Nick Lamb wrote:
> However, when it came to adding JBIG (which someone mentioned wanting) I
> noticed that JBIG uses the exact same arithmetic coding stuff which was
> patented by IBM and thus lies unused in the JPEG standards.
>
> At the moment I have explicitly mentioned the patented process as a no-no
> in the JPEG frame type, which makes sense because hardly anything can
> read JPEG streams with arithmetic encoding anyway. For JBIG we don't have
> that option because the patented Q-coder is in the baseline standard.
>
> So: A question for those writing drivers for high-speed document scanning
>
> Should we include a JBIG frame type anyway? If we do it will be the first
> format for which SANE cannot include a reference implementation. The
> advantage in supporting it anyway would be that you could potentially
> save the JBIG image (if an interchange format exists) and import it into
> your proprietary document management system. The disadvantage is that
> this sets an unpleasant precedent.
Yes, I was the one who mentioned JBIG. I mentioned it because the newer
line of Bell+Howell scanners (4000/8000) series generate that format as
well. I do not have one of those scanners available to me at this time,
so I do not have an urgent need to send JBIG. I just thought that I'd
put it in the list of frametypes for discussion, hoping that I'd get to
expand the backed support to the newer line of scanners sometime soon.
I also noticed the patent issue and it caused concern. But then I saw
the following (quoted from "Encyclopedia of Graphic File Formats" by
Murray and VanRyper)
> JBIG-KIT is free software under the GNU General Public License and
> provides complete source code and documentation. A 1992 draft copy
> of the CCiTT T.82 Recommendation for JBIG is also currently included
> in this distribution.
When I saw this, it made me feel better, but I'm not really well versed
in the patent side of things...
FYI, here is the web page of the author of JBIG-KIT:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/
and the web page for the JBIG group:
http://www.jpeg.org/public/jbighomepage.htm
This is a quote from the jbigkit-1.0-announce.txt file in the author's
ftp area. ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/doc/ISO/JBIG
There's no mention of IBM or the patent issue, here.
> JBIG-KIT implements a highly effective data compression algorithm for
> bi-level high-resolution images such as fax pages or scanned
> documents.
> JBIG-KIT provides a portable library of compression and decompression
> functions with a documented interface that you can very easily include
> into your image or document processing software. In addition, JBIG-KIT
> provides ready-to-use compression and decompression programs with a
> simple command line interface (similar to the converters found in Jef
> Poskanzer's PBM graphics file conversion package).
> JBIG-KIT implements the specification
> International Standard ISO/IEC 11544:1993 and ITU-T Recommendation
> T.82(1993), "Information technology - Coded representation of picture
> and audio information - progressive bi-level image compression",
> <http://www.itu.ch/itudoc/itu-t/rec/t/t82_23822.html>,
So could this software satisfy the reference implementation?
I don't want to start an unpleasant precedent, so if there's a problem
with JBIG, let's cross it off the list.
Tom Martone
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