[OSGeo-Announce] AWare Systems to extend LibTiff library with support for the BigTIFF format

[Frank Warmerdam]

AWare Systems to extend LibTiff library with support for the BigTIFF format
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LibTiff (http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/) maintainers have started
work on LibTiff 4.0, the next major upgrade of the time-proven TIFF
(http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff.html) codec. This upgrade will
include support for the new BigTIFF file format. It is planned a
preliminary version (LibTiff 4.0alpha1) will be operational by June 15,
2007. Testing and final release improvements for LibTiff 4.0 will be
completed by July 30, 2007.

BigTIFF logically extends the original TIFF file format (referred to as
'ClassicTIFF' from now on), breaking the 4 gigabyte boundary, with 64bit
offsets allowing files up to 18,000 petabytes in size. The BigTIFF
specification is the result of work by a variety of parties on the
LibTiff mailing list, including the current LibTiff maintainers, Joris
Van Damme and Adobe staff. The BigTIFF specification has not yet been
officially approved by the TIFF specification owner (Adobe), but
implementation within LibTiff could accelerate that process. For more
information on the BigTIFF file format, we recommend AWare Systems'
BigTIFF page at http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/bigtiff.html.

BigTIFF will be especially useful for people and vendors that are
confronted with very large images, and still seek to use an open, simple,
and extendable format. This requirement is frequently encountered in the
geospatial field, but also concerns large format scanners, medical imaging
and other fields.

The LibTiff BigTIFF upgrade is made possible by four sponsors funding the
project. The programming work will primarily be done by Joris Van Damme
(AWare Systems). LibTiff's licensing agreement will remain unchanged. More
details on the project itself, are available from the BigTIFF in LibTiff
project page http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/BigTIFFProposal.html.

The sponsors are, in alphabetical order:

* ESRI (http://www.esri.com/) has been giving customers around the world
the power to think and plan geographically since 1969. As the leader in
GIS, ESRI applies innovative technologies to help organizations create,
analyze, and visualize information for more informed decisions. Running
on more than a million desktops and thousands of servers, ESRI applications
are the foundation of the world's mapping and spatial analysis
infrastructure.

* Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging
(http://gi.leica-geosystems.com/default.aspx) offers a range of workflow
solutions for photogrammetry, mapping, remote sensing, catalog management
and exploitation of geospatial imagery. Enterprise organizations use this
imagery as the basis for generating information for both education and
decision making processes. Those who use Leica Geosystems products every
day trust them for their precision, seamless integration, interoperability
and superior customer support.

* Safe Software (http://www.safe.com/) is the maker of FME, a powerful
spatial ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tool that enables true data
interoperability.  FME manages the translation, transformation, integration
and web-based distribution of geospatial data in 200 GIS, CAD, raster and
database formats.  Safe Software's FME technology is also embedded in
numerous market-leading GIS and ETL applications.

* WeoGeo (http://www.weogeo.com/) is a web-based data management resource
for the geospatial industry that allows the free market exchange of
mapping related imagery products, featuring an innovative solution that
efficiently manages digital mapping files of any size. With an intuitive
user interface and the scalable power of Amazon Web Services (AWS),
geospatial professionals can view, sort, search, and share complex, high
volume maps quickly and effectively.