Network Working Group G. Klyne Request for Comments: 2879 Content Technologies Obsoletes: 2531 L. McIntyre Category: Standards Track Xerox Corporation August 2000
Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines a content media feature schema for Internet fax.
It is a profile of the media feature registration mechanisms [1,2,3] for use in performing capability identification between extended Internet fax systems [5]. It replaces and updates the feature schema defined in RFC 2531.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .............................................2 1.1 Organization of this document ........................3 1.2 Terminology and document conventions .................3 1.3 Discussion of this document ..........................4 2. Fax feature schema syntax ................................4 3. Internet fax feature tags ................................4 3.1 Image size ...........................................5 3.2 Resolution ...........................................5 3.3 Media type ...........................................6 3.4 Paper Size ...........................................6 3.5 Color capability .....................................7 3.6 Color model ..........................................8 3.7 Image coding ........................................11 3.8 MRC mode ............................................12 4. Examples ................................................13 4.1 Simple mode Internet fax system ....................13
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
4.2 High-end black-and-white Internet fax system.........14 4.3 Grey-scale Internet fax system ......................14 4.4 Full-color Internet fax system (JPEG only) ..........15 4.5 Full-color Internet fax system (JPEG and JBIG) ......16 4.6 Full-color Internet fax system (MRC) ................17 4.7 Sender and receiver feature matching ................19 5. IANA Considerations .....................................21 6. Security Considerations .................................21 6.1 Capability descriptions and mechanisms ..............21 6.2 Specific threats ....................................21 7. Acknowledgements ........................................22 8. References ..............................................22 9. Authors' Addresses ......................................24 Appendix A: Feature registrations ..........................25 A.1 Image size ..........................................25 A.2 Resolution aspect ratio .............................27 A.3 Color levels ........................................28 A.4 Color space ........................................30 A.5 CIELAB color illuminant .............................33 A.6 CIELAB color depth ..................................35 A.7 CIELAB color gamut ..................................37 A.8 Image file structure ................................39 A.9 Image data coding ...................................41 A.10 Image coding constraint ............................43 A.11 JBIG stripe size .................................. 44 A.12 Image interleave ...................................46 A.13 Color subsampling ..................................47 A.14 MRC availability and mode ..........................49 A.15 MRC maximum stripe size ............................50 Appendix B: TIFF mode descriptions .........................52 Appendix C: Changes from RFC 2531 ..........................57 Full Copyright Statement ...................................58
This document defines a content media feature schema for Internet fax.
It is a profile of the media feature registration mechanisms [1,2,3] for use in performing capability identification between extended Internet fax systems [5]. It replaces and updates the feature schema defined in RFC 2531.
The media feature description mechanisms do not describe any specific mechanisms for communicating capability information, but do presume that any such mechanisms will transfer textual values. In conjunction with this feature schema, they specify a textual format to be used for describing Internet Fax capability information.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
The range of capabilities that can be indicated are based on those covered by the TIFF file format for Internet fax [7] and Group 3 facsimile [6]. A companion document [4] describes the relationship and mapping between this schema and Group 3 fax capabilities.
Section 2 specifies the overall syntax for fax feature descriptions by reference to the media feature registration and syntax documents [1,2].
Section 3 enumerates the feature tags that are to be recognized and processed by extended Internet fax systems, according to their capabilities.
Appendix A contains additional feature tag registrations for media features that are specific to fax and for which no applicable registration already exists. These are presented in the form prescribed by the media feature registration procedure [1].
The term "extended Internet fax system" is used to describe any software, device or combination of these that conforms to the specification "Extended Facsimile Using Internet Mail" [5].
"capability exchange" describes any transfer of information between communicating systems that is used to indicate system capabilities and hence determine the form of data transferred. This term covers both one-way and two-way transfers of capability information.
"capability identification" is a particular form of capability exchange in which a receiving system provides capability information to a sending system.
"capability description" is a collection of data presented in some specific format that describes the capabilities of some communicating entity. It may exist separately from any specific capability exchange mechanism.
NOTE: Comments like this provide additional nonessential information about the rationale behind this document. Such information is not needed for building a conformant implementation, but may help those who wish to understand the design in greater depth.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
Discussion of this document should take place on the Internet fax mailing list hosted by the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC). Please send comments regarding this document to:
ietf-fax@imc.org
To subscribe to this list, send a message with the body 'subscribe' to "ietf-fax-request@imc.org".
To see what has gone on before you subscribed, please see the mailing list archive at:
The syntax for the fax feature schema is described by "A syntax for describing media feature sets" [2]. This in turn calls upon media feature tags that may be registered according to the procedure described in "Media Feature Tag Registration Procedure" [1].
NOTE: Media feature registration provides a base vocabulary of features that correspond to media handling capabilities. The feature set syntax provides a mechanism and format for combining these to describe combinations of features. This memo indicates those features that may be associated with extended Internet fax systems.
