Pixel operations
RLE compression
Compress pixel data with DICOM RLE Lossless encoding.
Problem
A DICOM file with uncompressed (Explicit VR Little Endian) pixel data needs to be re-encoded using DICOM RLE Lossless compression for archive size reduction or interoperability with systems that require the RLE transfer syntax. The output must faithfully preserve all pixel values without any lossy transformation.
Steps
- Load any DICOM file with uncompressed pixel data (Explicit VR LE).
- Open the command palette (⌘K / Ctrl+K) and run Compress series to DICOM RLE Lossless.
- Wait for the compression to complete (the loading indicator clears).
- Verify the Transfer Syntax UID (0002,0010) in the Edit-mode tag tree now reads
1.2.840.10008.1.2.5. - Export the file — the downloaded
.dcmcontains RLE-encoded pixel data.
Result
The series Transfer Syntax UID is updated to 1.2.840.10008.1.2.5 (DICOM RLE Lossless).
Pixel values are preserved bit-exactly: a round-trip decode returns the original pixel array.
Float or higher-bit-depth pixel layouts are refused before any output is written,
preventing silently-incorrect results.