Patent ID: 7035468

Claim:
A method of processing image data representing at least one image, the method comprising: receiving information including at least one of image quality information and image use information; selecting a first encoding format from a plurality of supported encoding formats as a function of said received information; selecting the quality level at which the at least one image represented by said image data is to be encoded using the selected encoding format based on the received information, wherein the quality level is selected from a plurality of supported encoding quality levels including at least a first quality level which is a lossless or near loss-less quality level; a second quality level which is a contribution quality level; and a third quality level which is a distribution quality level, the distribution quality level being the level of image quality to be used for distribution of the image to an end viewer; encoding said image data according to the first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and storing the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device.