Why are some file formats faster to load than others?

There are many factors that can affect how fast a file can be loaded.

For example, PNG, JPEG, GIF, some TIFF, and LEAD CMP are compressed formats. Images stored in these formats (and others) have to be decompressed before the image can be displayed.

Depending on disk or network conditions, the decompression time can be greater than i/o time. In this case, an uncompressed BMP version of an image will load faster than a JPEG version of the same image. On the other hand, the decompression time can be faster than the i/o time; in that case, a compressed format such as JPEG will load faster than BMP or other uncompressed formats.

Products in the LEADTOOLS Document and Medical product families include an option to load and keep 1-bit image data compressed in memory. This can also affect how fast images can be loaded and displayed. First, when loading a 1-bit image, the entire image size of data ( width * height * bits/pixel / 8 ) does not need to be allocated in memory. That can mean the difference between using fast conventional memory or slower virtual memory. Second, if the image is already RLE-compressed, then LEADTOOLS does not need to decompress the data during the load. On the other hand, if the image is CCITT compressed, LEADTOOLS will convert the data as it is loaded to RLE-compressed, which could take longer to load the image. Whether or not to use compressed images in memory completely depends on your situation.

For more information on loading 1-bit images as compressed, please review the CodecsLoadOptions.Compressed property or contact support@LEADTOOLS.com.

Edited by moderator Wednesday, December 27, 2023 1:34:54 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Updated link to v20