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by nickwaterson

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Hi all,

I am trying to locate a vector graphic format that is a standard e.g. WMF, DXF. So.. there are lots of them!! The question I can't seem to answer easily is whether you have to pay royalties to use such formats. I have found many lists of every graphic format know to mankind but non seem to mention whether they are free to use. Can anyone point me at a resource here? I couldnt even tell looking at various places in microsoft whether WMF was free.

Thanks in advance

NIck

5 replies

by timwalsh

You may be talking apples and oranges here. The use of a particular graphics format does not entail any cost or royalties. The formats themselves are free to use. However some formats may require specific software to create and /or manipulate them.
Most general graphics software packages can create and manipulate images in a variety of formats. As to a standard: there really is no true standard. There are some formats that obviously lend themselves to certain purposes. There are some de facto standards for images posted on the Internet (.jpg), but even this is no hard, fast rule. It generally comes down to using a format that is compatible with software used by whomever you share the image with.
Hope this helps with your quandry.

by nickwaterson

This was helpful to a degree. Sure I can see the view point that if you want to trade images then the best way to get the format adopted is for it to be free, but... Maybe this is where I am confused.. I am sure a while back Compuserve said people couldn't use the GIF format unless they were paying for it. Please correct me if I am wrong. What you seem to say is if you write your own code to decode a file format its free to use and ok.. the DVD boys don't like that though!

by timwalsh

Nick, I think I found a site that may answer most or all of your questions regarding copyrights of formats , et-al.
Check out the Graphics File Format Page at:
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/gfx/.
At the bottom of the page there is a link to a File Formats FAQ page. The FAQ includes a section titled "IV. Copyrights, Patents, and other Legalities of Graphics File Formats".
Hope this helps.

by nickwaterson

Well, I think that hit the nail on the head!!! A lot of info here so I am still reading. Thanks Tim!

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