The SPC file format is a

file format A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free. Some file formats ...

for storing

spectroscopic Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wav ...

data. The SPC file format is a file format in which all kinds of spectroscopic data, including among others

infrared spectra Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy or vibrational spectroscopy) is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or functional ...

, Raman spectra and UV/VIS spectra. The format can be regarded as a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

with

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

s of variable length and each record stores a different kind of data (instrumental information, information on one spectrum of a dataset, the spectrum itself or extra logs). It was invented by

Galactic Industries Galactic is an American jam band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Origins and background Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a ...

as generic file format for its programs. Their original specification was implemented in 1986, but a more versatile format was created in 1996. Galactic Industries was purchased by Thermo Fisher Scientific who now maintain and develop the GRAMS Software Suite for which the format was defined. They provide free tools and libraries to allow developers to create and maintain SPC files consistently. This file format is not in plaintext, such as XML or CSV, but is a binary format and is therefore not readable with a standard text editor but requires a special reader or software to interpret the file data. The

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

publishes a free spectra reader called ShowSPC that is open to the public for reading spectra data. Additionally, a company AnalyzeIQ produces a free SPC to CSV converter aptly titled SPC2CSV, an open-source project OpenSpectralWorks is an alternative free reader, as well as SpectraGryph which has analytic and display capabilities for reading SPC files. The Essential FTIR software offers a file reader that can read, display, analyze and export .spc files as well as many other spectroscopy file formats.

References

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External links

Python module to read and convert SPC files
on GitHub
hyperSpec

R (programming language) R is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Core Team and the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Created by statisticians Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman, R is used among data miners, bioinform ...

package on GitHub Computer file formats Spectroscopy