-color format is emitted.
Switches for advanced users:
- -dct int
- Use integer DCT method (default).
- -dct fast
- Use fast integer DCT (less
accurate).
- -dct float
- Use floating-point DCT method. The float method is
very slightly more accurate than the int method, but is much slower unless
your machine has very fast floating-point hardware. Also note that results
of the floating-point method may vary slightly across machines, while the
integer methods should give the same results everywhere. The fast integer
method is much less accurate than the other two.
- -dither fs
- Use Floyd-Steinberg
dithering in color quantization.
- -dither ordered
- Use ordered dithering
in color quantization.
- -dither none
- Do not use dithering in color quantization.
By default, Floyd-Steinberg dithering is applied when quantizing colors;
this is slow but usually produces the best results. Ordered dither is
a compromise between speed and quality; no dithering is fast but usually
looks awful. Note that these switches have no effect unless color quantization
is being done. Ordered dither is only available in -onepass mode.
- -map file
- Quantize to the colors used in the specified image file. This is useful
for producing multiple files with identical color maps, or for forcing
a predefined set of colors to be used. The file must be a GIF or PPM file.
This option overrides -colors and -onepass.
- -nosmooth
- Use a faster, lower-quality
upsampling routine.
- -onepass
- Use one-pass instead of two-pass color quantization.
The one-pass method is faster and needs less memory, but it produces a
lower-quality image. -onepass is ignored unless you also say -colors N. Also,
the one-pass method is always used for gray-scale output (the two-pass method
is no improvement then).
- -maxmemory N
- Set limit for amount of memory to
use in processing large images. Value is in thousands of bytes, or millions
of bytes if "M" is attached to the number. For example, -max 4m selects
4000000 bytes. If more space is needed, temporary files will be used.
- -outfile
name
- Send output image to the named file, not to standard output.
- -verbose
- Enable debug printout. More -v's give more output. Also, version information
is printed at startup.
- -debug
- Same as -verbose.
This example decompresses
the JPEG file foo.jpg, quantizes it to 256 colors, and saves the output
in 8-bit BMP format in foo.bmp:
- djpeg -colors 256 -bmp
- foo.jpg > foo.bmp
To get a quick preview of an image, use the -grayscale and/or -scale switches.
-grayscale -scale 1/8 is the fastest case.
Several options are available
that trade off image quality to gain speed. -fast turns on the recommended
settings.
-dct fast and/or -nosmooth gain speed at a small sacrifice in quality.
When producing a color-quantized image, -onepass -dither ordered is fast
but much lower quality than the default behavior. -dither none may give
acceptable results in two-pass mode, but is seldom tolerable in one-pass
mode.
If you are fortunate enough to have very fast floating point hardware,
-dct float may be even faster than -dct fast . But on most machines -dct
float is slower than -dct int ; in this case it is not worth using, because
its theoretical accuracy advantage is too small to be significant in practice.
- JPEGMEM
- If this environment variable is set, its value is
the default memory limit. The value is specified as described for the -maxmemory
switch. JPEGMEM overrides the default value specified when the program
was compiled, and itself is overridden by an explicit -maxmemory.
cjpeg(1)
, jpegtran(1)
, rdjpgcom(1)
, wrjpgcom(1)
ppm(5)
, pgm(5)
Wallace, Gregory K. "The JPEG Still Picture Compression Standard", Communications
of the ACM, April 1991 (vol. 34, no. 4), pp. 30-44.
Independent JPEG
Group
Arithmetic coding is not supported for legal reasons.
To avoid
the Unisys LZW patent, djpeg produces uncompressed GIF files. These are
larger than they should be, but are readable by standard GIF decoders.
Still not as fast as we'd like.
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