piksline

Piksline is an open standard for pixel-based image and sequence data designed to enable efficient, low-latency transport of high-resolution imagery over networks. Its core concept is line-based encoding, where image frames are transmitted as a series of scanlines and can be decoded progressively as data arrives. The standard specifies a compact header, per-line payloads, optional compression blocks, and a metadata section describing color space, timing, and provenance.

The development of piksline began in the late 2010s under the Piksline Consortium, with contributions from academic and industry partners. The specification has evolved through several revisions to support broader color spaces, alpha channels, tiling for parallel processing, and enhanced error resilience for varied network conditions. It is designed to be interoperable with existing streaming stacks and can operate over common transport layers, including reliable and best-effort networks, as well as WebRTC-style runtimes.

Data organization within piksline centers on a header that provides image dimensions and color format, followed by a sequence of line blocks. A tiling mechanism allows parallel decoding of regions, enabling scalable processing for very high-resolution imagery. The format supports both lossless and lossy compression, along with robust metadata support for color management, timestamps, and provenance.

Implementations exist in multiple languages, including C++, Python, and JavaScript, and are used in contexts requiring low-latency, high-fidelity image streaming. Typical use cases include live broadcasting of high-resolution content, remote sensing, telemedicine image transmission, and cloud-based image editing pipelines. Piksline is released under an open license with reference implementations and documentation available through official repositories.