This section enumerates and briefly describes a number of feature tags that are defined for use with extended Internet fax systems and applications. These tags may be used also by other systems and applications that support corresponding capabilities.
The feature tags presented below are those that an extended Internet fax system is expected to recognize its ability or non-ability to handle.
Definitive descriptions of feature tags are indicated by reference to their registration according to the media feature registration procedure [1] (some of which are appended to this document).
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
NOTE: The presence of a feature tag in this list does not mean that an extended Internet fax system must have that capability; rather, it must recognize the feature tag and deal with it according to the capabilities that it does have.
Further, an extended Internet fax system is not prevented from recognizing and offering additional feature tags. The list below is intended to provide a basic vocabulary that all extended Internet fax systems can use in a consistent fashion.
If an unrecognized or unused feature tag is received, the feature set matching rule (described in [2]) operates so that tag is effectively ignored.
Feature tag name Legal values ---------------- ------------ dpi <Integer> (>0) dpi-xyratio <Rational> (>0)
Reference: "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3], and this document appendix A.
If 'dpi-xyratio' is present and not equal to 1 then the horizontal resolution (x-axis) is indicated by the 'dpi' feature value, and the vertical resolution (y-axis) is the value of 'dpi' divided by 'dpi- xyratio'.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
For example, the basic Group 3 fax resolution of 200*100dpi might be indicated as:
(& (dpi=200) (dpi-xyratio=200/100) )
When describing resolutions for an MRC format document, the complete set of usable resolutions is listed. However, there are some restrictions on their use: (a) 100dpi resolution can be used only with multi-level images, and (b) any multi-level image resolution is required to be an integral sub-multiple of the applicable mask resolution.
Feature tag name Legal values ---------------- ------------ ua-media screen screen-paged stationery transparency envelope envelope-plain continuous
Reference: "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3].
NOTE: Where the recipient indicates specific support for hard copy or soft copy media type, a sender of color image data may wish to adjust the color components (e.g. per the related rules of ITU recommendation T.42 [9]) to improve rendered image quality on that medium.
Feature tag name Legal values ---------------- ------------ color Binary (bi-level only) Limited (a limited number of colors) Mapped (palette or otherwise mapped color) Grey (grey-scale only) Full (full continuous-tone color)
Reference: "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3].
The intention here is to give a broad indication of color handling capabilities that might be used, for example, to select among a small number of available data resources.
The value of this feature also gives an indication of the more detailed color handling features that might be applicable (see next section).
'Binary' indicates blank-and-white, or other bi-level capability. No further qualifying feature tags are required.
'Limited' indicates a small number of distinct fixed colors, such as might be provided by a highlight printer, pen plotter or limited color display. The 'color-levels' tag should be used to indicate the number of distinct colors available.
NOTE: No ability to indicate any specific or named color is implied by this option. Some devices might use different intensity levels rather than different hues for distinction.
In the context of Internet fax, 'limited' is interpreted as one-bit- per-color-sample (RGB, CMY or CMYK), depending on the color space used.
'Mapped' indicates that pixel color values are mapped in some specifiable way to a multi-component color space. The 'color-levels' tag may be used to indicate the number of distinct colors available; in its absence, sufficient levels to display a photographic image should be assumed.
'Grey' indicates a continuous tone grey-scale capability.
'Full' indicates full continuous tone color capability.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
For 'Mapped', 'Grey' and 'Full' color, additional feature tags (section 3.6) may be used to further qualify the color reproduction.
The general model for image handling (both color and non-color) is described here from a receiver's perspective; a similar model operates in the reverse direction for a scan/send perspective:
raw bit pixel color physical stream -(A)-> values -(B)-> values -(C)-> rendition
- "pixel values" are a single numeric value per picture element that designates the color of that element.
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(B) indicates pixel-to-color value mapping
- "color values" have a separate numeric value for each color component (i.e. L*, a*, b* in the case of CIELAB indicated above.)
(C) indicates how the color values are related to a physical color. This involves interpretation of the color value with respect to a color model (e.g. RGB, L*a*b*, CMY, CMYK) and a color space (which is typically recipient-dependent).
- "physical rendition" is a color value physically realized on a display, printer or other device.
There are many variables that can be applied at each stage of the processing of a color image, and any may be critical to meaningful handling of that image in some circumstances. In other circumstances many of the variables may be implied (to some level of approximation) in the application that uses them (e.g. color images published on a Web page).
The color feature framework described here is intended to allow capability description at a range of granularity: feature tags which correspond to implied (or "don't care" or "unknown") feature values may simply be omitted from a capability description.
