Babl-0.0.22

Contents

  • Babl
  •   Features
  • Download
  • Documentation
  •   Usage
  •   Vocabulary
  •   Shortcut Coverage
  •   Environment  Extending
  •   Directory Overview
  • Todo
  • Copyright
  •   Authors


babl is a dynamic, any to any, pixel format translation library.

It allows converting between different methods of storing pixels known
as pixel formats that have with different bitdepths and other data
representations, color models and component permutations.

A vocabulary to formulate new pixel formats from existing primitives is
provided as well as the framework to add new color models and data
types.

Features

  • Fast.
  • Accurate.
  • Stable, small API.
  • Self profiling and optimizing.
  • ANSI C, works on win32, linux and mac, 32bit and 64bit systems.
  • Extendable with new formats, color models, components and
    datatypes.
  • Reference 64bit floating point conversions for datatypes and color
    models.

GEGL through GeglBuffer provides tiled buffers with on disk storage as
well as linear buffers with accessor functions for efficient data
access transparently using babl fishes for translation to the desired
pixel formats.

Download

The latest versioned development version of babl can be found in ftp://
ftp.gtk.org/pub/babl/.

Babl development happens in GNOME Subversion in the babl module. It can
be browsed online and checked out with:

svn co http://svn.gnome.org/svn/babl/trunk/ babl

The following is a list of the major changes that have gone into each
babl release. If there are significant improvements to babl when a GEGL
release is done a babl release is most often put out just prior to the
GEGL release.

2008-06-12 babl-0.0.22
    Speed improvements due to: coalesced hashing, early bail out upon
    creation of duplicate formats, caching of non existing paths. Large
    amounts of the core has also been reviewed and refactored. Improved
    conversion coverage in the matrix.
2008-02-27 babl-0.0.20
    Builds on OSX Check <0.0 and >1.0 values conversions for accuracy
    as well.

For more news see the current ChangeLog in subversion.

Documentation

When using BablFishes to do your conversions, you request a fish to
convert between two formats, and an optimal fish to babls capability is
provided that you can use to do your conversions. Babl also provides
the capability to describe new formats based on a vocabulary of user
registered color models and data types.

Babl provides a base vocabulary in BablBase and some extensions that
are thought to be generally useful.

When performing further extensions to the vocabulary of babl, the
internal consistency is governed by reference conversions that operate
on double (64 bit floating point values). The only color model created
during BablCore bootstrap is RGBA (linear light RGB, 0.0 - 1.0, with a
linear 0.0 - 1.0 opacity channel) backed by the double datatype.
Defined similarily to scRGB using 64bit floating point.

If babls conversion isn't fast enough, you can provide your own
conversion shortcut between two formats. The registered shortcut might
also be used by babl as an intermediate conversion when constructing
BablFishes for other conversions.

Babl extensions are shared objects. If you have already developed some
fast conversion functions, wrapping them as babl extensions should not
take much time and will speed up babl for other users as well.

Usage

babl_process (babl_fish (source_format, destination_format),
              source_buffer, destination_buffer,
              pixel_count);

The processing operation that babl performs is copying including
conversions if needed between linear buffers containing the same count
of pixels, with different pixel formats.

int width = 123, height = 581, pixel_count = width * height;

const Babl *srgb            = babl_format ("R'G'B' u8");
const Babl *lab             = babl_format ("CIE Lab float");
const Babl *rgb_to_lab_fish = babl_fish (srgb, lab);

float         *lab_buffer;
unsigned char *srgb_buffer;

srgb_buffer = malloc (pixel_count * srgb->format.bytes_per_pixel);
lab_buffer  = malloc (pixel_count * 3 * 4);

...... load data into srgb_buffer .......

babl_process (bablfish, srgb_buffer, lab_buffer, pixel_count);

...... do operation in lab space ........

babl_process (babl_fish(lab, srgb),
              lab_buffer, srgb_buffer, pixel_count);

/* the data has now been transformed back to srgb data */

If the existing pixel formats are not sufficient for your conversion
needs, new ones can be created on the fly. The constructor will provide
the prior created one if duplicates are registered.

