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Format Conversion Packages

(GraphicConverter, Switch, ReaConverter, Image Converter Plus, ImageMagick, ePrint, ...)

In its broad approach to computation, Mathematica has come to support a remarkable range of formats of almost every type—making it a unique hub not only for analysis and visualization but also for general data transformation and format conversion.

While there are many packages that handle particular types of formats—such as sounds, images, data or documents—Mathematica is unique in immediately being able to systematically convert between all of these. With its unified symbolic architecture, Mathematica can represent all forms of data in a single, extensible framework, so that with a single line of input you can import bioinformatics data and export it as sound, or import an XML document and export an image of its tree structure.

Mathematica provides state-of-the-art coverage of formats as well as integrated web and database connectivity, and unique extensibility through technologies such as symbolic XML. With its rich built-in interactive programming language, Mathematica makes arbitrary data transformation and format conversion fully scriptable and customizable—providing a single environment that can manage the complete digital workflow, from initial data acquisition through to final publication or deployment.

Format Conversion Package Features Built into Mathematica :

25+ vector and raster image formats »
15+ sound and video formats, including Flash »
25+ 3D geometry and rendering formats »
All standard tabular, spreadsheet and database file formats »
Broad range of numerical, scientific, medical and geospatial formats »
Full conversion and data extraction in standard document and web formats »
Broad support for XML and XML-based formats »
Transparent handling of compression and archiving formats and directories »
Support for file, pipe and URL import
Metadata and element extraction for all formats »
Full scripting and automation

Key Advantages of Mathematica for Format Conversion:

Full interconversion between different types of formats
Rich data transformation, visualization and analysis language »
Immediate interactive representations of all imported data
Full language for customization of format conversions
Unified symbolic representation for all forms of data
Immediate support for extracting specified elements from large files
Detailed programmatic control of quality level and other parameters
Language primitives for handling all standard binary data types »
Integrated symbolic XML for import and export of arbitrary XML DTDs »
Broad rendering and document-generation capabilities
Uniform document-centered interface for saving programs and data »
Support for IT datamining (server logs, mailbox formats, databases, etc.) »
Integrated connectivity to database systems (Oracle, Access, mySQL, ...) »
Support for real-time import and export through web services, RSS feeds, etc. »
Structured import and content extraction from web pages, PDF, etc. »
Immediate creation of full-function web pages, with image maps, etc. »
Immediate access to broad data collections in finance, chemistry, geography, etc. »
Integrated support for mathematical typesetting, formula and computation formats »
Extensive built-in test examples for all format types
Full Mathematica system for creating content in all format types
Systemwide Unicode support for content and filenames »
Content-based file type recognition »
Broad corporate relationships ensuring up-to-date format coverage

Format Conversion Package Interoperability Features:

Interesting Tidbits:

The number of possible cross-conversions between formats and subformats in Mathematica is at least in the hundreds of thousands
All format conversions for MathWorld and other Wolfram Research websites are done in Mathematica