You can specify initial contents for an image region in the same way you include files in textual regions. Although image regions never contain drawing statements, you can use the file option to specify a file that will be the image region's initial contents. ESL recognizes the type of image file from the file extension and information contained in the file header. ESL also determines whether the files are binary or color, and the size of the image.

When using compiled bitmaps, the file option must be specified last in the region definition. The file specification is simply the keyword file followed by a string value, either a literal or a string constant, or a string with an initial value. If you do not specify an extension, ESL assumes the extension ".BMP". If you do not specify an extension, and there is no file with the extension ".BMP", ESL assumes that the file has no extension.

Specifying initial file contents for an image region does not ensure that the cache is filled before the first display. If you specify an image or cache viewport, the cache is filled before a display request is received, but if you specify a work area cache or no cache, no data is put in the cache until it is displayed at runtime. The color map overrides any foreground or background color specified for the region.