| Full Name | TXT (ASCII Text) |
| Format ID | IG_FORMAT_TXT = 41 |
| File Extension(s) | *.txt |
| Data Type | Raster Image |
| Data Encoding | ASCII |
| Color Profile Support | No |
| Multi-Page Support | Yes |
| Alpha Channel Support | No |
N/A
No
| Filter Control Parameter | Type | Default Value | Available Values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XDPI | UINT | 200 | Horizontal resolution of image. | |
| YDPI | UINT | 200 | Vertical resolution of image. | |
| MARGINS_LEFT | LONG | 1000 | Left text margin on page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| MARGINS_TOP | LONG | 1000 (750 - for Unix) | Top text margin on page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| MARGINS_RIGHT | LONG | 1000 | Right text margin on page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| MARGINS_BOTTOM | LONG | 1000 (750 - for Unix) | Bottom text margin on page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| PAGE_WIDTH | DIMENSION | 8500 | Width of resulting page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| PAGE_HEIGHT | DIMENSION | 11000 | Height of resulting page, expressed as thousandths of an inch. | |
| POINT_SIZE | INT | 10 (-1 - for Unix) | Font metric: If 0 then lines per page and character per line is used, else - specify font size. | |
| WEIGHT | UINT | FALSE (0) | TRUE, FALSE | Font metric: if TRUE use bold font. |
| ITALIC | AT_BOOL | FALSE | TRUE, FALSE | Font metric: if TRUE use italic font. |
| TAB_STOP | UINT | 3 (4 - for Unix) | The number of characters per tab. | |
| TYPE_FACE | LP | CHAR | "\x00" ("courier" - for Unix) | Font metric:typeface name of the font, If empty string then default font used "Courier new". | |
| LINES_PER_PAGE | UINT | 0 (60 - for Unix) | Number of line per page. | |
| CHAR_PER_LINE | UINT | 0 (80 - for Unix) | Number of characters per line. | |
| COMPATIBILITY_MODE | AT_BOOL | FALSE (TRUE - for Unix) | TRUE, FALSE | If TRUE use old algorithm, otherwise use ImageGear Algorithm. |
This is a widely used format for storing plain text files. ASCII data can also be used to give vector data instructions, but this is not supported by ImageGear.
The current, commonly used version of ASCII uses a 7-bit format and is known as "Full" or "Extended ASCII". The 128 (27) different data values include printable and non-printable values. The non-printable values are represented by the first 32 (0-31) values of ASCII, and are called "control values". They are used to communicate with screens or printers for placement of the characters. These control values represent tabs, line feeds, spaces, etc. Combinations of these values create "escape sequences" whose values are device-dependent upon implementation. To keep an ASCII file completely device-independent, a file usually does not contain any control values other than tab, line feed, and carriage return.
What makes a TXT file different from many bitmap formats is the byte order. A file is written in the natural order that it appears when output. There is no division into bit planes, or reverse order of bits and bytes. The eighth bit of each byte is normally set to zero. In older versions of TXT files, this was often used as a parity bit.
Brown, C. Wayne, and Barry J. Shepherd. Graphics File Formats: Reference and Guide. Greenwich, CT.: Manning Publications, 1992.
Kay, David C. and John R. Levine. Graphics File Formats, 2nd ed. Windcrest /McGraw-Hill, 1995.