Grey scale and bi-level images are handled within this framework as a special case, having a 1-component color model. The following features are used for describing color capabilities:
'color-levels' indicates the number of distinct values for each picture element, and applies to all but bi-level images. For bi- level images, a value of 2 is implied.
'color-space' is used mainly with 'Mapped' and 'Full', but could be used with other modes if the exact color or color model used is significant. Two kinds of color space can be distinguished: device-dependent and calibrated. Device dependent spaces are named here as 'Device-xxx', and are used to indicate a color space that is defined by the receiving device. Calibrated color spaces presume the existence of a rendering system that is calibrated with respect to an indicated definition, and is capable of processing the device- independent color information accordingly.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
A color-handling receiver should indicate any appropriate device color space capability in addition to any calibrated color spaces that it may support. A calibrated color space should be used when precise color matching is required in the absence of specific knowledge of the receiving system.
NOTE: In practice, although they appear to be separate concepts, the color model and color space cannot be separated. In the final analysis, a color model (RGB, CMY, etc.) must be defined with respect to some color space.
'color-illuminant' indicates a CIE illuminant, using the same general form that is used for this purpose by Group 3 fax (as defined in ITU T.4 [13], section E.6.7). When the illuminant is specified by its color temperature, the token string 'CTnnnn' is used, where 'nnnn' is a decimal number that is the color temperature in Kelvins; e.g. CT7500 indicates an illuminant color temperature of 7500K.
NOTE: ITU T.4 indicates a binary representation for color temperature values.
In practice, much of the illuminant detail given here will probably be unused by Internet fax. The only value likely to be specified is 'D50', which is the default color illuminant for Group 3 fax.
'CIELAB-L-depth', 'CIELAB-a-depth' and 'CIELAB-b-depth' indicate the number of different values that are possible for the L*, a* and b* color components respectively, and are significant only when colors are represented in a CIELAB color space. These features would be used with palletized color, or with full color where each color component has a different number of possible values.
Color depth values relate to the representation of colour values rather than the resolution of a scanning or rendering device. Thus, if 256 different L-component values can be represented then the assertion (CIELAB-L-depth<=256) is used, even if a receiving device can render only 100 distinct luminance values. (Color rendering resolution is not covered by this memo.)
The 'CIELAB-x-min' and 'CIELAB-x-max' values indicate a color gamut (i.e. a range of color values that are used or may be rendered). A gamut may be indicated in terms of the CIELAB color space even when colors are represented in some other space.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
Feature tag name Legal values ---------------- ------------ image-file- TIFF structure TIFF-limited TIFF-minimal TIFF-MRC TIFF-MRC-limited (may be extended by further registrations) image-coding MH MR MMR JBIG JPEG (may be extended by further registrations) image-coding- JBIG-T85 (bi-level, per ITU T.85) constraint JBIG-T43 (multi-level, per ITU T.43) JPEG-T4E (per ITU T.4, Annex E) (may be extended by further registrations) JBIG-stripe-size <Integer> image-interleave Stripe Plane color-subsampling "1:1:1" (no color subsampling) "4:1:1" (4:1:1 color subsampling)
'image-file-structure' defines how the coded image data is wrapped and formatted. The following options are defined here:
o 'TIFF' indicates image data enclosed and tagged using TIFF structures described in Adobe's definition of TIFF [20].
o 'TIFF-limited' indicates image data structured using TIFF, but with the limitations on the placement of Image File Descriptors (IFDs) indicated in section 4.4.6 of RFC 2301 [7].
o 'TIFF-minimal' indicates a TIFF image format that meets the IFD placement, byte ordering and bit ordering requirements of the "minimal black and white mode" described in section 3.5 of RFC 2301 [7], also known as TIFF-S.
o 'TIFF-MRC' uses a TIFF image structure [20] augmented with a sub- IFD structure, described for the "Mixed Raster Content mode" in section 8.1.2 of RFC 2301 [7], also known as TIFF-M. This provides a file structure to contain composite images constructed using the MRC model described in T.44 [15] (see tag 'MRC-mode').
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
o 'TIFF-MRC-limited' is the same as 'TIFF-MRC', except that the primary IFD (i.e. top-level IFDs, as opposed to sub-IFDs) placement is constrained in the same way as 'TIFF-limited'.
'image-coding' describes how raw image data is compressed and coded as a sequence of bits. These are generic tags that may apply to a range of file formats and usage environments.
'image-coding-constraint' describes how the raw image data coding method is constrained to meet a particular operating environment. Options defined here are JBIG and JPEG coding constraints that apply in typical Group 3 fax environments.
The 'JBIG-stripe-size' feature may be used with JBIG image coding, and indicates the number of scan lines in each stripe except the last in an image. The legal constraints are:
(JBIG-stripe-size=128) (JBIG-stripe-size>=0)
The latter being equivalent to no restriction.