const Babl *format = babl_format_new (babl_model ("R'G'B'"),
                                      babl_type ("u16"),
                                      babl_component ("B'"),
                                      babl_component ("G'"),
                                      babl_component ("R'"),
                                      NULL);

Vocabulary


+-
Data types
double

bits
    64
bytes
    8

float

bits
    32
bytes
    4

u8

bits
    8
bytes
    1

u8-luma

bits
    8
bytes
    1

u8-chroma

bits
    8
bytes
    1

u16

bits
    16
bytes
    2

u32

bits
    32
bytes
    4

CIE u8 L

bits
    8
bytes
    1

CIE u8 ab

bits
    8
bytes
    1

CIE u16 L

bits
    16
bytes
    2

CIE u16 ab

bits
    16
bytes
    2

Color models
RGBA

components

    R
    G
    B
    A

RGB

components

    R
    G
    B

RaGaBaA

components

    Ra
    Ga
    Ba
    A

R'G'B'

components

    R'
    G'
    B'

R'G'B'A

components

    R'
    G'
    B'
    A

R'aG'aB'aA

components

    R'a
    G'a
    B'a
    A

Y

components

    Y

YA

components

    Y
    A

YaA

components

    Ya
    A

Y'

components

    Y'

Y'A

components

    Y'
    A

Y'aA

components

    Y'a
    A

Y'CbCr

components

    Y'
    Cb
    Cr

Y'CbCrA

components

    Y'
    Cb
    Cr
    A

CIE Lab

components

    CIE L
    CIE a
    CIE b

CIE Lab alpha

components

    CIE L
    CIE a
    CIE b
    A

CMYK

components

    cyan
    magenta
    yellow
    key

Pixel formats
RGBA double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    RGBA
components

    double  R
    double  G
    double  B
    double  A

R'G'B'A double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    R'G'B'A
components

    double  R'
    double  G'
    double  B'
    double  A

R'aG'aB'aA double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    R'aG'aB'aA
components

    double  R'a
    double  G'a
    double  B'a
    double  A

R'G'B' u8

bytes/pixel
    3
model
    R'G'B'
components

    u8 R'
    u8 G'
    u8 B'

R'G'B'A u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    R'G'B'A
components

    u8 R'
    u8 G'
    u8 B'
    u8 A

RGBA float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    RGBA
components

    float  R
    float  G
    float  B
    float  A

RGB float

bytes/pixel
    12
model
    RGB
components

    float  R
    float  G
    float  B

Y'aA double

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    Y'aA
components

    double  Y'a
    double  A

Y double

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    Y
components

    double  Y

YA double

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    YA
components

    double  Y
    double  A

Y'CbCr double

bytes/pixel
    24
model
    Y'CbCr
components

    double  Y'
    double  Cb
    double  Cr

Y'CbCrA double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    Y'CbCrA
components

    double  Y'
    double  Cb
    double  Cr
    double  A

Y'CbCr u8

bytes/pixel
    3
model
    Y'CbCr
components

    u8-luma    Y'
    u8-chroma  Cb
    u8-chroma  Cr

R'G'B'A float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    R'G'B'A
components

    float  R'
    float  G'
    float  B'
    float  A

R'G'B'A u16

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    R'G'B'A
components

    u16  R'
    u16  G'
    u16  B'
    u16  A

R'aG'aB'aA float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    R'aG'aB'aA
components

    float  R'a
    float  G'a
    float  B'a
    float  A

R'aG'aB'aA u16

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    R'aG'aB'aA
components

    u16 R'a
    u16 G'a
    u16 B'a
    u16 A

R'aG'aB'aA u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    R'aG'aB'aA
components

    u8 R'a
    u8 G'a
    u8 B'a
    u8 A

R'G'B' float

bytes/pixel
    12
model
    R'G'B'
components

    float  R'
    float  G'
    float  B'

R'G'B' u16

bytes/pixel
    6
model
    R'G'B'
components

    u16  R'
    u16  G'
    u16  B'

Y'A float

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    Y'A
components

    float  Y'
    float  A

Y'aA float

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    Y'aA
components

    float  Y'a
    float  A

Y' float

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    Y'
components

    float  Y'

