Save as picture

Hallo,

I need to save the output from a program I’m making as a picture file. The file format is not really important; I am just looking for something which is easy to work with.

I need to be able to set the colour for each pixel (RGB, or some other type of colour) but I have no need for the alpha channel that some formats can store.

So my question:
What is the easiest picture format to work with? Also, do I need to get a specialized library, or is there someone I can use which is “default”? Any links or tutorials are also greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Oh, forgot to mention this: Windows XP, service pack 2.

It depends on what type of file you're working with, but you don't need a specialized library. I would suggest saving the picture as a 24bit .bmp file. I'm not sure how many tutorials you will find on saving a bitmap but there are plenty about loading them. You can always work backward.

Thank you, I will look into it.

I need it to save the output from my basic raytracer which is almost finished :)