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