IMatch images TIFF/PSD/PSB format and Lab/RGB profiles

[mking]

Hi - this is a side bar to my thumbnail generation testing based on image size, because turns out there is another gremlin or two in the mix.

Ok so Mario this was a good hint >> For TIFF files larger than 500 MB IMatch uses the Windows WIC codec.
The implication being that IMatch uses a different library for less than 500MB!

So it turns out that the libraries that IMatch uses cannot handle images with Lab profile very well - and I have a lot of large 16bit Lab images. - many of them TIFF for historical reasons.

After several hours of testing and some digging into TIFF specs.... here are my conclusions.

Basically the only total thumbnail failure is 16bit Lab images over 500MB.
The rest at least produce some sort of Thumbnail.
Low TN in the table below means low resolution thumbnail generated.

With the current libraries there is little Mario can improve - other than maybe using the Windows WIC for 8 bit Lab images less than 500Mb. Windows WIC does not support 16 bit Lab images as it follows Tiff 6.0 Spec. (1992!). Hey nothing much has changed in 30 years wrt to images formats. THIS spec concludes there is nothing visual to be gained from 16 bit Lab so 8 bit is fine. They maybe right visually, but from a workflow perspective it sucks. I flip from RGB to Lab and back to RGB in my workflow... I want 16bit RGB at the end.

Anyway here is the data - note the 500MB hurdle is based on what Mario said - I have not tested 499MB vs 501 MB. BUT I did test my images in Windows outside IMatch to see what the Windows WIC did for smaller than 500MB  images.




There is no doubt if the Windows TIFF WIC was used for all 8 bit TIFF images the Thumbnail would be better for smaller  Lab images - but I am just reporting info here. @Mario I don't need this - I am just going to move to 16 bit PSD as standard and accept low res Lab thumbnails - at least its better than no thumbnail I get now from large 16bit TIFFs.

Hope this info helps someone.

Happy New Year to all.

Mike

[Mario]

Lab is really, really, really rarely used. There may be a few users who actually use/need this, but it's far too less of a user count to consider this.

It's basically the same with gargantuan TIFF files with 2, 3 or 4 GB. Sure, there may be one or two users who use these, sometimes. Maybe even a handful in the IMatch user base. I really don't know.

But it's so rare that spending time on dealing with these kind of files is just not worth it. Or trying to find image libraries which can deal with these massive files or Lab TIFFs.
If IMatch would be a specialized software for creating panoramas or working with microscopy or maybe astronomical imagery, things would be different. or DICOM images used in medicine.

If this would become a "thing" some day I could look at alternatives and spend money on 3rd party toolkits which can handle this kind of files. And then maybe add a surcharge for users which need these file formats since I need to spend another 2K$ initially plus a couple of hundred US$ per year for maintenance plus a deployment fee for each IMatch license using these libraries (that's the typical license model).