COMPFACE(3)

NAME
compface, uncompface - compress and expand 48x48x1 face image files

SYNOPSIS
compface (buf)

uncompface (buf)

char *buf

DESCRIPTION
compface is a function for generating highly compressed representations of 48x48x1 face image files. uncompface is an inverse function which performs an inverse transformation with no loss of data. The algorithm used is highly tuned for its purpose and achieves better than a five to one compression ratio on average. In both functions, input is via a NULL terminated string and a NULL terminated output string is written over the input string. Buf should therefore point to a block of 2K size or more to avoid buffer overruns during output generation.

The input format for compface (and the output format for uncompface) is 48 lines each of 3 sixteen bit hexadecimal integers, comma terminated in C initialiser style. The output format of compface (and the input format for uncompface) is some number of lines made up of a space followed by printable characters (in the range ``!'' to ``~'' inclusive). The first line contains 72 characters and following lines contain 79 characters except that the last line may be short.

This version of compface has been patched to also be able to handle normal XBM images. uncompface will produce XBM output only if the -X switch is applied.

The amount of compression obtained varies between face image files but the output of compface averages less than 200 characters. The average number of output lines is three.

DIAGNOSTICS
The return value is normally 0. 1 will be returned if extra input has been ignored during a compress operation. -1 is returned in the case of an invalid input format. -2 is returned if an internal buffer overrun occurs.

SEE ALSO
Compface(1)