diff --git a/floatimg.h b/floatimg.h
index de7692b7..92a2a1cd 100644
--- a/floatimg.h
+++ b/floatimg.h
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  *	floatimg.h
  */
 
-#define		FIMG_VERSION	81
+#define		FIMG_VERSION	82
 
 /*
  *	in memory descriptor
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ int fimg_mk_gray_from(FloatImg *src, FloatImg*dst, int k);
 /*	FIMG files module		*/
 int   fimg_fileinfos(char *fname, int *datas);
 int   fimg_dump_to_file(FloatImg *head, char *fname, int notused);
+int   fimg_load_from_dump(char *fname, FloatImg *where);
 int   fimg_create_from_dump(char *fname, FloatImg *head);
 
 /*	mathematics operations */
diff --git a/lib/fimg-file.c b/lib/fimg-file.c
index 6289ad02..7523ca29 100644
--- a/lib/fimg-file.c
+++ b/lib/fimg-file.c
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 #include  <stdlib.h>
 #include  <unistd.h>
 #include  <string.h>
-
+#include  <errno.h>
 #include  "../floatimg.h"
 
 extern int verbosity;		/* must be declared around main() */
@@ -99,6 +99,47 @@ if (nbre != foo) {
 	
 fclose(fp);
 
+return 0;
+}
+/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
+int fimg_load_from_dump(char *fname, FloatImg *where)
+{
+FILE		*fp;
+int		foo, nbre;
+FimgFileHead	filehead;
+
+#if DEBUG_LEVEL
+fprintf(stderr, ">>> %-25s ( '%s' %p )\n", __func__, fname, head);
+#endif
+
+if (NULL==(fp = fopen(fname, "r"))) {
+	perror(fname);			exit(1);
+	}
+foo = fread(&filehead, sizeof(FimgFileHead), 1, fp);  
+if (1 != foo) {
+	fprintf(stderr, "%s : short read\n", fname);
+	fclose(fp);
+	return -1;
+	}
+
+/* check compatibility */
+if (	(filehead.w != where->width) ||
+	(filehead.h != where->height) ||
+	(filehead.t != where->type) ) {
+
+	fprintf(stderr, "file '%s' incompatible\n", fname);
+	exit(3);
+	}
+
+nbre = filehead.w*filehead.h*filehead.t;	/* ugly quirk */
+foo = fread(where->R, sizeof(float), nbre, fp);
+if (nbre != foo) {
+	fprintf(stderr, "err read '%s' : %d\n", fname, errno);
+	exit(3);
+	}
+
+fclose(fp);
+
 return 0;
 }
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */