ImageGear uses a component structure that consists of the Core (main) ImageGear component and a number of additional components.
A component is a module that can be connected to the main ImageGear module using a platform-independent API. To initialize the component functionality, attach the component to the main ImageGear module using the ImageGear component manager API. When the component is attached, it gets access to all core ImageGear functions, and the core ImageGear functionality can use the component's structures, functions, and control parameters.
Usually, ImageGear components contain functionality such as additional format filters (for example, LZW or PDF) or additional image processing functionality (such as ImageClean, ART).
Once you have attached the component, it cannot be detached prior to unloading of the ImageGear Core module. All components are detached and unloaded automatically at the time of the ImageGear Core module unloading.
ImageGear identifies every component by its name, and during the attachment process, it calculates the physical name of the file where the component is located. By default ImageGear assumes that all components are located in the same directory where the main ImageGear module is located, however you can specify a different folder from which to load the components.
This section provides information about the following: