diff --git a/extra/images/backend/backend.factor b/extra/images/backend/backend.factor
index 5e05db0f4d..fb859f31a5 100644
--- a/extra/images/backend/backend.factor
+++ b/extra/images/backend/backend.factor
@@ -1,21 +1,47 @@
 ! Copyright (C) 2009 Doug Coleman.
 ! See http://factorcode.org/license.txt for BSD license.
-USING: accessors kernel ;
+USING: accessors kernel grouping fry sequences combinators ;
 IN: images.backend
 
 SINGLETONS: BGR RGB BGRA RGBA ABGR ARGB RGBX XRGB BGRX XBGR ;
+! RGBA
 
-TUPLE: image width height depth pitch component-order buffer ;
+TUPLE: image dim component-order bitmap ;
+
+TUPLE: normalized-image < image ;
 
 GENERIC: load-image* ( path tuple -- image )
 
-: load-image ( path class -- image )
-    new load-image* ;
+GENERIC: >image ( object -- image )
 
-: new-image ( width height depth component-order buffer class -- image )
+: no-op ( -- ) ;
+
+: normalize-component-order ( image -- image )
+    dup component-order>>
+    {
+        { RGBA [ no-op ] }
+        { BGRA [
+            [
+                [ 4 <sliced-groups> [ [ 0 3 ] dip <slice> reverse-here ] each ]
+                [ RGBA >>component-order ] bi
+            ] change-bitmap
+        ] }
+        { RGB [
+            [ 3 <sliced-groups> [ 255 suffix ] map concat ] change-bitmap
+        ] }
+        { BGR [
+            [
+                3 <sliced-groups> dup [ [ 0 3 ] dip <slice> reverse-here ] each
+                [ 255 suffix ] map concat
+            ] change-bitmap
+        ] }
+    } case RGBA >>component-order ;
+
+: normalize-image ( image -- image )
+    normalize-component-order ;
+
+: new-image ( dim component-order bitmap class -- image )
     new 
-        swap >>buffer
+        swap >>bitmap
         swap >>component-order
-        swap >>depth
-        swap >>height
-        swap >>width ; inline
+        swap >>dim ; inline
diff --git a/extra/images/bitmap/bitmap.factor b/extra/images/bitmap/bitmap.factor
index 14d52fdaf8..7b59827d02 100755
--- a/extra/images/bitmap/bitmap.factor
+++ b/extra/images/bitmap/bitmap.factor
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ TUPLE: bitmap-image < image ;
 TUPLE: bitmap magic size reserved offset header-length width
 height planes bit-count compression size-image
 x-pels y-pels color-used color-important rgb-quads color-index
-alpha-channel-zero?
 buffer ;
 
 : array-copy ( bitmap array -- bitmap array' )
@@ -87,12 +86,8 @@ M: bitmap-magic summary
         parse-file-header parse-bitmap-header parse-bitmap
     ] with-file-reader ;
 
-: alpha-channel-zero? ( bitmap -- ? )
-    buffer>> 4 <sliced-groups> 3 <column> [ 0 = ] all? ;
-
 : process-bitmap-data ( bitmap -- bitmap )
-    dup raw-bitmap>buffer >>buffer
-    dup alpha-channel-zero? >>alpha-channel-zero? ;
+    dup raw-bitmap>buffer >>buffer ;
 
 : load-bitmap ( path -- bitmap )
     load-bitmap-data process-bitmap-data ;
@@ -107,13 +102,15 @@ ERROR: unknown-component-order bitmap ;
         [ unknown-component-order ]
     } case ;
 
-: bitmap>image ( bitmap -- bitmap-image )
-    { [ width>> ] [ height>> ] [ bit-count>> ] [ bitmap>component-order ] [ buffer>> ] } cleave
-    bitmap-image new-image ;
+M: bitmap >image ( bitmap -- bitmap-image )
+    {
+        [ [ width>> ] [ height>> ] bi 2array ]
+        [ bitmap>component-order ]
+        [ buffer>> ]
+    } cleave bitmap-image new-image ;
 
 M: bitmap-image load-image* ( path bitmap -- bitmap-image )
-    drop load-bitmap
-    bitmap>image ;
+    drop load-bitmap >image ;
 
 MACRO: (nbits>bitmap) ( bits -- )
     [ -3 shift ] keep '[
@@ -122,7 +119,7 @@ MACRO: (nbits>bitmap) ( bits -- )
             swap >>height
             swap >>width
             swap array-copy [ >>buffer ] [ >>color-index ] bi
-            _ >>bit-count bitmap>image
+            _ >>bit-count >image
     ] ;
 
 : bgr>bitmap ( array height width -- bitmap )
diff --git a/extra/images/images.factor b/extra/images/images.factor
index 4b4673333f..3df7b5d2d1 100644
--- a/extra/images/images.factor
+++ b/extra/images/images.factor
@@ -5,8 +5,17 @@ accessors images.bitmap images.tiff images.backend io.backend
 io.pathnames ;
 IN: images
 
-: <image> ( path -- image )
-    dup file-extension >lower {
-        { "bmp" [ bitmap-image load-image ] }
-        { "tiff" [ tiff-image load-image ] }
+ERROR: unknown-image-extension extension ;
+
+: image-class ( path -- class )
+    file-extension >lower {
+        { "bmp" [ bitmap-image ] }
+        { "tiff" [ tiff-image ] }
+        [ unknown-image-extension ]
     } case ;
+
+: load-image ( path -- image )
+    dup image-class new load-image* ;
+
+: <image> ( path -- image )
+    load-image normalize-image ;
diff --git a/extra/images/tiff/tiff.factor b/extra/images/tiff/tiff.factor
index 922e302040..dc40f648cc 100755
--- a/extra/images/tiff/tiff.factor
+++ b/extra/images/tiff/tiff.factor
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ TUPLE: parsed-tiff endianness the-answer ifd-offset ifds ;
 CONSTRUCTOR: parsed-tiff ( -- tiff ) V{ } clone >>ifds ;
 
 TUPLE: ifd count ifd-entries next
-processed-tags strips buffer ;
+processed-tags strips bitmap ;
 CONSTRUCTOR: ifd ( count ifd-entries next -- ifd ) ;
 
 TUPLE: ifd-entry tag type count offset/value ;
@@ -257,39 +257,37 @@ ERROR: bad-small-ifd-type n ;
     dup ifd-entries>>
     [ process-ifd-entry swap ] H{ } map>assoc >>processed-tags ;
 
-: strips>buffer ( ifd -- ifd )
-    dup strips>> concat >>buffer ;
+: strips>bitmap ( ifd -- ifd )
+    dup strips>> concat >>bitmap ;
 
 ERROR: unknown-component-order ifd ;
 
 : ifd-component-order ( ifd -- byte-order )
     bits-per-sample find-tag sum {
         { 32 [ RGBA ] }
+        { 24 [ RGB ] }
         [ unknown-component-order ]
     } case ;
 
-: ifd>image ( ifd -- image )
+M: ifd >image ( ifd -- image )
     {
-        [ image-width find-tag ]
-        [ image-length find-tag ]
-        [ bits-per-sample find-tag sum ]
+        [ [ image-width find-tag ] [ image-length find-tag ] bi 2array ]
         [ ifd-component-order ]
-        [ buffer>> ]
+        [ bitmap>> ]
     } cleave tiff-image new-image ;
 
-: parsed-tiff>images ( tiff -- sequence )
-    ifds>> [ ifd>image ] map ;
-
+M: parsed-tiff >image ( image -- image )
+    ifds>> [ >image ] map first ;
 
 : load-tiff ( path -- parsed-tiff )
     binary [
         <parsed-tiff>
         read-header dup endianness>> [
             read-ifds
-            dup ifds>> [ process-ifd read-strips strips>buffer drop ] each
+            dup ifds>> [ process-ifd read-strips strips>bitmap drop ] each
         ] with-endianness
     ] with-file-reader ;
 
 ! tiff files can store several images -- we just take the first for now
 M: tiff-image load-image* ( path tiff-image -- image )
-    drop load-tiff parsed-tiff>images first ;
+    drop load-tiff >image ;
diff --git a/extra/images/viewer/viewer.factor b/extra/images/viewer/viewer.factor
index 0b01d75748..f99c34f509 100644
--- a/extra/images/viewer/viewer.factor
+++ b/extra/images/viewer/viewer.factor
@@ -1,19 +1,19 @@
 ! Copyright (C) 2007 Doug Coleman.
 ! See http://factorcode.org/license.txt for BSD license.
-USING: accessors arrays combinators images.bitmap kernel math
-math.functions namespaces opengl opengl.gl ui ui.gadgets
-ui.gadgets.panes ui.render images.tiff sequences multiline
-images.backend images io.pathnames strings ;
+USING: accessors images images.backend io.pathnames kernel
+namespaces opengl opengl.gl sequences strings ui ui.gadgets
+ui.gadgets.panes ui.render ;
 IN: images.viewer
 
 TUPLE: image-gadget < gadget { image image } ;
 
-GENERIC: draw-image ( image -- )
-
 M: image-gadget pref-dim*
-    image>>
-    [ width>> ] [ height>> ] bi
-    [ abs ] bi@ 2array ;
+    image>> dim>> ;
+
+: draw-image ( tiff -- )
+    0 0 glRasterPos2i 1.0 -1.0 glPixelZoom
+    [ dim>> first2 GL_RGBA GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE ]
+    [ bitmap>> ] bi glDrawPixels ;
 
 M: image-gadget draw-gadget* ( gadget -- )
     origin get [ image>> draw-image ] with-translation ;
@@ -22,50 +22,9 @@ M: image-gadget draw-gadget* ( gadget -- )
     \ image-gadget new-gadget
         swap >>image ;
 
-: gl-component-order ( singletons -- n )
-    {
-        { BGR [ GL_BGR ] }
-        { RGB [ GL_BGR ] }
-        { BGRA [ GL_BGRA ] }
-        { RGBA [ GL_RGBA ] }
-        ! { RGBX [ GL_RGBX ] }
-        ! { BGRX [ GL_BGRX ] }
-        ! { ARGB [ GL_ARGB ] }
-        ! { ABGR [ GL_ABGR ] }
-        ! { XRGB [ GL_XRGB ] }
-        ! { XBGR [ GL_XBGR ] }
-    } case ;
-
-M: bitmap-image draw-image ( bitmap -- )
-    {
-        [
-            height>> dup 0 < [
-                drop
-                0 0 glRasterPos2i
-                1.0 -1.0 glPixelZoom
-            ] [
-                0 swap abs glRasterPos2i
-                1.0 1.0 glPixelZoom
-            ] if
-        ]
-        [ width>> abs ]
-        [ height>> abs ]
-        [ component-order>> gl-component-order GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE ]
-        [ buffer>> ]
-    } cleave glDrawPixels ;
-
 : image-window ( path -- gadget )
     [ <image> <image-gadget> dup ] [ open-window ] bi ;
 
-M: tiff-image draw-image ( tiff -- )
-    0 0 glRasterPos2i 1.0 -1.0 glPixelZoom
-    {
-        [ height>> ]
-        [ width>> ]
-        [ component-order>> gl-component-order GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE ]
-        [ buffer>> ]
-    } cleave glDrawPixels ;
-
 GENERIC: image. ( image -- )
 
 M: string image. ( image -- ) <image> <image-gadget> gadget. ;