Application programming interface for manipulating flashpix files

A computer-readable memory medium storing computer-executable process steps, the steps providing an application programming interface (API) to a client application for manipulating multi-resolution image files, each of which is capable of storing images in multiple different resolutions and parameters for viewing an image contained therein, said API having functions comprising:

• system management functions to initialize the client application, to indicate that API functions will be called, and to indicate that no further API functions will be called;
• file management functions to create a new multi-resolution image storage, to open the multi-resolution image storage, to read image data from the multi-resolution image storage, to write image data to the storage, and to close the storage;
• and
• image processing functions to adjust color, to adjust contrast, to perform filtering operations, to rotate, to flip, to shear, to define a rectangle of interest, and to define aspect ratio,
• wherein the functions to read image data from the storage comprise a single function to create a world, to place an image in the world, to define a region of interest within the placed image, and to extract data located within the region of interest.