SAVEIMAGES Procedure
PROC SAVEIMAGES Features
One of the main features of the SAVEIMAGES procedure is that it enables you to save images and associated metadata in various ways, including these:
as photographic image files
as biomedical image files, including those in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format
as series of images that use indexed file names
as prefixed and suffixed file names
as a multilevel directory that uses label data
The target image type is an important consideration in using PROC SAVEIMAGES properly. In particular, for photographic images, to avoid any data loss due to intermediate encoding, be sure to specify a lossless encoding format by using the ENCODING= option in the PROC SAVEIMAGES statement. Furthermore, the metadata that the procedure saves are limited by both the format to which the images are written and the output of the LOADIMAGES procedure.
Most file extensions that PROC LOADIMAGES accepts are also accepted by the ENCODING= option in PROC SAVEIMAGES. Table 1 lists the image formats that PROC SAVEIMAGES supports.
Table 1: Image Formats Supported by the SAVEIMAGES Procedure
| Format Description | File Extensions |
|---|---|
| Windows bitmap (BMP) | .bmp, .dib |
| Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard (DCM) | .dcm |
| Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG) | .jpeg, .jpg, .jpe |
| Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative (NII) | .nii |
| Nearly raw raster data (NRRD) | .nrrd, .nhdr |
| Portable Network Graphics (PNG) | .png |
| Tagged Image File Format (TIF) | .tiff, .tif |