# facebookincubator/spectrum

A client-side image transcoding library.

Repository: https://github.com/facebookincubator/spectrum
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/facebookincubator-spectrum
Homepage: https://libspectrum.io
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: android, ios, image-processing, transcoding, images
Archived: true
Last push: 2024-04-04T18:56:52+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2891, "days_push": 881, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1972, forks 166 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:01.015561+00:00)

## What it is
Spectrum is a cross-platform image transcoding library written in portable C/C++ that integrates into Android and iOS projects to perform common image operations efficiently. Its declarative trait-based API lets developers specify desired output characteristics while Spectrum handles orchestration, including lossless JPEG operations and codec-level quality options.

## Use cases
- transcode images between jpeg png and webp on mobile
- crop jpeg images losslessly on android or ios
- reduce image file size while keeping quality in a mobile app
- disable chroma sub-sampling when saving graphical jpegs
- handle exif metadata correctly during image operations
- add custom image codec support via a plugin architecture

## When to choose
- you need efficient, high-quality image transcoding in an Android or iOS app
- you want lossless JPEG operations like cropping or rotation
- you need codec-level control not exposed by platform frameworks
- you want a portable C/C++ core you can wrap for other platforms

## When to avoid
- you only need basic image loading and display (use platform frameworks or Fresco/Glide)
- you need server-side or desktop image processing without writing wrappers
- you need actively developed features - the project sees infrequent releases

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: image-processing, compression
- domain: image-processing, mobile-development, cross-platform
- platform: cpp
- tags: transcoding, jpeg, png, webp, mozjpeg, lossless-cropping, declarative-api, facebook, android, ios, mobile

## Member repositories
- facebookincubator/spectrum (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:01.015561+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:05:01.986155+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/facebookincubator/spectrum (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:01.015561+00:00, sha 8276fb684484)
  - homepage: https://libspectrum.io (fetched 2026-08-29T10:44:23.007782+00:00, sha 5760e3e279ce)
  - site_page: https://libspectrum.io/docs/about_spectrum (fetched 2026-08-29T10:44:23.016522+00:00, sha 05b6212c03a7)
  - site_page: https://libspectrum.io/docs/getting_started_android (fetched 2026-08-29T10:44:23.018904+00:00, sha 9a63d2cb86c9)
  - site_page: https://libspectrum.io/docs/contributing_android (fetched 2026-08-29T10:44:23.021987+00:00, sha b9f6d8b763e1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.