Images: Image Formats

Formats likely to be accessible in the future are:

• Non-proprietary
• Open, with documented standards
• In common usage by the research community
• Using standard character encodings (i.e., ASCII, UTF-8)
• Uncompressed (space permitting)

Files should be unencrypted and uncompressed.

Print Format

Search our online catalog Skyline for books with pictures using these methods: 

• A book record will tell you if the text has illustrations or photographs. Look for these abbreviations in the record that indicate the book has images:
  • ill. (illustrations)
  • col. ill (color illustrations)
  • maps
• Using the phrase 'pictorial works' in a search in Skyline. This subject term is used to describe books comprised primarily of images. Some examples of subject searches you could do to find picture-filled books include: 
  • United States pictorial works
  • flowers pictorial works
  • Colorado pictorial works
  • airplanes pictorial works
• Doing a search using the word 'photograph' or 'photographs' combined with keyword(s) can also retrieve image heavy materials. Examples:
  • Denver photograph
  • art deco photographs
• Encyclopedias will often be image-rich.  To identify both print and online encyclopedias in a library collection, choose an appropriate keyword or keywords to combine with the word "encyclopedias" when searching the library's catalog. For example:
  • China encyclopedias
  • insects encyclopedias
• Art Books.  Books dedicated to painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, graphic arts, design, architecture and their attendant creators will also contain images.