<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Loading and Saving Images - Untitled</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">
<meta name="description" content="Untitled">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Image-Processing.html#Image-Processing" title="Image Processing">
<link rel="next" href="Displaying-Images.html#Displaying-Images" title="Displaying Images">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
--></style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="node">
<a name="Loading-and-Saving-Images"></a>
<p>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Displaying-Images.html#Displaying-Images">Displaying Images</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Image-Processing.html#Image-Processing">Image Processing</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h3 class="section">31.1 Loading and Saving Images</h3>
<p>The first step in most image processing tasks is to load an image
into Octave. This is done using the <code>imread</code> function, which uses the
<code>GraphicsMagick</code> library for reading. This means a vast number of image
formats is supported. The <code>imwrite</code> function is the corresponding function
for writing images to the disk.
<p>In summary, most image processing code will follow the structure of this code
<pre class="example"> I = imread ("my_input_image.img");
J = process_my_image (I);
imwrite ("my_output_image.img", J);
</pre>
<!-- ./image/imread.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dimread"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Function File: [<var>img</var>, <var>map</var>, <var>alpha</var>] = <b>imread</b> (<var>filename</var>)<var><a name="index-imread-2182"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Read images from various file formats.
<p>The size and numeric class of the output depends on the
format of the image. A color image is returned as an
MxNx3 matrix. Grey-level and black-and-white images are
of size MxN.
The color depth of the image determines the numeric
class of the output: "uint8" or "uint16" for grey
and color, and "logical" for black and white.
<!-- Texinfo @sp should work but in practice produces ugly results for HTML. -->
<!-- A simple blank line produces the correct behavior. -->
<!-- @sp 1 -->
<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dimwrite.html#doc_002dimwrite">imwrite</a>, <a href="doc_002dimfinfo.html#doc_002dimfinfo">imfinfo</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- ./image/imwrite.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dimwrite"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Function File: <b>imwrite</b> (<var>img, filename, fmt, p1, v1, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-imwrite-2183"></a></var><br>
— Function File: <b>imwrite</b> (<var>img, map, filename, fmt, p1, v1, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-imwrite-2184"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Write images in various file formats.
<p>If <var>fmt</var> is missing, the file extension (if any) of
<var>filename</var> is used to determine the format.
<p>The parameter-value pairs (<var>p1</var>, <var>v1</var>, <small class="dots">...</small>) are optional. Currently
the following options are supported for <tt>JPEG</tt> images
<dl>
<dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Quality</span></samp>’<dd>Sets the quality of the compression. The corresponding value should be an
integer between 0 and 100, with larger values meaning higher visual quality
and less compression.
</dl>
<!-- Texinfo @sp should work but in practice produces ugly results for HTML. -->
<!-- A simple blank line produces the correct behavior. -->
<!-- @sp 1 -->
<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dimread.html#doc_002dimread">imread</a>, <a href="doc_002dimfinfo.html#doc_002dimfinfo">imfinfo</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- defaults.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dIMAGE_005fPATH"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>IMAGE_PATH</b> ()<var><a name="index-IMAGE_005fPATH-2185"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>IMAGE_PATH</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-IMAGE_005fPATH-2186"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that specifies a colon separated
list of directories in which to search for image files.
</p></blockquote></div>
<p>It is possible to get information about an image file on disk, without actually
reading it into Octave. This is done using the <code>imfinfo</code> function which
provides read access to many of the parameters stored in the header of the image
file.
<!-- ./image/imfinfo.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dimfinfo"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Function File: <var>info</var> = <b>imfinfo</b> (<var>filename</var>)<var><a name="index-imfinfo-2187"></a></var><br>
— Function File: <var>info</var> = <b>imfinfo</b> (<var>url</var>)<var><a name="index-imfinfo-2188"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Read image information from a file.
<p><code>imfinfo</code> returns a structure containing information about the image
stored in the file <var>filename</var>. The output structure contains the
following fields.
<dl>
<dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Filename</span></samp>’<dd>The full name of the image file.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">FileSize</span></samp>’<dd>Number of bytes of the image on disk
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">FileModDate</span></samp>’<dd>Date of last modification to the file.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Height</span></samp>’<dd>Image height in pixels.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Width</span></samp>’<dd>Image Width in pixels.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">BitDepth</span></samp>’<dd>Number of bits per channel per pixel.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Format</span></samp>’<dd>Image format (e.g., <code>"jpeg"</code>).
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">LongFormat</span></samp>’<dd>Long form image format description.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">XResolution</span></samp>’<dd>X resolution of the image.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">YResolution</span></samp>’<dd>Y resolution of the image.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">TotalColors</span></samp>’<dd>Number of unique colors in the image.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">TileName</span></samp>’<dd>Tile name.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">AnimationDelay</span></samp>’<dd>Time in 1/100ths of a second (0 to 65535) which must expire before displaying
the next image in an animated sequence.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">AnimationIterations</span></samp>’<dd>Number of iterations to loop an animation (e.g., Netscape loop extension) for.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">ByteOrder</span></samp>’<dd>Endian option for formats that support it. Is either <code>"little-endian"</code>,
<code>"big-endian"</code>, or <code>"undefined"</code>.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Gamma</span></samp>’<dd>Gamma level of the image. The same color image displayed on two different
workstations may look different due to differences in the display monitor.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Matte</span></samp>’<dd><code>true</code> if the image has transparency.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">ModulusDepth</span></samp>’<dd>Image modulus depth (minimum number of bits required to support red/green/blue
components without loss of accuracy).
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">Quality</span></samp>’<dd>JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">QuantizeColors</span></samp>’<dd>Preferred number of colors in the image.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">ResolutionUnits</span></samp>’<dd>Units of image resolution. Is either <code>"pixels per inch"</code>,
<code>"pixels per centimeter"</code>, or <code>"undefined"</code>.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">ColorType</span></samp>’<dd>Image type. Is either <code>"grayscale"</code>, <code>"indexed"</code>, <code>"truecolor"</code>,
or <code>"undefined"</code>.
<br><dt>‘<samp><span class="samp">View</span></samp>’<dd>FlashPix viewing parameters.
</dl>
<!-- Texinfo @sp should work but in practice produces ugly results for HTML. -->
<!-- A simple blank line produces the correct behavior. -->
<!-- @sp 1 -->
<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dimread.html#doc_002dimread">imread</a>, <a href="doc_002dimwrite.html#doc_002dimwrite">imwrite</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
</body></html>
