GEM VDI Metafile

File Format
Name	GEM VDI Metafile
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics GEM VDI Metafile
Extension(s)	.gem, .gdi
PRONOM	fmt/543, fmt/542, x-fmt/215, x-fmt/57(?)
Released	1985

GEM VDI Metafile (also called GEM Metafile, GEM Vector, or GEM VDI) is a vector graphics metafile format associated with the GEM operating environment by Digital Research.

Identification

Files begin with bytes 0xFF 0xFF.

Following that is a two-byte integer reflecting the header size. It may use either big-endian or little-endian byte order. Likely values are 0x0018, 0x000E, and maybe 0x000F.

Specifications

• http://www.fileformat.info/format/gemvector/spec/index.htm
• GEM Programmer's Guide Vol. 1, Appendix C
• GEM VDI Reference Guide (v2.0), Appendix B

Sample files

• http://cd.textfiles.com/bthevhell/300/234/
• http://www.page6.org/st_lib/standard/st0393.php
• http://cd.textfiles.com/somuch/smsharew/CLIPART/GEMART2.ZIP
• https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/gemMetafile/

See also

• GEM Raster
• Ventura Publisher

Links

• GEM VDI File Format Summary, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
• Wikipedia: GEM