PictBridge

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Pictbridge symbol.gif PictBridge is an industry standard from the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) for direct printing. It allows images to be printed directly from digital cameras to a printer, without having to connect the camera to a computer. Its formal name is "Standard of Camera & Imaging Products Association CIPA DC-001 — 2003 Digital Solutions for Imaging Devices". [1]

PictBridge defines an application-layer interface that is transport independent, enabling its extensibility for implementation on future physical interfaces. The new specification is initially written for USB as a physical transport and Picture Transfer Protocol for data transfer. By connecting a PictBridge-enabled digital still camera to a PictBridge-enabled printer with a single cable, users can easily control the print settings using their camera and produce high-quality photos without using a PC.

PictBridge supports the following features: Print an image displayed on the digital still camera, print two or more images selected from the display on the digital still camera, automatically print images using the Digital Print Order Format specification, print an index of all images, print all images.

Advanced features using the print setup option include: print part of the image by specifying the print area, print multiple copies of a single image, print images with a date imprint, specify the exact size of a print.

Printer status information displayed on the digital still camera includes: establishment of a connection, printer error, printing progress, end of print job, cable can be safely disconnected.

PictBridge is sometimes described as an open standard, whereas in fact the specification can only be obtained from CIPA after agreement not to disclose any information from the specification to others (section 2.2 of the agreement). For example, this probably means that PictBridge cannot be implemented by [Free/Libre/Open-Source Software] other than by reverse-engineering the protocol (perhaps aided by the white paper that CIPA do provide), if publishing source code of an implementation of the PictBridge standard counts as “disclosing information” from the specification.

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