Specification of the binary bitmap file (BBF) format. It is a simple raw data file format without compression for images. It was created by Benjamin Buch.
The first four bytes of a BBF datastream always contain the following (hexadecimal) values:
0x62 0x62 0x66 0x21 ("BBF!" as ASCII)
The fifth byte is always the version. The version is a unsigned integer with 8 bit. The first version is 0x00.
A version 0x00 BBF-File is devided into a header and a data section.
The format stores a two-dimensional rectangular array of pixels. Each pixel can consist of up to 255 channels of the same data type. Permitted data types are:
- boolean (8 bit)
- un/signed integer 8 bit
- un/signed integer 16 bit
- un/signed integer 32 bit
- un/signed integer 64 bit
- floating point IEEE 754 32 bit
- floating point IEEE 754 64 bit
The header is encoded in big endian:
- unsigned integer 8 bit: size of channel type in byte (e.g. 2 for 16 bit integer)
- unsigned integer 8 bit: count of channels per pixel (e.g. 3 for rgb pixels)
- unsigned integer 8 bit: flags (see below)
- unsigned integer 64 bit: width in pixels
- unsigned integer 64 bit: height in pixels
The flags encode the data in the lower half byte and the endianness in the upper half.
0x?0: unsigned integer0x?1: signed integer0x?2: floating point0x?3: boolean0x0?: big endian0x1?: little endian
The pixels are stored in line wise order. Each pixel has a size of channel type size times channel count. The values are are encoded with the endianness defined in the flags.