NOTE: there are several image coding options here, and not all are required in all circumstances.
Specification of the image-file-structure tag value alone is not normally sufficient to describe the capabilities of a recipient. A general rule is that sufficient detail should be provided to exclude any unsupported features.
For extended Internet fax, image-file-structure and image-coding should always be specified, together with additional values described above as needed to clearly indicate which feature tag values are supported and which are not. (See also the examples in section 4.)
RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
The 'MRC-mode' feature is used to indicate the availability of MRC (mixed raster content) image format capability. A zero value indicates MRC is not available, a non-zero value indicates the maximum available MRC mode number.
An MRC formatted document is actually a collection of several images, each of which is described by a separate feature collection. An MRC-capable receiver is presumed to be capable of accepting any combination of contained images that conform to both the MRC construction rules and the image-coding capabilities declared elsewhere.
Within an MRC-formatted document, multi-level coders are used for foreground and background images (i.e. odd-numbered layers: 1, 3, 5, etc.) and bi-level coders are used for mask layers (i.e. even numbered layers 2, 4, 6, etc.). MRC format also imposes constraints on the resolutions that can be used.
The 'MRC-max-stripe-size' feature may be used with MRC coding, and indicates the maximum number of scan lines in each MRC stripe. The legal constraints are:
These values indicate upper bounds on the stripe size. The actual value may vary between stripes, and the actual size for each stripe is indicated in the image data.
This example describes the capabilities of a typical simple mode Internet fax system. Note that TIFF profile S is required to be supported by such a system.
This would include support for B/W JBIG and be equivalent to what is sometimes called "Super G3", except that Internet fax functionality would be added.
This is the previous example extended to handle grey scale multi- level images. In keeping with Group 3 fax, this example requires equal x- and y- resolutions for a multi-level image.
Turning to the document itself, assume it is available to the sender in three possible formats, A4 high resolution, B4 low resolution and A4 high resolution color, described by:
These three image formats can be combined into a composite capability statement by a logical-OR operation (to describe format-1 OR format-2 OR format-3):
Points to note about the feature matching process:
o The color document option is eliminated because the receiver cannot handle either color (indicated by '(color=Mapped)') or JPEG coding (indicated by '(image-coding=JPEG)').
o The high resolution version of the document with '(dpi=300)' must be send using '(image-coding=JBIG)' because this is the only available coding of the image data that the receiver can use for high resolution documents. (The available 300dpi document codings here are MMR and JBIG, and the receiver capabilities are MH, MR and JBIG.)
o The low-resolution version of the document can be sent with either MH or MR coding as the receiver can deal with either of these for low resolution documents.
o The high resolution variant of the document is available only for A4, so that is the paper-size used in that case. Similarly the low resolution version is sent for B4 paper.
o Even though the sender may not understand the 'ua-media' feature tag, and does not mention it, the matching rules preserve the
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constraint that the B4 document is rendered with '(ua-media=continuous)', and the A4 document may be rendered with '(ua-media=[stationery,transparency])'.
Finally, note that when matching an MRC document description, the description of each component sub-image must match the capabilities of the intended receiver.
Appendix A of this document repeats the descriptions of feature tags introduced by RFC 2531 [22], with some small revisions. These have been registered in the "IETF tree", according to the procedure described in section 3.1.1 of "Media Feature Tag Registration Procedure" [1] (i.e. these feature tags are subject to the "IETF Consensus" policies described in RFC 2434 [21]).
Appendix section A.5 introduces one new feature tag (color- illuminant) to be registered according to the same procedure. An ASN.1 identifier should be assigned for this new tag and replaced in the body of the registration.
Negotiation mechanisms reveal information about one party to other parties. This may raise privacy concerns, and may allow a malicious party to make better guesses about the presence of specific security holes.
Most of these concerns pertain to capability information getting into the hands of someone who may abuse it. This document specifies capabilities that help a sender to determine what image characteristics can be processed by the recipient, not mechanisms for their publication. Implementers and users should take care that the mechanisms employed ensure that capabilities are revealed only to appropriate persons, systems and agents.
1. Unsolicited bulk mail: if it is known that a recipient can process certain types of images, they may be targeted by bulk mailers that want to send such images.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following persons who commented on earlier versions of this memo: James Rafferty, Dan Wing, Robert Buckley, Mr Ryuji Iwazaki. The following contributed ideas upon which some of the features described here have been based: Larry Masinter, Al Gilman, Koen Holtman.
[1] Holtman, K., Mutz, A. and T. Hardie, "Media Feature Tag Registration Procedure", RFC 2506, March 1999.
[2] Klyne, G., "A syntax for describing media feature sets", RFC 2533, March 1999.
[3] Masinter, L., Holtman, K., Mutz, A. and D. Wing, "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax", RFC 2534, March 1999.
