A single-frame GIF file breaks down into two major parts: the header and the image data. A multiframe GIF file is similar, except that it can include any number of sets of image data after the header. Of course, I've left out some important details in the name of overview, but we'll get to them shortly. Indexed Image DataGIF images have, at most, an 8-bit color resolution. With 8 bits, there can be, at most, 256 colors. GIF image data does not itself represent RGB values. This would be impossible because each of the three components of an RGB triple requires 8 bits, and thus a total of 24 bits for the entire value. Instead, the GIF image data is an index into a palette that defines up to 256 RGB values, as Figure 11.1 shows. Figure 11.1. Each Pixel in a GIF Image's Data Is Actually an Index into a Palette That Can Contain Up to 256 colors.You need to know about the GIF indexed image data for several reasons. One reason is the general understanding of the format. Another is that, knowing this, you can easily see why the format is limited to 256 colors. I need to point out here that all GIF images don't have the same palettes each and every one can have a different palette. The last of my three reasons for knowing how GIF data is laid out is that if you want to set a transparent color, you do it with an indexed value and not an RGB value. We'll talk more about this later. GIF Data CompressionOK, let's say you open a GIF file with a disk editor and want to look at the data. You want to get a look at some of the data indices. Although this is a nice thought, it won't work because GIF image data is compressed by a technique know as LZW (which stands for Lempel, Ziv, and Welch the original creators). So the image data will look completely unintelligible. There have been times when I wanted to see the data indices for a GIF image. I resorted to running the debugger and examining the memory contents of an image object, or to saving the image to disk as a BMP file. In the .NET Framework, it's a lot easier to save a GIF image as a BMP and then look at it with a disk editor. The GIF HeaderThe GIF header provides a descriptor of the image. The header contains the width and height of the screen (which 99.9 percent of the time is the same as the width and height of the image); some flags indicating palette information, such as whether there is a global palette and, if so, how large it is; a background color; and an aspect ratio value. Table 11.1 shows the layout of the GIF header.
The Local Image DescriptorBecause GIF files can have more than one image, it's important that each image can be described independently. For this reason, the GIF format provides the Local Image Descriptor section for each image in the file. This section describes the image that follows. It includes x and y positions, width and height, and palette information. You can see a description of the Local Image Descriptor in Table 11.2. The Graphics Control ExtensionThe earlier GIF format is identified by the signature "GIF87a", while the later version that we use today is identified by the signature "GIF89a". The newer version allows additional information that adds flexibility to the format, including the capabilities to make an image transparent and to animate a set of images.
The Graphics Control Extension is used in the AnimatedGif class to provide transparency and animation delay information. Extension blocks can have a variable size, but the Graphics Control Extension variety has four bytes of data. Table 11.3 shows the Graphics Control Extension Block. |