OME Files C++ overview

OME Files C++ is a reference implementation of the OME data model and the OME-TIFF file format for C++ developers who wish to integrate support for the OME data model and reading and writing the standard OME-TIFF file format into their software. Potential uses include export of images using OME-TIFF, saving of acquired image data in OME-TIFF, reading metadata and image data from OME-TIFF for vizualisation and analysis, or use of the data model metadata APIs for handling metadata.

OME Files C++ is a re-implementation of the Bio-Formats Java API, providing equivalent data model, metadata and reading and writing interfaces. Unlike the Bio-Formats Java API, which supports reading of over 140 file formats and writing of over 15 file formats at the time of writing, OME Files C++ restricts itself to reading and writing OME-TIFF and plain TIFF, and does not yet support additional formats. At present it is a reference implementation for the OME-TIFF format, and the focus for development is upon improving and extending the data model metadata APIs and the reader and writer APIs, rather than adding additional formats.

Note

Due to the renaming of Bio-Formats C++ to OME Files, this will result in an API break between version Bio-Formats C++ 5.1 and OME Files C++ 0.x as a result of the namespace change from ome::bioformats to ome::files. Further breaking changes are planned as the basic interfaces are cleaned up to make them more flexible and efficient.