Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is a COM-based imaging

codec A codec is a computer hardware or software component that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder o ...

framework introduced in

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

(and later available in Windows XP Service Pack 3) for working with and processing digital images and image

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

. WIC enables application developers to perform image processing operations on any image format through a single set of common

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

s, without requiring prior knowledge of specific image formats.

Features

Windows Imaging Component provides an extensible architecture for image codecs, pixel formats, and metadata, with automatic run-time discovery of new formats. It supports reading and writing of arbitrary metadata in image files, with the ability to preserve unrecognized metadata during editing. While working with images, it preserves high bit depth image data, up to 32 bits per channel, throughout the revamped high dynamic range image processing pipeline built into Windows Vista. Windows Imaging Component supports

Windows Color System Windows Color System (WCS) is a platform for color management, first included with Windows Vista, that aims to achieve color consistency across various software and hardware, including cameras, monitors, printers and scanners. System Different de ...

, the ICC V4-compliant color management technology in Windows Vista.

Codecs

By default, Windows Vista ships with

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

, TIFF,

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

, PNG, BMP and HD Photo encoders and decoders, and an ICO decoder. Additionally, as of 2009, some camera manufacturers and 3rd-parties have released WIC codecs for proprietary

raw image format A camera raw image file contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, a motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed, ...

s, enabling Mac-like raw image support to Windows 7 and Vista. In July 2011, this was extended significantly by Microsoft itself by providing a separate Codec Pack for most current digital cameras. The Progressive Graphics File (PGF) viewer is distributed with a WIC codec.

Metadata

WIC supports Exchangeable Image File ( Exif), PNG textual metadata, image file directory (IFD), IPTC Information Interchange Model (IPTC), and Extensible Metadata Platform ( XMP) formats. In addition, WIC includes an extensible framework to support third-party metadata implementations. Metadata format support is per codec. For example, the native

codec supports XMP but the native

and PNG codecs do not.

Usage

WIC in Microsoft products

WIC is available for

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

with Service Pack 2, as a stand-alone downloadable program, and is built into Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It is also available as part of .NET Framework 3.0. A discontinued PowerToy for Windows XP from Microsoft, known as Photo Info, which allows viewing and editing image metadata from Windows Explorer, also uses WIC. Starting with Windows Vista, Windows Explorer, and Windows Photo Gallery, are based on WIC and can thus view and organize images in any format for which a WIC codec is installed. Office 2010 and later versions of the core Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) can import image file formats supported by WIC. Starting with Windows 7, Windows Media Center (available on Windows 7 Home Premium and above) is WIC-enabled. Also, the GDI+ graphic library is built on WIC, although GDI+ does not load 3rd-party or external codecs. With Windows 7 the WIC stack itself underwent a major overhaul and is now free-threaded, as are all the built-in and external codecs shipping with Windows. Being free-threaded is also a requirement for new codecs targeting Windows 7. Microsoft Expression Design's import and export capabilities are entirely based on WIC. Expression Media (now Phase One Media Pro) with Service Pack 1 and later also supports additional raw camera formats and HD Photo (now JPEG XR) using WIC.

Third-party support

As of 2018, few third-party imaging applications (image editors, image organizers and image viewers) utilize WIC. FastPictureViewer, a simple standalone third-party image viewer, supports standard image formats along with HD Photo and RAW camera formats (NRW, NEF, CR2, DNG) using WIC. An experimental WIC import plug-in for Adobe Photoshop can also be found on FastPictureViewer's website. Another WIC import plug-in for

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can be found at Gimp-Forum.net.Windows Imaging Component (WIC) Plugin
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References

External links

Windows Imaging Component
on

MSDN Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developing ...

{{Microsoft APIs Windows Vista Windows XP Windows components Microsoft Windows multimedia technology