The most generic form of payload type is a sequence of images. There are three Python libraries used to handle image sequences. The naming scheme is up to the user, in as much as the python library allows for extensions to change. If the python library does not, it will not work.

First tifffile is used. If that fails, Pillow is used and then finally GDAL.

tifffile

tifffile.py is one of the most universal python tiff libraries that just works out of the box. It supports many different TIFF formats including TIFF, BigTIFF, OME-TIFF, STK, LSM, NIH, SGI, ImageJ, MicroManager, FluoView, SEQ and GEL.

Only a subset of the TIFF specification is supported, mainly uncompressed and losslessly compressed 2**(0 to 6) bit integer, 16, 32 and 64-bit float, grayscale and RGB(A) images. Specifically, reading CCITT compressed image data, chroma subsampling, or EXIF, IPTC, GPS, and XMP metadata is not implemented. JPEG compression is partially supported. Only primary info records are read for STK, FluoView, MicroManager, and NIH Image formats.

TIFF, the Tagged Image File Format, is under the control of Adobe Systems. BigTIFF allows for files greater than 4 GB. STK, LSM, FluoView, SGI, SEQ, GEL, and OME-TIFF, are custom extensions defined by Molecular Devices (Universal Imaging Corporation), Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, Olympus, Silicon Graphics International, Media Cybernetics, Molecular Dynamics, and the Open Microscopy Environment consortium respectively.

Pillow

Pillow (previously known as PIL) is the de facto python image library, supporting various formats.

GDAL

The final file umbrella used is GDAL, covering a large array of formats. All of the compiled by default plus JP2OpenJPEG are compiled and functioning.