Y'A u16

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    Y'A
components

    u16  Y'
    u16  A

Y'aA u16

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    Y'aA
components

    u16 Y'a
    u16 A

Y' u16

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    Y'
components

    u16  Y'

Y'A u8

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    Y'A
components

    u8 Y'
    u8 A

Y'aA u8

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    Y'aA
components

    u8 Y'a
    u8 A

Y' u8

bytes/pixel
    1
model
    Y'
components

    u8 Y'

Y'CbCr float

bytes/pixel
    12
model
    Y'CbCr
components

    float  Y'
    float  Cb
    float  Cr

Y'CbCrA float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    Y'CbCrA
components

    float  Y'
    float  Cb
    float  Cr
    float  A

RGBA u16

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    RGBA
components

    u16  R
    u16  G
    u16  B
    u16  A

RGBA u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    RGBA
components

    u8  R
    u8  G
    u8  B
    u8  A

RaGaBaA float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    RaGaBaA
components

    float  Ra
    float  Ga
    float  Ba
    float  A

RaGaBaA u16

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    RaGaBaA
components

    u16  Ra
    u16  Ga
    u16  Ba
    u16  A

RaGaBaA u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    RaGaBaA
components

    u8 Ra
    u8 Ga
    u8 Ba
    u8 A

RGB u16

bytes/pixel
    6
model
    RGB
components

    u16  R
    u16  G
    u16  B

RGB u8

bytes/pixel
    3
model
    RGB
components

    u8  R
    u8  G
    u8  B

YA float

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    YA
components

    float  Y
    float  A

YaA float

bytes/pixel
    8
model
    YaA
components

    float  Ya
    float  A

Y float

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    Y
components

    float  Y

YA u16

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    YA
components

    u16  Y
    u16  A

YaA u16

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    YaA
components

    u16  Ya
    u16  A

Y u16

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    Y
components

    u16  Y

YA u8

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    YA
components

    u8  Y
    u8  A

YaA u8

bytes/pixel
    2
model
    YaA
components

    u8 Ya
    u8 A

Y u8

bytes/pixel
    1
model
    Y
components

    u8  Y

B'aG'aR'aA u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    R'aG'aB'aA
components

    u8 B'a
    u8 G'a
    u8 R'a
    u8 A

B'aG'aR'aPAD u8

bytes/pixel
    4
model
    R'G'B'
components

    u8 B'
    u8 G'
    u8 R'
    u8 PAD

CIE Lab float

bytes/pixel
    12
model
    CIE Lab
components

    float CIE L
    float CIE a
    float CIE b

CIE Lab alpha float

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    CIE Lab alpha
components

    double  CIE L
    double  CIE a
    double  CIE b
    double  A

CIE Lab u8

bytes/pixel
    3
model
    CIE Lab
components

    CIE u8 L   CIE L
    CIE u8 ab  CIE a
    CIE u8 ab  CIE b

CIE Lab u16

bytes/pixel
    6
model
    CIE Lab
components

    CIE u16 L   CIE L
    CIE u16 ab  CIE a
    CIE u16 ab  CIE b

CIE Lab double

bytes/pixel
    24
model
    CIE Lab
components

    double  CIE L
    double  CIE a
    double  CIE b

CIE Lab alpha double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    CIE Lab alpha
components

    double  CIE L
    double  CIE a
    double  CIE b
    double  A

CMYK double

bytes/pixel
    32
model
    CMYK
components

    double cyan
    double magenta
    double yellow
    double key

CMYK float

bytes/pixel
    16
model
    CMYK
components

    float cyan
    float yellow
    float magenta
    float key

Shortcut Coverage

The diagram shown below visualizes the coverage of current shortcut
conversions. Dots indicate a direct conversion is provided for, the
height of the bar indicates the number of conversions steps needed in a
chain of conversions. A DHTML version is also available.