[4] McIntyre, L. and G. Klyne, "Internet Fax T.30 Feature Mapping", RFC 2880, July 2000.
[5] Masinter, L. and D. Wing, RFC 2532, "Extended Facsimile Using Internet Mail", RFC 2532, March 1999.
[6] "Procedures for document facsimile transmission in the general switched telephone network", ITU-T Recommendation T.30 (1999), International Telecommunications Union, March 1999
[7] McIntyre, L., Buckley, R., Venable, D., Zilles, S., Parsons, G. and J. Rafferty, "File format for Internet fax", RFC 2301, March 1998.
[8] Toyoda, K., Ohno, H., Murai, J. and D. Wing, "A Simple Mode of Facsimile Using Internet Mail", RFC 2305, March 1998.
[9] "Continuous-tone color representation method for facsimile" ITU-T Recommendation T.42 (1996) International Telecommunications Union (Covers custom illuminant, gamut)
[10] "Colour and gray-scale image representation using lossless coding scheme for facsimile" ITU-T Recommendation T.43 (1997) International Telecommunications Union. (Covers JBIG for colour/grey images)
RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
[13] "Standardization of Group 3 facsimile terminals for document transmission", ITU-T Recommendation T.4 (1999), International Telecommunications Union, (Covers basic fax coding formats: MH, MR)
[14] "Facsimile coding schemes and coding control functions for Group 4 facsimile apparatus", ITU Recommendation T.6, International Telecommunications Union, (Commonly referred to as the MMR standard; covers extended 2-D fax coding format).
[16] "Information technology - Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still image - Requirements and guidelines" ITU-T Recommendation T.81 (1992) | ISO/IEC 10918-1:1993 International Telecommunications Union, (Commonly referred to as JPEG standard)
[17] "Information technology - Coded representation of picture and audio information - Progressive bi-level image compression" ITU-T Recommendation T.82 (1993) | ISO/IEC 11544:1993 International Telecommunications Union (Commonly referred to as JBIG1 standard)
- ASN.1 identifiers associated with these feature tags:
size-x: 1.3.6.1.8.1.7 size-y: 1.3.6.1.8.1.8
- Summary of the media features indicated:
These feature tags indicate the size of a displayed, printed or otherwise rendered document image; they indicate horizontal (size-x) and vertical (size-y) dimensions.
The unit of measure is inches (to be consistent with the measure of resolution defined by the feature tag 'dpi').
Where the actual size is available in millimetres, a conversion factor of 10/254 may be applied to yield an exact inch-based value.
- Values appropriate for use with these feature tags:
Rational (>0)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Print and display applications where different media choices will be made depending on the size of the recipient device.
- Examples of typical use:
This example describes the maximum scanned image width and height for Group 3 fax: 215x297 mm (8.46x11.69 inches):
(size-x<=2150/254) (size-y<=2970/254)
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Related standards or documents:
The memo "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3] describes features (pix-x, pix-y) for measuring document size in pixels.
Fax applications should declare physical dimensions using the features defined here.
- Considerations particular to use in individual applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Where no physical size is known or available, but a pixel size is known, a notional size should be declared based upon known pixel dimensions and a notional resolution of (say) 100dpi
The notional 100dpi resolution is used as it represents a fairly typical resolution for a pixel-limited display. Reducing the rational numbers to canonical form gives the following equivalent expression:
(& (size-x<=32/5) (size-y<=24/5) (dpi=100) )
- Interoperability considerations:
For interoperability with other (non-fax) applications that use only pixel-based measurements, pixel dimensions (pix-x, pix-y) may be declared in addition to physical measurements.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.9
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature is used to indicate differential horizontal and vertical resolution capability. In the absence of this feature, horizontal and vertical resolutions are presumed to be the same.
When this feature tag is specified, any declared resolution (dpi) is presumed to apply to the horizontal axis, and the vertical resolution is obtained by dividing that declared resolution by the resolution ratio.
The value of this feature is a pure number, since it represents the ratio of two resolution values.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Rational (>0)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Internet fax, and other print or display applications that must handle differential horizontal and vertical resolution values.
- Examples of typical use:
The following example describes a fax resolution of 204 dpi horizontally by 391 dpi vertically:
(& (dpi=204) (dpi-xyratio=204/391) )
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Related standards or documents:
The memo "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3] describes a feature (dpi) for measuring document resolution.
- Interoperability considerations:
When interoperating with an application that does not recognize the differential resolution feature, resolution matching may be performed on the basis of the horizontal resolution only, so aspect ratio information may be lost.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.10
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature tag is used to indicate a number of different image data pixel color values.
When mapped (palletized) color is used, this is generally different from the number of different colors that can be represented through the color mapping function.
This feature tag is used in conjunction with a 'color' feature having a value other than 'Binary'.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Integer (>=2)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing or display applications where the data resource used may depend upon color handling capabilities of the recipient.
