Microsoft Document Imaging Format
Encyclopedia
MDI is a file format
created by Microsoft
for storing raster images
of scanned documents together with optional annotations or metadata
which can include the text of the document, generated by OCR
. MDI is a proprietary format - the specifications have not been made public by Microsoft, and MDI files can only be produced or read by certain Microsoft software, in particular the Microsoft Office Document Imaging
(MODI) module included in Microsoft Office 2003
and later versions.
Applications in Microsoft Office 2010 can no longer open MDI files. This is because the MODI
module is fully deprecated in Office 2010.
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
created by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
for storing raster images
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
of scanned documents together with optional annotations or metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
which can include the text of the document, generated by OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
. MDI is a proprietary format - the specifications have not been made public by Microsoft, and MDI files can only be produced or read by certain Microsoft software, in particular the Microsoft Office Document Imaging
Microsoft Office Document Imaging
Microsoft Office Document Imaging is a Microsoft Office application that supports editing documents scanned by Microsoft Office Document Scanning. It was first introduced in Microsoft Office XP and is included in later Office versions including Office 2007. It is no longer available in Office 2010...
(MODI) module included in Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003 is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on October 21, 2003, it was the successor to Office XP and the predecessor to Office 2007.- Overview :...
and later versions.
Applications in Microsoft Office 2010 can no longer open MDI files. This is because the MODI
Microsoft Office Document Imaging
Microsoft Office Document Imaging is a Microsoft Office application that supports editing documents scanned by Microsoft Office Document Scanning. It was first introduced in Microsoft Office XP and is included in later Office versions including Office 2007. It is no longer available in Office 2010...
module is fully deprecated in Office 2010.
Relation to TIFF
It is known that MDI is a variant of TIFF (see Brad Hards' references below). Key differences from TIFF:- Magic number is 0x5045 (ASCII 'EP'?) (instead of 0x4D4D 'MM' or 0x4949 'II').
- Three proprietary image compressionImage compressionThe objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form.- Lossy and lossless compression :...
formats are used. - Numerous proprietary tag values are used.
See also
- Microsoft Office Document ImagingMicrosoft Office Document ImagingMicrosoft Office Document Imaging is a Microsoft Office application that supports editing documents scanned by Microsoft Office Document Scanning. It was first introduced in Microsoft Office XP and is included in later Office versions including Office 2007. It is no longer available in Office 2010...
- Comparison of graphics file formatsComparison of graphics file formats-General:Ownership of the format and related information.-Technical details:...
- Image file formatsImage file formatsImage file formats are standardized means of organizing and storing digital images. Image files are composed of either pixels, vector data, or a combination of the two. Whatever the format, the files are rasterized to pixels when displayed on most graphic displays...