typeimage

Typeimage is a term used in some programming and API design contexts to denote a typed representation of image data. It refers to a data type or interface that encapsulates both the image’s pixel payload and its descriptive metadata, enabling type-safe handling of images across software components.

A typeimage typically includes fields such as format or mime_type (for example, image/jpeg or image/png), width, height, and may also carry color depth, color space, and the number of channels. The actual pixel data is stored in a byte buffer or array, and there may be optional metadata such as DPI, compression, or arbitrary key-value tags. In strongly typed languages, typeimage is often implemented as a struct or class; in dynamic languages, it might be a dictionary or object that conforms to a predefined interface.

In practice, typeimage serves as a contract between producers and consumers of image data. Functions or methods can declare parameters and return types as typeimage to enforce that only properly formed image payloads are processed. This supports generic pipelines that operate on multiple image formats while preserving format-specific information necessary for decoding or rendering.

Relation to broader concepts includes alignment with image formats and MIME types, since typeimage typically carries format information to guide decoding, display, or conversion. The term is not universally standardized; some ecosystems use related names such as Image, ImageData, or PixelBuffer, with similar goals of providing a typed image representation.

See also: Image, Pixel buffer, MIME type, Image processing.