Imagesave

Imagesave is a common term in digital imaging used to describe the operation of writing image data from memory to disk in a chosen file format. In many software libraries and frameworks, an ImageSave function, method, or module provides the capability to serialize an in-memory image object to a stored file, optionally applying encoding parameters and preserving metadata.

Supported formats typically include PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, WEBP, and sometimes RAW or HEIC. Save operations usually permit selecting format, adjusting compression level or quality, handling color profiles, and deciding whether to embed metadata such as EXIF, IPTC, or XMP. Some implementations also support multi-page or layered saves and specify whether the operation should preserve transparency.

Where ImageSave appears, it may be a dedicated function named ImageSave (in languages or libraries that use capitalized naming), or a general method such as save or write that accepts an image object and a destination path. Examples across ecosystems include image libraries that offer ImageSave to export to PNG or JPEG, often with an options object.

Compatibility and limitations: Performance considerations include encoding speed and memory usage; some formats require color space conversions. Metadata handling can introduce privacy or data concerns. Lossless formats preserve data, while lossy ones trade some information for smaller file sizes.

Historically, image saving matured with the development of standardized formats and image processing libraries in the 1980s and 1990s, culminating in wide support in modern programming languages and applications.

See also: image I/O, image format, metadata standards, color management, compression.