Images

Overview

Images are graphical resources that can be accessed with a call to ej.microui.display.Image.getImage() or ej.microui.display.ResourceImage.loadImage(). To be displayed, these images have to be converted from their source format to the display raw format. The conversion can either be done at:

  • build-time (using the image generator tool),
  • run-time (using the relevant decoder library).

Images that must be processed by the image generator tool are declared in MicroEJ Classpath *.images.list files. The file format is a standard Java properties file, each line representing a / separated resource path relative to the MicroEJ classpath root referring to a standard image file (e.g. .png, .jpg). The resource may be followed by an optional parameter (separated by a :) which defines and/or describes the image output file format (raw format). When no option is specified, the image is embedded as-is and will be decoded at run-time (although listing files without format specifier has no impact on the image generator processing, it is advised to specify them in the *.images.list files anyway, as it makes the run-time processing behavior explicit). Example:

# The following image is embedded
# as a PNG resource (decoded at run-time)
com/mycompany/MyImage1.png

# The following image is embedded
# as a 16 bits format without transparency (decoded at build-time)
com/mycompany/MyImage2.png:RGB565

# The following image is embedded
# as a 16 bits format with transparency (decoded at build-time)
com/mycompany/MyImage3.png:ARGB1555

Configuration File

Here is the format of the *.images.list files.

ConfigFile          ::= Line [ 'EOL' Line ]*
Line                ::= ImagePath [ ':' ImageOption ]*
ImagePath           ::= Identifier [ '/' Identifier ]*
ImageOption         ::= [^:]*
Identifier          ::= Letter [ LetterOrDigit ]*
Letter              ::= 'a-zA-Z_$'
LetterOrDigit       ::= 'a-zA-Z_$0-9'

Images Heap

The images heap is used to allocate the pixel data of:

  • mutable images (i.e. BufferedImage instances)
  • images which are not byte-addressable, such as images opened with an input stream
  • images which are byte-addressable but converted to a different output format

In other words, every image which can not be retrieved using Image.getImage() is saved on the images heap.

The size of the images heap can be configured with the ej.microui.memory.imagesheap.size property.

Output Formats

Without Compression

When no output format is set in the images list file, the image is embedded without any conversion / compression. This allows you to embed the resource as well, in order to keep the source image characteristics (compression, bpp, etc.). This option produces the same result as specifiying an image as a resource in the MicroEJ launcher.

Advantages:

  • Preserves the image characteristics;
  • Preserves the original image compression.

Disadvantages:

  • Requires an image runtime decoder;
  • Requires some RAM in which to store the decoded image;
  • Requires execution time to decode the image.
image1

Standard Output Formats

Depending on the target hardware, several generic output formats are available. Some formats may be directly managed by the BSP display driver. Refer to the platform specification to retrieve the list of natively supported formats.

Advantages:

  • The pixels layout and bits format are standard, so it is easy to manipulate these images on the C-side;
  • Drawing an image is very fast when the display driver recognizes the format (with or without transparency);
  • Supports or not the alpha encoding: select the most suitable format for the image to encode.

Disadvantages:

  • No compression: the image size in bytes is proportional to the number of pixels, the transparency, and the bits-per-pixel;
  • Slower than display format when the display driver does not recognize the format: a pixel conversion is required at runtime.

Select one the following format to use a generic format among this list: ARGB8888, RGB888, ARGB4444, ARGB1555, RGB565, A8, A4, A2, A1, C4, C2, C1, AC44, AC22 and AC11. The following snippets describe the color conversion for each format:

  • ARGB8888: 32 bits format, 8 bits for transparency, 8 per color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return c;
}

  • RGB888: 24 bits format, 8 per color. Image is always fully opaque.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return c & 0xffffff;
}

  • ARGB4444: 16 bits format, 4 bits for transparency, 4 per color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
            | ((c & 0xf0000000) >> 16)
            | ((c & 0x00f00000) >> 12)
            | ((c & 0x0000f000) >> 8)
            | ((c & 0x000000f0) >> 4)
            ;
}

  • ARGB1555: 16 bits format, 1 bit for transparency, 5 per color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
            | (((c & 0xff000000) == 0xff000000) ? 0x8000 : 0)
            | ((c & 0xf80000) >> 9)
            | ((c & 0x00f800) >> 6)
            | ((c & 0x0000f8) >> 3)
            ;
}

  • RGB565: 16 bits format, 5 or 6 per color. Image is always fully opaque.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
            | ((c & 0xf80000) >> 8)
            | ((c & 0x00fc00) >> 5)
            | ((c & 0x0000f8) >> 3)
            ;
}

