glPixelTransfer sets pixel transfer modes that affect the operation of subsequent glCopyPixels, glCopyTexImage1D, glCopyTexImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage1D, glCopyTexSubImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage3D, glDrawPixels, glReadPixels, glTexImage1D, glTexImage2D, glTexImage3D, glTexSubImage1D, glTexSubImage2D, and glTexSubImage3D commands. Additionally, if the GL_ARB_imaging subset is supported, the routines glColorTable, glColorSubTable, glConvolutionFilter1D, glConvolutionFilter2D, glHistogram, glMinmax, and glSeparableFilter2D are also affected. The algorithms that are specified by pixel transfer modes operate on pixels after they are read from the frame buffer (glCopyPixels glCopyTexImage1D, glCopyTexImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage1D, glCopyTexSubImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage3D, and glReadPixels), or unpacked from client memory (glDrawPixels, glTexImage1D, glTexImage2D, glTexImage3D, glTexSubImage1D, glTexSubImage2D, and glTexSubImage3D). Pixel transfer operations happen in the same order, and in the same manner, regardless of the command that resulted in the pixel operation. Pixel storage modes (see glPixelStore) control the unpacking of pixels being read from client memory, and the packing of pixels being written back into client memory.

Pixel transfer operations handle four fundamental pixel types: color, color index, depth, and stencil. Color pixels consist of four floating-point values with unspecified mantissa and exponent sizes, scaled such that 0 represents zero intensity and 1 represents full intensity. Color indices comprise a single fixed-point value, with unspecified precision to the right of the binary point. Depth pixels comprise a single floating-point value, with unspecified mantissa and exponent sizes, scaled such that 0.0 represents the minimum depth buffer value, and 1.0 represents the maximum depth buffer value. Finally, stencil pixels comprise a single fixed-point value, with unspecified precision to the right of the binary point.

The pixel transfer operations performed on the four basic pixel types are as follows:

glPixelTransfer.

From this point, operation diverges depending on the required of the resulting pixels. If the resulting pixels are to be written to a color index buffer, or if they are being read back to client memory in GL_COLOR_INDEX , the pixels continue to be treated as indices. If GL_MAP_COLOR is true, each index is masked by 2 n - 1 , where n is GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_I_SIZE, then replaced by the contents of GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_I indexed by the masked value. GL_MAP_COLOR is specified with glPixelTransfer. The contents of the index map is specified with glPixelMap.

If the resulting pixels are to be written to an RGBA color buffer, or if they are read back to client memory in a other than GL_COLOR_INDEX, the pixels are converted from indices to colors by referencing the four maps GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_R, GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_G, GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_B, and GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_A. Before being dereferenced, the index is masked by 2 n - 1 , where n is GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_R_SIZE for the red map, GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_G_SIZE for the green map, GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_B_SIZE for the blue map, and GL_PIXEL_MAP_I_TO_A_SIZE for the alpha map. All components taken from the maps are then clamped to the range [0,1]. The contents of the four maps is specified with glPixelMap.

The following table gives the type, initial value, and range of valid values for each of the pixel transfer parameters that are set with glPixelTransfer.

glPixelTransferf can be used to set any pixel transfer parameter. If the parameter type is boolean, 0 implies false and any other value implies true. If pname is an integer parameter, param is rounded to the nearest integer.

Likewise, glPixelTransferi can be used to set any of the pixel transfer parameters. Boolean parameters are set to false if param is 0 and to true otherwise. param is converted to floating point before being assigned to real-valued parameters.

If a glColorTable, glColorSubTable, glConvolutionFilter1D, glConvolutionFilter2D, glCopyPixels, glCopyTexImage1D, glCopyTexImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage1D, glCopyTexSubImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage3D, glDrawPixels, glReadPixels, glSeparableFilter2D, glTexImage1D, glTexImage2D, glTexImage3D, glTexSubImage1D, glTexSubImage2D, or glTexSubImage3D. command is placed in a display list (see glNewList and glCallList), the pixel transfer mode settings in effect when the display list is executedare the ones that are used. They may be different from the settings when the command was compiled into the display list.

GL_INVALID_OPERATION is generated if glPixelTransfer is executed between the execution of glBegin and the corresponding execution of glEnd.

glCallList, glColorTable, glColorSubTable, glConvolutionFilter1D, glConvolutionFilter2D, glCopyPixels, glCopyTexImage1D, glCopyTexImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage1D, glCopyTexSubImage2D, glCopyTexSubImage3D, glDrawPixels, glNewList, glPixelMap, glPixelStore, glPixelZoom, glReadPixels, glTexImage1D, glTexImage2D, glTexImage3D, glTexSubImage1D, glTexSubImage2D, glTexSubImage3D