[Geotiff] Geotiff API's

[Daniel Denk]

Hello, Geotiff,
 
Is anyone aware of existing free or Open Source graphical API's installable
to Windows (and other typical home-use platforms) that allow for a simpler,
more intuative approach to say dumping metadata or restuffing the tags to
Geotiff [ie: listgeo, geotifcp, etc]?
 
Not only would this be useful for those of us who are command-line retarded
(as my colleagues might say), but it would have potential to aid in
awareness of capability for the home-user who will one day be exposed to the
wonderful world of GIS / Remote Sensing via mobile applications, etc
(dot-com number 2?). It would also be a productive tool for those who are
impatient with command-line utilities.
 
A question - a thought - and a suggestion - all rolled up into one.
 
Also on the brain:
 
David Lucas mentioned that someone had been requesting information regarding
a possible plugin for Adobe PotatoChop to import and export Geotiff Tif's,
without clipping the data.
 
I'm aware of one file format plugin which apparently came with the 6.0
installation disk - or at least the disk that I have, as it wasn't found on
a 6.0 disk at work when I had looked.
 
To my knowledge, it's only capable of import and export of Geotiff up to
100MB. This hasn't been testing by me, but has been tested by co-workers in
the past. This, of course, is below what's needed for practical or
value-added use. In fact, it's basically unusable.
 
I have spoken with Chris Russ of Reindeer Graphics, who seems to think that
the Geotiff format itself - or at least the Tiff spec itself - has inherent
limitations in allowing for such functionality due to its bit structure. The
question that was instantly raised in my brain when hearing this, was 'Well
then, how is it that COTs packages are able to incorporate it with little to
no limitations?' He had also briefly mentioned that it would be possible to
work-around the 2GB / 30,000 line limit within the newly developed .PSD
format, which Adobe claims will work around the bit structure and memory
limitations - (according to Chris - provided with the SDK for CS?) I'm not
certain of this, or if it's possible. It would also propose the concept of
creating a geo-spatial format in .PSD, thus causing all customers to adhere
to a newer, more proprietary format, from a vendor source outputting in this
format.
 
What that idea might introduce however, is the capabilities for unlimited
bands via channels with no limitations. Is this valueable? I'm not sure, as
I'm unaware of any sensor or potential product that would benefit from this
- at this time. If any of you are aware - by all means share your insight?
 
If anyone would like me to compress the PS Geotiff plugin and send it via
the mailing list, or to specific Email addresses, please feel free to reply.
I would imagine that it would be possible to re-engineer or at least gain
knowledge from this plugin to develop a more useful one in its place. If I
were a coder, I would have done this a long time ago when the issue had
presented itself to my workflow - and released it to the Open Source
community for wide-range use. Perhaps then the utilization of Adobe
Photoshop will not be 'as frowned upon' by the scientific and academic
community as it is now(?) - and/or cause society's general consumer markets
to have a compromisable solution in correcting, editing, or analyzing
imagery with a consumer product such as Adobe Photoshop or JASC Paint Shop
Pro (JASC was recently bought-out by Corel, after selling Bryce 3D to DEZ).
 
I do see great potential in the NASA/ESO/ESA FITS Liberator plugin which is
similar to what's 'needed' to composite remote sensed imagery in PS.
 
If anyone would like to discuss the issue of a 'better' or 'truer' Geotiff
plugin, I have ideas which could add value to the project.
 
Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions are welcome at any time,
 
Daniel Denk
ddenk at earthlink.net
 
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