A cross-platform C & C++ library for reading graphics files originally created on BBC Micro or Master computers.
The most common ways of storing images on the BBC were; as a dump of the graphics memory, in a run-length encoded format loaded by a program called LdPic, or in a different (optionally) run-length encoded format understood by a program called ScrLoad.
However, due to the unusual way that the BBC’s graphics memory was mapped to the screen (in blocks of eight bytes) it is not straight-forward to view these formats on a PC with standard tools.
This library is able to read BBC graphics files saved in LdPic, ScrLoad or memory dump format in Modes 0, 1, 2, 4 and 5.
libbeebimage is free to use and open source, licensed under the terms of the GPL. You can browse or download the source at the GitHub repository.I’ve extracted the BBC image format loading code from the BBC Graphics Viewer, made it a stand-alone cross-platform library with C and C++ bindings and called it libbeebimage. This is what I’m using to convert images included in the 8-Bit Software Online Conversion via a ruby extension written in C.