Re: libjpeg/libpng-based image loading

[Jason Clouse]

On 2003-12-13 17:12:32 -0800 Alex Perez <aperez@student.santarosa.edu> 
wrote:

> Stefan,
> > > If your favorite format isn't in this list, now would be a good 
> > > time to
> > > write a loader for it. :)
> > I started writing a loader for gifs this weekend and think i can 
> > make it 
> > working
> > this weekend. it is based on libungif. The documentations states 
> > that 
> > libungif
> > cannot be used to create compressed gif images (this would require 
> > using
> > the lzw patent), so i think we do not have any patent issues here.
> The problem I see with this is that you have no control over whether 
> or not a 
> GIF that is on any particular website is actually compressed or not. 
> Therefore, if I'm understanding libungif correctly, it will fail to 
> decode 
> any LZW-compressed GIF on any given webpage.

I think libungif will read LZW-compressed files.  What it doesn't do 
is ENcode them with LZW.  It uses some other algorithm for writing.  
It's based on ESRs libgif package, BTW.