This document establishes the specification of the Basic image interchange format (BIIF). This document provides a foundation for interoperability in the interchange of imagery and imagery-related data among applications. It also provides a detailed description of the overall structure of the format, as well as specification of the valid data and format for all fields defined with BIIF. Annex C contains a Model Profile of BIIF in tables to assist in profile development.

The scope and field of application of this document includes the capability to perpetuate a proven interchange capability in support of commercial and government imagery, Programmer’s Imaging Kernel System (PIKS) data, and other imagery technology domains in that priority order.

This document provides a data format container for image, symbol, and text, along with a mechanism for including image-related support data.

This document:

—     provides a means whereby diverse applications can share imagery and associated information;

—     allows an application to exchange comprehensive information to users with diverse needs or capabilities, allowing each user to select only those data items that correspond to their needs and capabilities;

—     minimizes preprocessing and postprocessing of data;

—     minimizes formatting overhead, particularly for those applications exchanging only a small amount of data and for bandwidth-limited systems;

—     provides a mechanism (Transportable File Structure, TFS) to interchange PIKS image and image-related objects;

—     provides extensibility to accommodate future data, including objects.