GEM Bit Image file format
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GEM Bit Image *.IMG 1 word version number of image file [1] 1 word length of header in words [usually 8] 1 word number of color planes [1 for monochrome] 1 word pattern length in bytes [1-8, usually 2 for screen images] 1 word pixel width in microns (1/1000 mm, 25400 microns per inch) 1 word pixel height in microns 1 word line width in pixels 1 word number of lines ------- ? words header length defined in 2nd word of header ? bytes data NOTES: If the image is a color image (planes > 1), the planes are stored separately starting with plane 0. There is, however, no standard way of storing the color palette. Some programs may save the palette in separate files, some may extend the header. For this reason, you should never assume the header is 8 words long, always get the header length from the 2nd word of the header. Also, the line width in the 7th word is the number of pixels in a line. Since the data is encoded in byte-wide packets, the actual unpacked line width is always a multiple of 8, and may be 1-7 pixels longer than the length specified in the header. For each byte x in the data section, x = 0 Pattern/scanline run. Read the next byte, n (unsigned). If n > 0 then: Read a number of bytes equal to the "pattern length" word in the header. Repeat this pattern n times. If n = 0 then: Scanline run. Data for the next scanline is to be used multiple times. Read the following record: 1 byte flag byte [$FF] 1 byte number of times to use next scanline data The data for the next scanline follows, compressed normally. x = 80 (hex) Uncompressed bit string. The next byte determines the number of bytes to use literally. The literal data bytes follow. otherwise Solid run. The value of x determines what to draw. The high bit specifies whether the pixels are set or cleared. A 1 indicates a byte-run using $FF, a 0 indicates a byte-run using $00. The low 7 bits, taken as an unsigned quantity, specify the length of the run in bytes.
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