DATA AND FILE FORMATS FOR MULTIMEDIA :

The most popular file formats are Rich text format (RTF) Tagged image file format (TIFF) Resource image file format (RIFF) Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) Joint photographic experts group (JPEG) Audio Video Interleaved (AVI) Indeo file format

Rich text files format

The rich text file format extended the range of information carried through from one word processor application or desktop publishing system to another. The following are the key format information carried out in RTF document files.

1.Character set
The character set determines the characters that are supported in a particular implementation. Character set groupings include Windows ANSI, IBM PC

2.Font table
A font table lists all fonts used in the document. These font are then mapped to the fonts available in the receiving application for displaying the text.

3.Color table
The color table lists the color used in the document for highlighting text.

4.Document formatting
Paragraph indents are specified relative to the document margin.

5.Section formatting
Section breaks/page breaks are used to define separation of groups of paragraph. The formatting information specifies the space above and below the section.

6.Paragraph formatting
The RTF specification defines control characters for specifying paragraph justification,

tab position, left, right and first indents relative to document margins, and the spacing between paragraphs. Paragraph formatting information also includes style sheets.

7.General formatting
General formatting includes items such as footness, annotation, bookmarks and pictures.

8.Character formatting
Character formatting includes bold, underline, italic, strikethrough, shadow text, outline text and hidden text.

TIFF file format

Tagged Image file format (TIFF) In tagged image file format, tags are used to keep all attribute information in a standard manner. The TIFF file format provides tags that store information about resolution, color, the compression scheme used for capturing the data and time of capture and the operator who created the file. Searching for a file is quick since tag locations are found through pointers and tags are identified using 32 bits ASCII strings.

Format of the functionalities of TIFF 6.0:

Images described in the CMYK color model. Images described in the YCC color model. Images described in the CIEL*a*b color model. Tiled images. JPEG compression scheme.

Multipage TIFF file.

Resource interchange file format (RIFF):

RIFF is also a tagged file format and uses tags to tag information, The Riff file format consists of blocks of called chunks. A chunk is similar to the image file directory entry of a TIFF file. Each RIFF chunk contains a 4 character ASCII string ID called a tag,4 bytes containing the size of the chunk data. RIFF specification defines the following kinds of chunks: 1. RIFF chunk It defines the content of the RIFF file. 2. List chunk It allows embedding additional file information such as archival location, copyright information and creation date. 3. Sub chunk It allows adding more information to a primary chunk when a primary chunk is not

sufficient.

MIDI file format

In sound recording, the song composition is mastered on a separate track. The track can be handled separately for editing and recording. After completing the recording of all tracks, they are superimposed to play simultaneously for cutting a CD. MIDI file format also has chunks of data. MIDI specifies 2 types of chunks they are Header chunk Track chunk

Header chunk
The header chunk is made up of 14 bytes organized as follows 1. The first 4 character string is the identifier string, "MThd". 2. The second 4 bytes contain the data size for the header chunk, it is set to a fixed value of 6 bytes.

3. The last 3 bytes contain data for the header chunk.

Truck chunk
A truck chunk is organized as follows: 1. The first 4 character string is the identified, "MTrk". 2. The second 4 bytes contain the track length. 3. The rest of the chunk contains MIDI messages. They are two types channel messages in MIDI are Voice message Mode message

JPEG
Microsoft has extended the DIB file format for both Joint photographic Experts Group still and motion images. JPEG still images can be embedded in a JPEG DIB file format which can be processed by

most JPEG complaint codecs.

AVI INDEO File format

The Intel indeo file format uses the AVI RIFF form with minor difference to create the Indeo AVI file format. The Indeo file is embedded within AVI list chunk as follows RIFF('AVI' List chunk 'abcd' ) The 4 character codes that defines the indeo format as shown below IV31 RT21 YUV9