DATAURL FILE FORMAT

After reading rfc2397, which describes the data: url scheme, I got the idea of embedding a normal image into a html document, without resorting to external files.

This is acomplished by embedding small tiles of the image directly into data:-urls. Since attribute values are by default limited to 1024 bytes this limits the size of a tile to approximately 34x34 pixels (gif compression).

However, since rfc2397 is only a proposed standard, you might want to use much larger tile sizes (upto the image size), since most browsers generally do not care for the url length.

Browser compatibility list (send more results to pcg@goof.com ;)

  Netscape 3.x  displays broken image icons
  Netscape 4.x  works on some configurations (communicator!),
                not on others (navigator!)
  Lynx          displays the base64 code as text :(
  MSIE 4        thousands of error messages in dialog boxes ;->
  MSIE 5        shows broken image icon

<schmorp> yosh: cvs.gimp.org <yosh> I mean which "removed debugging crap" one <schmorp> yosh: or did you mean the debugging code in the Perl-Server? <yosh> yah <yosh> debian's perl whines about using -D since it's not compiled with -DDEBUGGING <schmorp> yosh: ah.. I it was ebing queried.. <schmorp> yosh: yeah, but you did not see the <STDIN> that required people to press enter in colorhtml ;) <schmorp> anybody here with netscape 3.0? or msie 5.0? or any other graphical browser? <yosh> schmorp: it was in innerbevel, you must've fixed colorhtml before I had a chance to update <maswan> schmorp: ns3.0 here <schmorp> maswan: could you try something out? -> http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/dataurl.html <schmorp> maswan: what do you see, especially below "dataurl filter" <schmorp> yosh: at least ;-> *** Joins: Nether [lealanko@myntti.helsinki.fi] has joined #gimp *** Mode change for #gimp by XachBot: +o Nether <maswan> schmorp: slooow.... <Stric> schmorp, evil thingie.. I'm loading it in win98/ie on a p60 8) *** Nether [lealanko@myntti.helsinki.fi] is now known as Neth_ZzZ <schmorp> that html page contains no external links, i.e. all images are embedded <schmorp> and yes, the colour-changing is bogging down most browsers <schmorp> i want to find out how many browsers support the data: url <Stric> I get a gazillion of [x] broken image thingies at the bottom half <maswan> schmorp: embedded? I got _lots_ of broken external images on the bottom half <schmorp> stric: which browser? <maswan> http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/data:image/gif;base64, R0lGODlhIgAiAOMAAA8UFDo/OGt9eJecj722oFxfVIl/a+vSrn5oTtiyg7qfe6SGZUlgX+LCliElIdCldCwAAAAAIgAiAAAE/vAd9dajKlV6FddY9TTd9ZzmSWkPi2quYiUsiJ4uXd+6i/e3Vk/XQpGMRVxj9 1omnE/n8nhqUGmv2lMnXY6EWBc0rNxah8IRjQQbeouw0dhKT5+562Cevu1BpWtcPy1WYHdmT2psXn1DjYF8fmdnhJCIB4VTmlyRdE5ggZhTnIFrXX6SDaKPZpN4XAd+sXV8f1GagFmmd7ZWmKaNo5ZDs1GoTh k0sW5dkcGtJIeeuJ6kt7Nny7vTzXyiq2zGo7VS4NSqrdiIU8voJKLV04hypa5mB/DOw+K3qt147JQBfPLLU0Fh5IxhqdTHXh <Stric> schmorp, win98/ie (4? 5?) <schmorp> maswan: ok, so ns3.0 does not support it <schmorp> stric: i don't know how to find out ;9 <Stric> schmorp, 5 appearantly... <schmorp> ok... ns3.0 and msie5 show broken image icons. <schmorp> msie displays one dialog box per link (evil) <schmorp> lynx errornously displays the base64 data <yosh> haha <schmorp> so only netscape 4 displays it correctly <yosh> that is too evil <yosh> tried mozilla? *** Quits: _vicious_:#gimp [~jirka@dt062nd1.san.rr.com] (GEGL!) <schmorp> yosh: mozilla does not run, did not run and will probably never run <schmorp> yosh: everytime I come here and somebody talks about mozilla he says "well, it is quite cool" <schmorp> yosh: everytime _I_ try it ends in an endless loop after 5 seconds or so <yosh> heh <Stric> you must be broken then <schmorp> yosh: but I guess mozilla will do it as well <yosh> schmorp: I get broken images with NS 4.7 <schmorp> yosh: really? thats cool... it works with ns 4.06 (here) and ns 4.6 (my friend) <schmorp> yosh: on linux? <yosh> yes <schmorp> yosh: i wonder why they removed support for it.. <sjburges> I get broken stuff with 4.51 *** TomR^AwaY [~tomr@judas.aceldama.com] is now known as Tommer <yosh> hey Tommer <Tommer> Works for me on NS 4.71 on LinuxPPC <Tommer> Hullo yosh <schmorp> tommer: really? <Tommer> dataurl is very cute, schmorp <Tommer> Yup * yosh tries mozilla <schmorp> something must be broken... 4.06 yes, 4.51 no, 4.6 yes, 4.7 no, 4.71 yes... <schmorp> I see a pattern... <Tommer> Oh, you mean the ($ver*100)%2 == (dataurl works) relation? <Tommer> Oh wait, 4.6 doesn't match that. * maswan tries ns4.61 on aix <schmorp> oh, that 4.6 is probably measurement error <Tommer> schmorp, for the next trick, do <frameset> <frame src=dataurl:> <frame src=dataurl:> </frameset> :) <yosh> haha <schmorp> hmm... it works with 4.51 here.... <maswan> eeek. <Tommer> how about <body background="dataurl:..."