Re: ][GIF: What type of file is an RLE file?

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <20040416001641.22218.00000518@mb-m06.aol.com>,
 obsbedia2@aol.com (Obsbedia2) wrote:

> Besides gifs, ][GIF has a converter for RLE files.  I tried searching for  
> .RLE
> images on Google, as I do for .GIFS, but only gifs and jpgs came up.  
> 
> What's an RLE file?
> JaY

(R)un (L)ength (E)ncoded - A realy crude (but depending on the file, 
potentially quite effective) compression method that works by taking 
repeating sequences of bytes, and replacing them with a single instnace 
of the byte, and a count of how many times it occurred in the input 
stream, saving Rawlength - 2 (or sometimes 3) bytes per encoded run. 
Obviously, break-even is at the 2 (or 3) byte mark, with everything 
after that being true space savings.

Line art is a real good candidate for it, since there are typically long 
runs of the same byte, interspersed with a few bytes of "other stuff", 
followed by more long runs of identical bytes. 

I seem to recall that it never really caught on all that well. Whether 
that was because .gif was already pretty much estalished, or otherwise, 
I can't remember. I do know I haven't seen one in a LONG time...

-- 
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