How to read a TIFF file by tiles with Java?

Question

Let's say I have a very large TIFF image as input. I am not able to load this image entirely because of memory specification I must comply with. So the following is not an option :

BufferedImage data = ImageIO.read(image);

Is there any Java library allowing to read a specific part of the image without buffering the whole image ? Or some ways to get TIFF tiles from a stream ?

Answer 1

ImageIO can provide you an ImageReader for Tiff, and then you can use readTile. ImageIO has several getImageReadersBy... methods.

I am not aware whether tiff is supported by ImageIO, but ImageIO uses java SPI so one may plug-in ImageReaders and ImageWriters.

In fact this is a short-cut for read with ImageReadParam configured for tiles.

Never used tiles, but seeing the prior answer, I wanted to point this option out.

Answer 2

There is no way in the native Java libraries that's able to read a Tiff file in it's components.... so, you are stuck with either using an external library, or building your own.

@Joop has provided a link in to the native Java library I was not aware of (know your tools!) If you cannot find the full support you need there, you may find the following useful:

The specification for Tiff files is not hugely complicated. I would consider writing my own file reader for it.

• Wiki page
• File specification (pdf)
• Java Advanced Imaging API (JAI)

The Java JAI looks like it has signifciantly extended support for reading and parsing TIFF files. Consider:

• Documentation index
• Javadoc
• TiffDescriptor