The first problem which needs to be addressed in the development of any image processing software is interpretation of image resource files containing bitmap or raster information. Java provides support for the two most common file formats found on the Internet, Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group File Interchange Format (JPEG). Unfortunately these file formats are not used for computer vision applications as the compression techniques which they employ distort image information. The pixel error introduced by either compression technique is typically 1%, although this may not be visually apparent but it does result in unacceptable information loss. In order to preserve image information, support for several non-corrupting file formats has to be implemented in Java, the three main formats required are raw image data (BYT), PC Paintbrush (PCX) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).

BMP (RW) Microsoft Windows Bitmap (BMP), a bitmap image file using Run length encoding (RLE), supports a maximum pixel depth of 32 bits. A maximum image size of 32K x 32K pixels, originally created by the Microsoft Corporation for use with Windows Version 1.0.
BYT (RW) Raw image data, grey-scale only with a maximum pixel depth of 8 bits the data is stored with the first byte of the file corresponding to the top left hand corner of the image. No header is contained within the image and details about the dimensions must be supplied by the user. This file format preserves image data, no information lost since no compression is used.
FPX (R) Kodak FlashPix.
GIF (R) Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a bitmap file which utilises Lemple-Zev-Welch (LZW) compression, it is limited to a maximum colour palette of 256 entries and a maximum image size of 64K x 64K pixels.
JPEG (RW) Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) File interchange format is also a bitmap file it utilises JPEG compression, an encoding scheme based on the discrete cosine transform, It has a maximum colour depth of 16.7 million colours and a maximum image size of 64K x 64K pixels.
PCX (RW) PC Paintbrush (PCX), a bitmap file using either no compression or RLE, image data is kept intact, A maximum colour depth of 24 bits is available and a maximum image size of 64K x 64K pixels.
PNG (RW) Portable Network Graphics.
PBM (RW) Portable BitMap. The portable bitmap format is a lowest common denominator monochrome file format. It was originally designed for mailing bitmaps between different platforms using typical network mailers. Now it serves as the common standard for a large family of bitmap conversion filters.
PGM (RW) Portable Greymap Utilities (PGM), a bitmap file uses no compression hence image data is left intact, it has a maximum grey-scale depth of 256.
PPM (RW)  Portable PixelMap.
RAS (RW) Sun Raster Image (RAS), a bitmap file format using either no compression or Run Length Encoding (RLE) supports a maximum of 16.7 million colours and has an undefined maximum image size.
RAW (RW) Raw image data Similar Specification to the BYT format described except colour image data also supported. The image data is stored in RGB triplets with the triplet representing the upper left hand corner of the image.
TIFF (RW) Tagged Image File Format (TIF) a bitmap file using a wide range of compression techniques, uncompressed, RLE, LZW, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) Group3 & Group4 and JPEG supports a maximum pixel depth of 24 bits (16.7 million colours) and a maximum image size 4 Gig pixels.