FaceSaver

File Format
Name	FaceSaver
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics FaceSaver
Extension(s)	.face, .fac
Released	1987

FaceSaver is a format for saving images in the form of an ASCII text file for distribution. It is unrelated to the Remington FaceSaver pre-shave powder. Images are 8 bits per pixel, stored in hexified manner (which takes twice the bits... or more if it's got extra delimiters like commas and 0x prefixes... which there aren't in this case, though there are some newlines, but finding some actual sample files to see the details of the format is surprisingly difficult these days as online face databases have generally been converted to more modern formats like JPEG or GIF). There are also some header lines.

Pictures of attendees at USENIX conferences were taken in this format starting 1987 and stored in a public database.

Identification

One of the header lines begins with "PicData:", and another with "Image:".

Software

• Netpbm: pgmtofs, fstopgm

Sample files

• facedsp.cpio.Z → gil, lenny
• http://web.mit.edu/Graphics/src/xloadimage/sample/jimf.face

Links

• FaceSaver File Format Summary, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
• Some format description
• Promotional info
• 1992 discussion about converting this format
• Adding your face
• fstopgm man page; Linux/Unix command to convert FaceSaver to PGM

Editors' notes

Many image format lists include something called "Usenix FaceServer" format. Is this another name for FaceSaver, or a transcription error, or a different format? Note that XnView claims to support FaceServer format, but is unable to open FaceSaver files.