To describe capabilities used by a document: (& (color=limited) (color-levels=4) ) (& (color=grey) (color-levels=48) ) (& (color=mapped) (color-levels=100) ) (& (color=full) (color-levels=32768) )
- Related standards or documents:
The memo "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3] describes a feature (color) for indicating basic color capabilities.
- Interoperability considerations:
The actual number of color values used by a document does not, in general, exactly match the number that can be handled by a recipient. To achieve a feature match, at least one must be declared as an inequality (i.e. not both as equalities).
It is recommended that a recipient declares the number of color values that it can handle as an inequality (<=), and a data resource declares the number of colors that it uses with an equality, as shown in the examples above.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Security considerations:
- Privacy concerns, related to exposure of personal information: Where feature matching is used to select content applicable to the physical abilities of a user, unusual values for this feature tag might give an indication of a user's restricted abilities.
- Related feature tags:
color [3] color-space [this document]
- Intended usage:
Internet fax Color image scanning/rendering applications
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.11
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature indicates a color space.
A color space value provides two types of information: o the color model used to represent a color value, including the number of color components o a mapping between color values and their physical realizations
Device color space values are defined for applications where the general color representation used is significant, but exact color rendering is left to the device used. Device color spaces defined here have values of the form 'Device- xxx'.
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Calibrated color space values are provided for use with a rendering system that is calibrated with respect to some indicated definition, and capable of processing device- independent color information accordingly.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
'Color-space=CIELAB' indicates the CIE L*a*b* colour space, using CIED50 illuminant and its perfectly diffuse reflecting white point (per T.42 [9]).
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing and display applications where the data resource used may depend upon color handling capabilities of the recipient.
Scanning applications where the data transferred may depend upon the image generation capabilities of the originator.
- Examples of typical use:
To describe rendering or scanning capabilities:
(color-space=[Device-RGB,CIELAB])
To describe capabilities assumed by a document for which approximate color reproduction is required:
(color-space=Device-RGB)
To describe capabilities assumed by a document for which exact color reproduction is required:
(color-space=CIELAB)
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Related standards or documents:
CIELAB color space is defined in [19]
CIELAB use for fax is described in ITU T.42 [9]
- Interoperability considerations:
A color-handling receiver should indicate any appropriate device color space capability, in addition to any calibrated color spaces that it may support.
Calibrated color spaces are intended to be used when precise color matching is required; otherwise, if applicable, a device color space (color-space=Device-xxx) should be indicated.
Documents for which exact color matching is not important should indicate a device color space capability, if applicable.
These principles allow sender/receiver feature matching to be achieved when exact color matching is not required.
- Security considerations:
- Privacy concerns, related to exposure of personal information: Where feature matching is used to select content applicable to the physical abilities of a user, unusual values for this feature tag might give an indication of a user's restricted abilities.
- Denial of service concerns related to consequences of specifying incorrect values: Failure to indicate a generic color space capability for a device may lead to failure to match color space for an application or document that does not require an exact color match.
- Related feature tags:
color [3]
- Related media types or data formats:
TIFF-FX [7]
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Intended usage:
Internet fax Color image scanning/rendering applications
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.29
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature indicates a color illuminant. This has the effect of modifying the color space calibration to reflect the use of different sources of illumination.
A color-illuminant value would normally be used only with a calibrated color space.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Defined by color CTnnnn where 'nnnn' is a decimal temperature: representation of the illuminant color temperature in Kelvins.
(may be extended by further registrations)
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
NOTE: The default color illuminant for Group 3 fax is D50.
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing and display applications where the data resource used may depend upon detailed color handling capabilities of the recipient.
Scanning applications where the data transferred may depend upon the image generation capabilities of the originator.
- Examples of typical use:
To describe rendering or scanning capabilities, or to describe capabilities assumed by a document for which exact color handling capabilities are required:
(& (color-space=CIELAB) (color-illuminant=D50) )
- Related standards or documents:
CIELAB color illuminant representations are described in ITU T.4 [13], Annex E.6.7.
- Interoperability considerations:
A color-handling receiver that supports a calibrated color space should indicate any constraint on the illuminants it can handle.
In the absence of a color-illuminant constraint, a receiver is presumed to accept and deal with any specified illuminant value.
- Related feature tags:
color [3] color-space [this document]
- Related media types or data formats:
TIFF-FX [7]
- Intended usage:
Internet fax Color image scanning/rendering applications
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
These feature tags indicate a color depth capability; i.e. the level of detail to which an individual CIELAB color component can be specified. They define the number of distinct values possible for each of the color components L*, a* and b*.
Typically, this feature would be used with 'color=mapped', and possibly 'color=grey' or 'color=full', to indicate the number of distinct colors that can be represented.
