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1.3.3 Byte Ordering

Data in WMF metafile records is stored in little-endian format.

Some computer architectures number bytes in a binary word from left to right, which is referred to as big-endian. The byte numbering used for bitfields in this specification is big-endian. Other architectures number the bytes in a binary word from right to left, which is referred to as little-endian. The byte numbering used for enumerations, objects, and records in this specification is little-endian.

Using big-endian and little-endian methods, the number 0x12345678 would be stored as shown in the following.

 Byte order

 Byte 0

 Byte 1

 Byte 2

 Byte 3

Big-endian

0x12

0x34

0x56

0x78

Little-endian

0x78

0x56

0x34

0x12