Color Management for DICOM Images Considered as TIFF 16

Since the publication of DICOM standard part 10 about file format, DICOM leaves untouched 128 bytes in the beginning of each file for extra metadata accessed directly. This space can be used to declare the file as being a TIFF file, additionally to being a DICOM one. This article demonstrates how to create such hybrid file. TIFF allows for pixel depth of 16 bits-per-channel and may integrate an input ICC color management profile in order to represent the image correctly. We explain how to use this feature so that the TIFF representation automatically conforms to the result which would be expected if the picture data would pass through a DICOM graphical pipeline. Opening hybrid DICOM-TIFF16-ICC fastens the reopening of huge sets of files thanks to highly optimized TIFF and ICC libraries already embedded in the newest operating systems. It is also a very promising option for the transmission of medical image outside of DICOM networks (embedded within PDF documents, burnt on CD, sent by http wado to a web browser).