The need to convert "bitmapped" data into a format that can drive a high resolution laser writer or ebeam machine is arising more frequently. For example, one may need to build a filter whose density decreases with distance from the center.

There is also increased interest in scanning documents, greatly reducing the image size and writing it onto a very durable substrate such as ceramic in order to archive it for hundreds or thousands of years. In order to get a large amount of information on a small substrate the image is reduced 400X so that the height of each character is only a few microns.

To achieve such tiny features, one can use existing semiconductor equipment such as ebeam or laser writers. These machines are controlled by a data format called MEBES.

TIFF2MEBES reads a monochrome TIFF file and creates a tiny MEBES square for each pixel. The program also "compresses" the MEBES file by combining adjacent pixels into larger rectangles.

Note: TIFF2MEBES can also output GDSII instead of MEBES although the resulting file can be much larger.