> *** Quits: tigert:#gimp [tigert@fun112.koivukyla.hoas.fi] (Ping timeout: 660 seconds) <schmorp> tommer: hmm... now that would be cool... it would not even need base64 encoding, and would probably work even with lynx <maswan> this one is sloow for some reason. <tc> hmm *** Topic change by sjburges on #gimp: its abuse html night <Tommer> schmorp: yes, as long as you used &quot; everywhere you'd be fine :) <schmorp> maswan: "aix".... <tc> could it be that clinton only knows of the internet from al gore? <Stric> schmorp, low mhz combined with netscape on 24bpp <maswan> hmm.. or ssh. oops. :) <tc> "reduce the gap between rich and poor by giving everyone internet access" <Tommer> Does anyone have red+blue 3D glasses handy? <tc> yay clinton. you da man <maswan> schmorp: works on this one <schmorp> stric: but since netscaope can't display colour icons in 24bpp it should be much faster ;-> <schmorp> maswan: thanks ;) <Stric> schmorp, I haven't had that problem on non-linux <maswan> hmm.. it is estimating speed at 2k/s <schmorp> tommer: the problem is that urls are max. 1k in size <Stric> schmorp, I correct that to aix/irix/solaris <schmorp> tommer: but on the browsers that support it, dataurls can be much longer <maswan> which means much time for that file <Tommer> schmorp: can't you specify encoding=base64 _and_ encoding=gzip? <yosh> hum, mozilla sucks ;) <schmorp> tommer: i can't specify an encoding per se. if, then it must be a netscape extension <schmorp> tommer: maybe image/gzip-jpg or something.... <Tommer> schmorp: oh, so you can only specify a content type, not an encoding? I was guessing about the encoding thing. * maswan tries irix netscape 4.something <maswan> 4.61 here too <schmorp> tommer: the base64 is specified as ";base64", so it is somethign special <schmorp> tommer: but since I can specify charset=xxx, maybe I can also add encoding=gzip... <maswan> works that too <schmorp> tommer: BUT... if I can use gzip, then I cna use long urls. Then I can use png, and then i don't need gzip <Tommer> schmorp: just think, you could put a whole site in one page with framesets and dataurl :) <schmorp> yosh: mozilla sucks, yes, but does it display it? <Tommer> How are gzip and long urls related, schmorp? <yosh> schmorp: it segfaults <yosh> ;) <schmorp> tommer: hmm... I'm thinking images only... <schmorp> tommer: if you think text then encoding=gzip makes sense <schmorp> tommer: I also haven'T tried wether these urls work in frameset and normal anchor elements <schmorp> but actually, the colorhtml filter is much more portable <yosh> yeah, it just takes aching long to render and scroll <Tommer> schmorp: how about <img lowsrc="data:image/gif;base64, ... " src="/images/foo.gif"> ? <schmorp> yes... maybe when this type of encapsulation becomes more often used... at least <schmorp> we can claim that msie is not rfc2397 compatible <ole_zzz> xachbot, seen dv -XachBot:#gimp- I last saw dv (veillard@home5.inrialpes.fr) 7d 13h 17m ago [quit: (xchat exiting..)] <Stric> schmorp, and who will care? 8) <schmorp> tommer: that might even be a useful usage!! *** Joins: JohnP [me2@d027.pnj.early.com] has joined #gimp *** Mode change for #gimp by XachBot: +o JohnP <JohnP> Hey! <Tommer> schmorp: but lowsrc is an evil Netscape invention :) *** Joins: tigert [~tigert@fun112.koivukyla.hoas.fi] has joined #gimp *** Mode change for #gimp by Wilber: +o tigert <Stric> tigpoo <JohnP> tigert! <Tommer> schmorp: <img lowsrc="data:image/xbm;base64, ... " src="/images/foo.gif"> <schmorp> tommer: does the lowsrc image have to have the same size/resolution? <Tommer> Hmm, does <img src="internal-gopher-menu"> and such work? <maswan> hmm.. sleep. now. <Tommer> schmorp: lowsrc _should_ have the same size/resolution. if you specify width and height then the lowsrc will be resized of course. <schmorp> tommer: .... and since it's netscaoe only we do not need to care <Tommer> schmorp: yes, if you're abusing HTML you may as well go whole hog. <schmorp> tommer: hey, it's a "proposed standard" ;) <yosh> heh <Tommer> A nice thing about NS on the Mac is that if you shrink a mono image then it renders it antialiased :) Tommer> Pull out your red+blue 3D glasses and go to: http://www.aceldama.com/~tomr/wx/tomrcam-3d-2.jpg <schmorp> yosh: rfc2397 "data: url scheme" *** Joins: jlb [~jlbec@slip-32-101-161-237.nc.us.prserv.net] has joined #gimp *** Mode change for #gimp by XachBot: +o jlb <schmorp> tommer: looks flashy (no 3d cam here ;) <schmorp> ok, bye all! <Tommer> ttyl schmorp <schmorp> sjburges: have a nice time with your new g/f! <yosh> interesting <Tommer> schmorp: you need 3D glasses <yosh> ok, food *** yosh [manish@graft.XCF.Berkeley.EDU] is now known as yosh_food <schmorp> tommer: if you do some weird things with urls, drop me a note ;-> <schmorp> tommer: ah, yes, _glasses_ i meant

LICENSE

Copyright Marc Lehman. Distributed under the same terms as Gimp-Perl.