NOTE: this feature tag describes the number of values that can be represented for a color component, and does not necessarily indicate the number of distinct values that can be rendered or resolved by a system.
- Values appropriate for use with these feature tags:
Integer (>0)
- These feature tags are intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing and display applications where the data resource used may depend upon color handling capabilities of the recipient.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
Scanning applications where the data transferred may depend upon the image generation capabilities of the originator.
The memo "Media Features for Display, Print, and Fax" [3] defines a feature (color) for indicating basic color capabilities. CIELAB color space is defined in [19]
CIELAB use for fax is described in ITU T.42 [9]
- Related feature tags:
color [3] color-levels [this document] color-space [this document]
- Intended usage:
Internet fax Color image scanning/rendering applications
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
These feature indicate a supported range of color values, by indicating minimum and maximum values used for each color component in a CIELAB color space.
'CIELAB-L-min' and 'CIELAB-L-max' are the minimum and maximum values of the L* component.
'CIELAB-a-min' and 'CIELAB-a-max' are the minimum and maximum values of the a* component.
'CIELAB-b-min' and 'CIELAB-b-max' are the minimum and maximum values of the b* component.
NOTE: color component values are assumed to be rational numbers, so a limited gamut does not necessarily indicate limited color resolution.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Rational
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing and display applications where the data resource used may depend upon detailed color handling capabilities of the recipient.
Scanning applications where the data transferred may depend upon the detailed color image generation capabilities of the originator.
When describing a recipient's capabilities, the minimum and maximum color component values that can be rendered should be indicated by inequalities as shown in the examples above.
When describing a document, the actual minimum and maximum color component values used should be indicated, as shown above.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Security considerations:
- Privacy concerns, related to exposure of personal information: Where feature matching is used to select content applicable to the physical abilities of a user, unusual values for this feature tag might give an indication of a user's restricted abilities.
- Related feature tags:
color [3] color-space [this document]
- Related media types or data formats:
TIFF-FX [7]
- Intended usage:
Internet fax Color image scanning/rendering applications
- Considerations particular to use in individual applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
This tag is intended to provide information about an image file structure. Information about image data coding is provided by other tags.
The following tag values are defined here:
o 'TIFF' indicates image data enclosed and tagged using TIFF structures described in Adobe's definition of TIFF [20].
o 'TIFF-limited' indicates image data structured using TIFF, but with limitations on the placement of Image File Descriptors (IFDs) within the file, which are indicated in section 4.4.6 of RFC 2301 [7].
o 'TIFF-minimal' indicates a TIFF image format that meets the IFD placement, byte ordering and bit ordering requirements of the "minimal black and white mode" described in section 3.5 of RFC 2301 [7], also known as TIFF-S.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
o 'TIFF-MRC' uses a TIFF image structure [20] augmented with a sub-IFD structure, described for the "Mixed Raster Content mode" in section 8.1.2 of RFC 2301 [7], also known as TIFF-M (see also tag 'MRC-mode').
o 'TIFF-MRC-limited' is the same as 'TIFF-MRC', except that the IFD placement is constrained as for 'TIFF-limited'.
Registration of additional image file structure tags should focus similarly on image file structure issues, not raw image data compression and coding. As a guide, an image file structure may contain image data coded in a variety of ways, and carries information to describe that coding separately from MIME content-type labelling, etc.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.22
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature tag indicates a form of image data compression and coding used.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
It identifies a generic image coding technique used, without regard to any specific profiling of that technique that may be applied. Values for this feature are generally applicable across a wide range of image transfer applications.
This information is distinct from the image file structure and MRC information conveyed by the 'image-file-structure' tags.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Token MH MR MMR JBIG JPEG
(may be extended by further registrations)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Internet fax, and other applications that transfer image data.
MH, MR: ITU T.4 [13] MMR: ITU T.6 [14] JPEG: ITU T.81 [16] JBIG: ITU T.82 [17]
- Interoperability considerations:
To establish the correct conditions for interoperability between systems, capabilities to handle the generic image coding technique and the specific image coding constraints must be established.
JBIG-T85: ITU T.85 [18] JBIG-T43: ITU T.43 [10] JPEG-T4E: ITU T.4 Annex E [13]
- Interoperability considerations:
To establish the correct conditions for interoperability between systems, capabilities to handle the generic image coding technique and the specific image coding constraints must be established.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with these feature tags:
1.3.6.1.8.1.24
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature is a specific usage constraint that is applied to JBIG image coding (image-coding=JBIG), and indicates the allowable size for each stripe of an image, except the last.
A stripe of a JBIG image is a delimited horizontal band of compressed image data that can be decompressed separately from the surrounding data.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Integer (>0)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Internet fax, and other applications that transfer image data.
