StripOffsets

StripOffsets are a metadata concept primarily used in image processing and data compression, particularly within the context of TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) and other raster image formats. They define the starting byte position of each horizontal strip of image data within a larger file. Imagine an image divided into several horizontal bands or "strips." Instead of storing all the pixels of one strip consecutively, and then all the pixels of the next strip, and so on, StripOffsets provide a way to locate the beginning of each individual strip. This allows for more efficient reading and writing of image data, as the program doesn't need to scan through the entire file to find a specific strip. When an image is saved with strip compression, the StripOffsets tag in the TIFF header will point to the byte offset where each compressed strip begins. This is crucial for applications that need to access or decompress specific portions of an image without loading the entire file into memory. The number of offsets stored in this tag typically corresponds to the number of strips the image is divided into, which can be determined by other TIFF tags like RowsPerStrip. Understanding StripOffsets is important for anyone working with the internal structure of TIFF files or implementing image handling libraries.