ImageGear's image utility family of functions provides the capabilities to create, import, and export images in either DIB or DDB format, and to obtain information about any image for which you have a HIGEAR handle. You can also obtain information about image files stored on mass storage devices, such as the file format type, compression, width, height, bits per pixel, or number of pages if a multi-page file.

A few special purpose image utility functions tell you whether a HIGEAR variable contains a valid image handle, and whether an image is grayscale. In addition, there are six functions to help you read and write palettes, either whole or one entry at a time, and save them to disk. There's also a function that lets you set special control options that alter the operation of ImageGear's file format read-write filters during file operations.

One additional important image utility function sets an image's "image rectangle", which determines the portion of the image to be displayed, printed, or saved during display, print, and save operations. Refer to Core Component API Reference for detailed calling sequences and further notes on these functions.

This section provides the following information:

• Creating DIBs and DDBs
• Deleting DIBs and DDBs
• Reading and Writing Palettes
• Getting Information about a HIGEAR Image