In a series of short chapters, the book looks at JPEG in detail, from basic file organization (format and marker fields), file compression techniques (like Huffman coding and DCT), and how to decode (read) and encode (write) JPEG images. In addition, this book discusses techniques for creating and decoding progressive JPEG (used for downloading images gradually, in a resolution the more subtle, through the internet). Whether you are a programmer who is confronted with the image data encoding or decoding, or Webmasters interested who want to know the pros and cons of today's image file formats, Compressed Image File Formats provides a useful and concise reference to what is in the image file Richard. - Dragan Topics covered: basic bitmap, color models, Windows BMP file format, XBM file format, the basics and JPEG file format, JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF), JPEG Huffman Coding, data unit encoding, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), matrix operations, JPEG decoding and encoding, progressive JPEG, GIF file formats and compression, and PNG formats.