- Examples of typical use:
(JBIG-stripe-size=128) (JBIG-stripe-size>0)
- Related standards or documents:
JBIG: ITU T.82 [17] JBIG-T85: ITU T.85 [18] JBIG-T43: ITU T.43 [10]
- Considerations particular to use in individual applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
In the case of Internet fax, the specific constraints allowed for a receiver are those given as examples above.
Specifying a stripe size that is not limited (JBIG-stripe- size>0) means that an entire page of image data is encoded as a single unit. This may place considerable demands on the memory of a receiving system, as the entire stripe needs to be buffered in memory.
- Interoperability considerations:
To establish the correct conditions for interoperability between systems, capabilities to handle the generic image coding technique and the specific image coding constraints must be established.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Considerations particular to use in individual applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Specifying a plane interleave means that an entire page of image data must be buffered in order to generate or render the image. This may place considerable demands on the memory of a sending or receiving system.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.26
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature tag indicates whether color information may be subsampled with respect to luminance data.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
It is used with continuous color images (color=full), color spaces that use separate luminance and color components (e.g. color-space=LAB), and image file structures that support color subsampling.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
String "1:1:1" This value indicates a full set of color component samples for each luminance component sample.
"4:1:1" This value indicates one set of color component samples for each 4 luminance samples.
(may be extended by further registrations)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Color image printing and display applications where the data resource used may depend upon color handling capabilities of the recipient.
Scanning applications where the data transferred may depend upon the image generation capabilities of the originator.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.27
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature is used to indicate the availability of MRC (mixed raster content) image format capability, and also the MRC mode available. A zero value indicates MRC is not available, a non-zero value (in the range 1..7) indicates the available MRC mode number.
An MRC formatted document is actually a collection of several images, each of which is described by a separate feature collection. An MRC-capable receiver is presumed to be capable of accepting any combination of contained images that conform to the MRC construction rules, where each such image matches the separately declared resolution, color capability, color model, image coding, and any other capabilities.
NOTE: an MRC formatted document may appear within a TIFF image file structure.
Within an MRC-formatted document, multi-level coders are used for foreground and background images (i.e. odd-numbered layers: 1, 3, 5, etc.) and bi-level coders are used for mask layers (i.e. even numbered layers 2, 4, 6, etc.).
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Integer (0..7)
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Internet fax, and other applications that transfer image data.
To establish the correct conditions for interoperability between systems, capabilities to handle the MRC mode and any contained image coding techniques must be established.
- ASN.1 identifier associated with this feature tag:
1.3.6.1.8.1.28
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
- Summary of the media features indicated:
This feature may be used with MRC coding (MRC-mode>=1), and indicates the maximum number of scan lines in each MRC stripe.
The value given indicates an upper bound on the stripe size. The actual value may vary between stripes, and the actual size for each stripe is indicated in the image data.
- Values appropriate for use with this feature tag:
Integer (>0)
- The feature tag is intended primarily for use in the following applications, protocols, services, or negotiation mechanisms:
Internet fax, and other applications that transfer image data.
This appendix contains descriptions of the TIFF modes defined by RFC 2301 [7], presented as feature set expressions in the form defined by "A syntax for describing media feature sets" [2] and using the feature schema introduced by this document.
These may be taken as illustrations of the feature set combinations that are required for the corresponding TIFF profiles described by RFC 2301.
TIFF-S has no optional elements, so is presented as a single feature set. Other profiles are presented as (TIFF-x-base) and (TIFF-x-full) indicating the minimum and full feature sets associated with each profile.
Each sub-image in an MRC image must conform to the capabilities indicated AND also to any additional constraints imposed by the MRC structure, such as bi-level mask layer, etc. See sections A.13 and 3.7">section 3.7.
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RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
00a 23-Jun-1999 Updated Appendix B with more complete TIFF-FX profile descriptions. Added note to section 3.5 clarifying the meaning of (color=limited) in the context of Internet fax. Added note to section 3.6 and A.6 to clarify interpretation of color depth. In A.6, noted that color gamut is not the same as color resolution; fixed example. Split section 3.7 into two sections, dealing with simple image coding options and MRC composite image options. Added new feature tag 'color-illuminant' (sections 3.6, A.5). Added cross-references from TIFF-M image file structure to MRC-mode tag. Updated introduction and references.
00b 10-Aug-1999 Bring examples into line with T.30 mapping document [4], and reorganize to make the expression structure less complex. Add details of mailing list for discussion. Added JPEG-only colour example. Change definition of image-file- structure tag to indicate more precisely what is being defined, and to draw out the distinction between a file structure to contain MRC images (image-file-structure), and the MRC image model (MRC-mode).
01a 01-Oct-1999 Update author's address and some references.
RFC 2879 Content Feature Schema for Internet Fax (V2) August 2000
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