 ··  ·▁····· ▁    ▂             ▁    ▁               ··· ── 0 RGBA double
· ▁  ▁▂▁▁▁▁▁ ·    ▁             ▂    ▂               ▁▁▁ ── 1 R'G'B'A double
·▁   ▁▂▁▁▁▁▁ ▂                  ▂    ▂               ▁▁▁ ── 2 R'aG'aB'aA double
▁▂▂ ···▂▂▂▃▂ ▁ ▁ ··             ▁· ▂ ▁               ▂▂▂ ── 3 R'G'B' u8
▁▁▂· ·▁▂▂▂▃▂ · ▁  ▁             ▁▁   ▁               ▂▂▂ ── 4 R'G'B'A u8
·▁▁   ·▁▁▁▁▁ ▂    ▃             ·    ·               ▁▁▁ ── 5 RGBA float
▁▂▂  · ▂▂▂▂▂ ▃                  ▁· ▂ ▁               ▂▂▂ ── 6 RGB float
·▁▁  ▁▂ ▁▁▁▁ ▂    ▃             ▂    ▂               ▁▁▁ ── 7 Y'aA double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁ ▁▁▁ ▂ ▃  ▃             ▂▂ ▃ ▂               ▁▁▁ ── 8 Y double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁ ▁▁ ▂    ▃             ▂    ▂               ▁▁▁ ── 9 YA double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁▁ ▁ ▂ ▃  ▃             ▂▂ ▃ ▂               ▁▁▁ ──10 Y'CbCr double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁▁▁  ▂    ▃             ▂    ▂               ▁▁▁ ──11 Y'CbCrA double
                                                         ──12 Y'CbCr u8
▁·▂  ▂▃▂▂▂▂▂      ·             ▃    ▃               ▂▂▂ ──13 R'G'B'A float
▂▁▃  ▃ ▃▃▃▃▃ · ▁  ▁                                  ▃▃▃ ──14 R'G'B'A u16
                                                         ──15 R'aG'aB'aA float
               ·                                         ──16 R'aG'aB'aA u16
               ·                                         ──17 R'aG'aB'aA u8
▂▁▃  ▃ ▃▃▃▃▃ · ·                                     ▃▃▃ ──18 R'G'B' float
▃▂           ▁ ▁  ·                                      ──19 R'G'B' u16
 ▁           · ▁  ▁  ·· ▂  ▁                             ──20 Y'A float
 ▂           ▁ ·  ▂ · ▁ ▁  ·                             ──21 Y'aA float
 ▂           ▁ ▁  · ··                                   ──22 Y' float
▃▂           ▁ ▂  ▂ ·▁▁ ▃  ▂                             ──23 Y'A u16
 ▃           ▂ ▁  ▃ ▁·▂    ▁                             ──24 Y'aA u16
 ▃           ▂ ▂  ▁ ▁▁·                                  ──25 Y' u16
▁▂▃  ·▁▂▂▂▃▂ ▁ ▂  ▂ ·▁▁ ▃  ▂    ▁▂   ▁·▁▁            ▃▂▂ ──26 Y'A u8
 ▃           ▂ ▁  ▃ ▁·▂ ·                                ──27 Y'aA u8
▁▃▂  ·▁▂▂▂▂▂ ▂ ▂  ▁ ▁▁·         ▁▂ ▂ ▁▁▁·            ▂▂▂ ──28 Y' u8
▃▂           ▁ ▁  ·                                      ──29 Y'CbCr float
▂▁▃  ▃ ▃▃▃▃  ·    ▁                                  ▃▃▃ ──30 Y'CbCrA float
▁▂▂  ·▁▂▂▂▂▂ ▃                  ▁▁   ▁               ▂▂▂ ──31 RGBA u16
▁▂▂  ·▁▂▂▂▂▂ ▃                   ▁   ·               ▂▂▂ ──32 RGBA u8
                                                         ──33 RaGaBaA float
                                 ·                       ──34 RaGaBaA u16
                                 ·                       ──35 RaGaBaA u8
▂▃▃  ▁·▃▃▃▃▃                    ▂▁ ▃ ▂               ▃▃▃ ──36 RGB u16
▁▂▂  ··▃▂▂▂▂ ▃                  ·▁ ·                 ▂▂▂ ──37 RGB u8
▁▂▂  ·▁▂▂▂▂▂ ▃                  ▁▁   ▁ ··            ▂▂▂ ──38 YA float
  ▃                             ▂·   ▂               ▃▃▃ ──39 YaA float
▂▃▃  ▁·▃▃▃▃▃                    ▂▁ ▃ ▂··             ▃▃▃ ──40 Y float
▂▃▃  ▁▂▃▃▃▃▃                    ▂▂   ▂·▁▁            ▃▃▃ ──41 YA u16
                                ▃▁   ▃ ·                 ──42 YaA u16
▃    ▂▁                         ▃▃   ▃▁▂·                ──43 Y u16
▁▂▂  ·▁▂▂▂▃▃                    ▁▂   ▁·▁▁            ▂▂▂ ──44 YA u8
▃    ▂▃                          ▁    ▁·▂                ──45 YaA u8
▁▂▂  ·▁▂▂▂▂▂ ▃                  ▁▂ ▂ ▁▁▁·            ▂▂▂ ──46 Y u8
                                                         ──47 B'aG'aR'aA u8
                                                         ──48 B'aG'aR'aPAD u8
                                                         ──49 CIE Lab float
                                                         ──50 CIE Lab alpha float
                                                         ──51 CIE Lab u8
                                                         ──52 CIE Lab u16
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁▁▁  ▂ ▃  ▃             ▂▂ ▃ ▂                ▁▁ ──53 CIE Lab double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁▁▁▁ ▂    ▃             ▂    ▂               ▁ ▁ ──54 CIE Lab alpha double
·▁▁  ▁▂▁▁▁▁▁ ▂ ▃  ▃             ▃▂ ▃ ▂               ▁▁  ──55 CMYK double
                                                         ──56 CMYK float
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||11111111112222222222333333333344444444445555555
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
total length: 1613
total cost  : 978192

