Reading 12-bit JPEG data

JPEG is the image format most widely used in the Internet. It is not really suitable for drawings or images containing text. JPEG is standardized as an 8-bit image file. This means that each color channel of a pixel has 8-bits of data allocated to reproduce color. Sometimes you will find 8-bit color referred to as 24-bit color, which simply combines the bit-depth of the Y, Cb and Cr channels (8 bits + 8 bits +8 bits = 24 bits). There are rare variations of JPEG format though – medical imaging systems create 12-bit JPEG files which are hard to interpret by regular software. They are usually associated with X-rays or other black-and-white medical images. ImageConverter Plus can read and interpret 12-bit JPEG images. It makes sense to convert them to a regular JPEG or other formats so that they become more recognizable and easier to be processed further on.