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If you use the VIPS image I/O system, you get a number of benefits:
- Threading
- If your computer has more than one CPU, the VIPS I/O system will automatically
split your image processing operation into separate threads (provided you
use PIO, see below). You should get an approximately linear speed-up as
you add more CPUs.
- Pipelining
- Provided you use PIO (again, see below), VIPS can automatically join
operations together. A sequence of image processing operations will all
execute together, with image data flowing through the processing pipeline
in small pieces. This makes it possible to perform complex processing on
very large images with no need to worry about storage management.
- Composition
- Because VIPS can efficiently compose image processing operations, you can
implement your new operation in small, reusable, easy-to-understand
pieces. VIPS already has a lot of these: many new operations can be
implemented by simply composing existing operations.
- Large files
- Provided you use PIO and as long as the underlying OS supports large files
(that is, files larger than 2GB), VIPS operations can work on files larger
than can be addressed with 32 bits on a plain 32-bit machine. VIPS operations
only see 32 bit addresses; the VIPS I/O system transparently maps these to
64 bit operations for I/O. Large file support is included on most unixes after
about 1998.
- Abstraction
- VIPS operations see only arrays of numbers in native format. Details of
representation (big/little endian, VIPS/TIFF/JPEG file format, etc.) are
hidden from you.
- Interfaces
- Once you have your image processing operation implemented, it automatically
appears in all of the VIPS interfaces. VIPS comes with a GUI (nip), a
UNIX command-line interface (vips) and a C++ API.
- Portability
- VIPS operations can be compiled on most unixes, Mac OS X and Windows NT, 2000
and XP without modification. Mostly.
Next: 1.2 I/O styles
Up: 1. Introduction
Previous: 1. Introduction
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John Cupitt
2004-11-02