Environment

If the environment variable BABL_STATS is set containting a html pixel
format conversion usage matrix will be written to /tmp/babl-stats.html.
This allows figuring out which conversions is taking up time during
processing, and what shortcuts extensions might be created or improved
to make babl do it's job faster.

Through the environment variable BABL_TOLERANCE you can control a speed
/performance trade off that by default is set very low (0.000001)
values in the range 0.01-0.1 can provide reasonable preview performance
by allowing lower numerical accuracy

.

Extending

For samples of how the current internal API specification of data
types, color models, and conversions look in the extensions/ directory.
The tables in this HTML file is directly generated based on the data
registered by BablCore (double and RGBA), BablBase (core datatypes, and
RGB models), extensions (CIE Lab, naive CMYK, various shortcut
conversions).

Directory Overview

babl-dist-root
 │
 ├──babl       the babl core
 │   └──base   reference implementations for RGB and Grayscale Color Models,
 │             8bit 16bit, and 32bit and 64bit floating point.
 ├──extensions CIE-Lab color model as well as a naive-CMYK color model.
 │             also contains a random cribbage of old conversion optimized
 │             code from gggl. Finding more exsisting conversions in third
 │             part libraries (hermes, lcms?, liboil?) could improve the
 │             speed of babl.
 ├──tests      tests used to keep babl sane during development.
 └──docs       Documentation/webpage for babl (the document you are reading
               originated there.

TODO

  • Support for conversions between formats that have higher
    dimensionality than RGBA. (arbitrary meaningless components)
  • Support for datatypes that are not a multiple of 8bit.
  • dithering
  • dynamic data attached to format, or internal handling of icc
    through a registered set of profiles
  • Stocastic runtime profiling with running average of the peformance
    for conversions, to avoid problems incurred if other cpu intense is
    happening when babl tests a conversions.

Copyright

Babl is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

Authors

Øyvind Kolås pippin at gimp.org
    Original author.
Sven Neumann sven at gimp.org
    Build sanity and optimizations.
Michael Natterer mitch at gimp.org
    Build sanity.
Kevin Cozens
    Build sanity.
Tim Mooney
    Portability fixes.
Michael Schumacher schumaml at cvs.gnome.org
    win32 support for dynamic extensions.
    Portability fixes.
Jan Heller jheller at svn.gnome.org
    Optimizations, refactoring and documentation.
Mukund Sivaraman muks at mukund.org
    Sparse fixes and sanity.
dmacks at netspace.org
    Build sanity

/babl-0.0.22
