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[Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ? - Printable Version

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[Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ? - jacques_duflos - 07-02-2018

Hello there,
Here is my case : I have made few patterns with gimp as .pat files, and I would like other applications to use them. Unfortunately the .pat files seem to be gimp-native formats and I can't use them as images.

One solution is to stop using the .pat format and to save my patterns as png. But would there be a loss of information ? I would like to know what information does the .pat format contains except the image itself.

Thanks !

RE: [Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ? - rich2005 - 07-02-2018

From what I can dig up, the pattern file contains very little apart from the image data

Code:
STRING    name    The pattern name
INT32    width     The pattern width
INT32    height     The pattern height
INT32    mask_bpp Pattern bytes per pixel
INT32    length     Length of pattern mask data
INT8ARRAY   The pattern mask data

Probably a .pat file originally tiled a bit faster than a png/jpeg since it looks like it is not compressed.

Patterns tend to large these days, I would just use .png or .jpg

You can open a .pat pattern as an image by right clicking on a pattern icon in the patterns dock.

RE: [Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ? - Ofnuts - 07-02-2018

(07-02-2018, 05:43 PM)jacques_duflos Wrote: Hello there,
Here is my case : I have made few patterns with gimp as .pat files, and I would like other applications to use them. Unfortunately the .pat files seem to be gimp-native formats and I can't use them as images.

One solution is to stop using the .pat format and to save my patterns as png. But would there be a loss of information ? I would like to know what information does the .pat format contains except the image itself.

Thanks !

Technically, only a pattern name that can be different from the file name. Useful in the 8.3 days, in a previous millenium.

RE: [Gimp 2.8] What does a .pat file containes excepte the image ? - jacques_duflos - 07-02-2018

Ok, thanks a lot, then I think I'll save all my patterns as png or jpeg and stop using .pat.