For fingerprint images WSQ (Wavelet Scalar Quantization) is superior to other lossy compression methods, such as JPEG, and was chosen by FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) as the fingerprint image compression standard.
WSQ is a lossy compression method that is well-suited for preserving the very high resolution details of grayscale images while maintaining high compression ratios of typically 12:1 to 15:1.

Cognaxon WSQ image library provides the easy way to add WSQ image format support to your software projects. WSQ image library reads and converts between WSQ and 33 other graphic file formats, it is small (~ 2 Megabytes) and fast, and has graphics format conversion utility.

Supported formats for reading:
WSQ, BMP, TIFF, TIF, JPG, JPEG, JP2, JPC, JPE, PNG, GIF, PSP, JFIF, RLE, DIB, TGA,WIN,VST,VDA,ICB, FAX, EPS, PCX, PCC, SCR, RPF, RLA, SGI, RGBA, RGB, BW, PSD, PDD, PPM, PGM, PBM, CEL, PIC, PCD, CUT, IFF, ICO, WMF, EMF.

Supported formats for writing:
WSQ - FBI's Wavelet Scalar Quantization,
BMP - Windows Bitmap Graphics,
TIFF - Tagged Information File Format (no LZW compression),
PNG - Portable Network Graphics,
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group,
RGB - Silicon Graphics International (uncompressed),
TGA - Truevision Targa Graphic,
JP2 - JPEG2000 Part 1,
JPC - JPEG2000 Code Stream.


Adding WSQ image library to your software project is very easy. Only 2-3 steps and several lines of code are needed. Sample projects are provided for:

Microsoft Visual C++,
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET,
Microsoft Visual C# .NET,
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET,
Microsoft Visual J# .NET,
Microsoft Visual Basic,
Borland C++ Builder,
Borland Delphi,
Sun Java,
NetBeans Sun Java,
Eclipse Sun Java,
MinGW C/C++,
Eclipse C/C++,
Code::Blocks C++,
Bloodshed Dev-C++,
Borland C++ for Win32,
Digital Mars C/C++,
MatLab,
Compaq Visual Fortran,
PowerBASIC,
MASM32 (32 bit Microsoft Assembler).