.. _supported-images:

Supported DICOM images
======================

Orthanc can **receive/store/send** any kind of standard DICOM files
(cf. the `DICOM conformance statement
<https://hg.orthanc-server.com/orthanc/file/default/Resources/DicomConformanceStatement.txt>`__).
Note that the ``UnknownSopClassAccepted`` :ref:`configuration option
<configuration>` can be set to `true` if interfacing with modalities
that are producing non-standard SOP classes.

Orthanc Explorer can **display the raw DICOM tags** of any such DICOM
file (including notably DICOM-SR structured reports).

However, the core engine of Orthanc is not able to **render all of the
DICOM files as PNG images**. An image that Orthanc cannot decode is
displayed as "Unsupported" by clicking on the "Preview" buttons of
Orthanc Explorer. Currently, the core engine of Orthanc can decode:

* uncompressed (raw) DICOM files,
* JPEG DICOM files, and
* JPEG-LS DICOM files.

The supported photometric interpretations are:

* RGB,
* Grayscale2.

The Orthanc core supports from 8bpp to 16bpp depth, with integer
values.  Multiframe (notably cine), uncompressed DICOM instances can
also be displayed from Orthanc Explorer.

Other type of encodings are available in the `Web viewer plugin
<https://www.orthanc-server.com/static.php?page=web-viewer>`__, that
mostly supports whatever is supported by the well-known `GDCM toolkit
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/gdcm/>`__ by Mathieu Malaterre. Note
however that multiframe (notably cine) DICOM instances are currently
not supported by the Web viewer plugin.

Finally, consider having a look at the section in the Orthanc Book
about the :ref:`compatible DICOM viewers <viewers>`.