Display Images in Access Databases with DBPix

Microsoft Access databases are commonly thought to be very inefficient when it comes to storing and displaying images. While it is possible to store binary data such as jpegs and other images in Access, the use of OLE embedding and linking can lead to a very significant storage overhead, and the database will reach its file-size limit very quickly.

Often, the image quality will also be reduced, since the only way to extract an image is by re-compressing an uncompressed bitmap to a file of the original format. Since jpegs are lossy, the end result is often less than satisfactory. Any metadata (e.g. EXIF digital camera info) will also be lost.

In spite of this, there is a way to store and display images in Access without having to deal with these problems. By storing the images as raw binary data, you can build a sizeable database with high-quality images. Because the images are stored in their original compressed format there is no overhead issue to worry about, and they can easily be extracted back into jpegs without any loss.

While this is an efficient way of displaying images in Access, it is not a particularly straightforward process if you rely solely on VBA or the Access Image Control. However, with the help of DBPix you can bind directly to binary fields without writing a single line of code. This way of displaying images in Access is both efficient and easy to use, and provides plenty of enhanced functionality such as asynchronous decoding, EXIF viewing, zoom and more.

Imaging for Access that's Easy, Efficient & Fast

NO OLE Bloat

NO App Dependencies

NO Complex Coding

NO Performance Penalty