Introduction

The Image I/O programming interface allows applications to read and write most image file formats. Originally part of the Core Graphics framework, Image I/O resides in its own framework to allow developers to use it independently of Core Graphics (Quartz 2D). Image I/O provides the definitive way to access image data because it is highly efficient, allows easy access to metadata, and provides color management.

The Image I/O interface is available in OS X v10.4 and later and in iOS 4 and later.

Who Should Read This Document?

This document is intended for developers who read or write image data in an application. Any developer currently using image importers or other image handling libraries should read this document to see how to use the Image I/O framework instead.

Organization of This Document

This document is organized into the following chapters:

See Also

The Image I/O Reference Collection provides detailed descriptions of the functions, data types, and constants in the Image I/O framework.