  • A8: 8 bits format, only transparency is encoded. The color to apply when drawing the image, is the current GraphicsContext color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0xff - (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff);
}

  • A4: 4 bits format, only transparency is encoded. The color to apply when drawing the image, is the current GraphicsContext color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (0xff - (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff)) / 0x11;
}

  • A2: 2 bits format, only transparency is encoded. The color to apply when drawing the image, is the current GraphicsContext color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (0xff - (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff)) / 0x55;
}

  • A1: 1 bit format, only transparency is encoded. The color to apply when drawing the image, is the current GraphicsContext color.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (0xff - (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff)) / 0xff;
}

  • C4: 4 bits format with grayscale conversion. Image is always fully opaque.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff) / 0x11;
}

  • C2: 2 bits format with grayscale conversion. Image is always fully opaque.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff) / 0x55;
}

  • C1: 1 bit format with grayscale conversion. Image is always fully opaque.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return (toGrayscale(c) & 0xff) / 0xff;
}

  • AC44: 4 bits for transparency, 4 bits with grayscale conversion.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
        | ((color >> 24) & 0xf0)
        | ((toGrayscale(color) & 0xff) / 0x11)
        ;
}

  • AC22: 2 bits for transparency, 2 bits with grayscale conversion.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
        | ((color >> 28) & 0xc0)
        | ((toGrayscale(color) & 0xff) / 0x55)
        ;
}

  • AC11: 1 bit for transparency, 1 bit with grayscale conversion.

    int convertARGB8888toRAWFormat(int c){
    return 0
        | ((c & 0xff000000) == 0xff000000 ? 0x2 : 0x0)
        | ((toGrayscale(color) & 0xff) / 0xff)
        ;
}

Examples:

image1:ARGB8888
image2:RGB565
image3:A4

Display Output Format

This format encodes the image into the exact display memory representation. If the image to encode contains some transparent pixels, the output file will embed the transparency according to the display’s implementation capacity. When all pixels are fully opaque, no extra information will be stored in the output file in order to free up some memory space.

Note

When the display memory representation is standard, the display output format is automatically replaced by a standard format.

Advantages:

  • Drawing an image is very fast because no pixel conversion is required at runtime;
  • Supports alpha encoding when display pixel format allow it.

Disadvantages:

  • No compression: the image size in bytes is proportional to the number of pixels.
image1:display

RLE1 Output Format

The image engine can display embedded images that are encoded into a compressed format which encodes several consecutive pixels into one or more 16-bit words. This encoding manages a maximum alpha level of 2 (alpha level is always assumed to be 2, even if the image is not transparent).

  • Several consecutive pixels have the same color (2 words):
    • First 16-bit word specifies how many consecutive pixels have the same color (pixels colors converted in RGB565 format, without opacity data).
    • Second 16-bit word is the pixels’ color in RGB565 format.
  • Several consecutive pixels have their own color (1 + n words):
    • First 16-bit word specifies how many consecutive pixels have their own color;
    • Next 16-bit word is the next pixel color.
  • Several consecutive pixels are transparent (1 word):
    • 16-bit word specifies how many consecutive pixels are transparent.

Advantages:

  • Supports fully opaque and fully transparent encoding.
  • Good compression when several consecutive pixels respect one of the three previous rules.

Disadvantages:

  • Drawing an image is slightly slower than when using Display format.
  • Not designed for images with many different pixel colors: in such case, the output file size may be larger than the original image file.
image1:RLE1

Image Generator Error Messages

These errors can occur while preprocessing images.

Static Image Generator Error Messages
ID Type Description
0 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error.
1 Error The images list file has not been specified.
2 Error The image generator cannot create the final, raw file.
3 Error The image generator cannot read the images list file. Make sure the system allows reading of this file.
4 Warning The image generator has found no image to generate.
5 Error The image generator cannot load the images list file.
6 Warning The specified image path is invalid: The image will be not converted.
7 Warning There are too many or too few options for the desired format.
8 Error The display format is not generic; a MicroUIRawImageGeneratorExtension implementation is required to generate the MicroUI raw image.
9 Error The image cannot be read.
10 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid endianness).
11 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid bpp).
12 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid display format).
13 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid pixel layout).
14 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid output folder).
15 Error The image generator has encountered an unexpected internal error (invalid memory alignment).
16 Error The input image format and / or the ouput format are not managed by the image generator.
17 Error The image has been already loaded with another output format.