FreeImage is an Open Source library project for developers who would like to support popular graphics image formats like PNG, BMP, JPEG, TIFF and others as needed by today's multimedia applications.

FreeImage is easy to use, fast, multithreading safe, compatible with all 32-bit versions of Windows, and cross-platform (works both with Mac OS X and Linux).

Thanks to it's ANSI C interface, FreeImage is usable in many languages including C, C++, Java, VB, C#, Delphi, and also in common scripting languages such as Perl, PHP, TCL, Python, or Ruby.

The library comes in two versions: a binary DLL distribution that can be linked against any WIN32 C/C++ compiler and a source distribution. Workspace files for Microsoft VS.Net 2003 and VS.Net 2005 are provided, as well as makefiles for Linux and Mac OS X.

Supported formats:
· BMP files [reading, writing]
· Dr. Halo files [reading] *
· DDS files [reading]
· EXR files [reading, writing]
· Raw Fax G3 files [reading]
· GIF files [reading, writing]
· HDR files [reading, writing]
· ICO files [reading, writing]
· IFF files [reading]
· JBIG [reading, writing]
· JNG files [reading]
· JPEG/JIF files [reading, writing]
· JPEG-2000 File Format [reading, writing]
· JPEG-2000 codestream [reading, writing]
· KOALA files [reading]
· Kodak PhotoCD files [reading]
· MNG files [reading]
· PCX files [reading]
· PBM files [reading, writing]
· PGM files [reading, writing]
· PNG files [reading, writing]
· PPM files [reading, writing]
· PhotoShop files [reading]
· Sun RAS files [reading]
· SGI files [reading]
· TARGA files [reading, writing]
· TIFF files [reading, writing]
· WBMP files [reading, writing]
· XBM files [reading]
· XPM files [reading, writing]

Here are some key features of "FreeImage":

· Ease of use: The library has been designed to be extremely simple in use. Our motto is: make difficult things simple instead of simple things difficult.
· Not limited to the local PC: The unique FreeImageIO structure makes it possible to load your images from virtually anywhere. Possibilities include standalone files, memory, cabinet files and the Internet, all this without recompiling the library!
· Plugin driven: The internal engine is made completely modular using a clever plugin system. Easily write new plugins and store them in DLL files or embed the plugins directly into your application!
· Color conversion: FreeImage provides many functions to convert a bitmap from one bitdepth to another. The library supports 1-, 4-, 8-, 16, 24- and 32-bit images, as well as integer, real and complex images.
· Support for High Dynamic Range images: FreeImage supports RGB float images as well a 48-bit HDR images and provides tone mapping operators to convert these images to 24-bit LDR images.
· Directly access bitmap bits and palette: Functions are provided which allow you to directly access the bitmap palette (if available) and bitmap bits.
· Metadata support: Parse common metadata models attached to your bitmap. FreeImage supports Comments, Exif (including GPS and maker notes), IPTC, Adobe XMP and GeoTIFF metadata models.
· Written in portable C++, should compile on all 32-bit Windows, Linux and Mac OSX systems.
· Full source code is provided.
· Open Source Dual-License: You can choose the license that has the most advantages for you: Use the liberal FreeImage Public License to use FreeImage commercially or the GNU General Public License to use FreeImage into your open source project.
· Easily integrates into DirectX and OpenGL: Only a minimum of programming is necessary to store a FreeImage bitmap into a DirectDraw surface or to use FreeImage to load your Direct3D/OpenGL textures.
· Provides basic image manipulation routines such as rotation, resizing, flipping or color adjustments, as well as lossless JPEG transformations.
· Provides test programs to "show-off" the library, compilable and startable on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 or on Linux.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· FreeImage now uses LibJPEG 7
· FreeImage now uses LibRaw-Lite 0.7.2
· FreeImage now uses libPNG 1.2.40
· FreeImage now uses libTIFF 3.9.1
· FreeImage_RotateClassic is deprecated (use FreeImage_Rotate instead)
· [Herve Drolon] added support for all Photoshop supported color modes to PSD plugin
· [Herve Drolon] added support for 32-bit to JNG/MNG plugin
· [Amir Ebrahimi] added loading support for the PICT format
· [Herve Drolon] added loading support for camera RAW formats (using LibRawLite wrapper for dcraw)
· [Mihail Naydenov] added UNICODE functions FreeImage_JPEGTransformU and FreeImage_JPEGCropU
· [Carsten Klein] added FreeImage_OpenMultiBitmapFromHandle
· [Carsten Klein] added FreeImage_FillBackground
· [Carsten Klein] added FreeImage_EnlargeCanvas
· [Carsten Klein] added FreeImage_AllocateEx / FreeImage_AllocateExT
· [Mihail Naydenov/Herve Drolon] added FreeImage_TmoReinhard05Ex
· [Herve Drolon] added FIT_RGBA16 to FIT_RGBF conversion to FreeImage_ConvertToRGBF
· [Herve Drolon] added FreeImage_Rotate (suppor...