Python – Converting a NumPy array to a PIL image

imagenumpypythonpython-imaging-library

I want to create a PIL image from a NumPy array. Here is my attempt:

# Create a NumPy array, which has four elements. The top-left should be pure 
# red, the top-right should be pure blue, the bottom-left should be pure green, 
# and the bottom-right should be yellow.
pixels = np.array([[[255, 0, 0], [0, 255, 0]], [[0, 0, 255], [255, 255, 0]]])

# Create a PIL image from the NumPy array
image = Image.fromarray(pixels, 'RGB')

# Print out the pixel values
print image.getpixel((0, 0))
print image.getpixel((0, 1))
print image.getpixel((1, 0))
print image.getpixel((1, 1))

# Save the image
image.save('image.png')

However, the print out gives the following:

(255, 0, 0)
(0, 0, 0)
(0, 0, 0)
(0, 0, 0)

And the saved image has pure red in the top-left, but all the other pixels are black. Why are these other pixels not retaining the colour I have assigned to them in the NumPy array?

Best Answer

The RGB mode is expecting 8-bit values, so just casting your array should fix the problem:

In [25]: image = Image.fromarray(pixels.astype('uint8'), 'RGB')
    ...:
    ...: # Print out the pixel values
    ...: print image.getpixel((0, 0))
    ...: print image.getpixel((0, 1))
    ...: print image.getpixel((1, 0))
    ...: print image.getpixel((1, 1))
    ...:
(255, 0, 0)
(0, 0, 255)
(0, 255, 0)
(255, 255, 0)

Related Solutions

Python – How to resize an image using PIL and maintain its aspect ratio

Define a maximum size. Then, compute a resize ratio by taking min(maxwidth/width, maxheight/height).

The proper size is oldsize*ratio.

There is of course also a library method to do this: the method Image.thumbnail.
Below is an (edited) example from the PIL documentation.

import os, sys
import Image

size = 128, 128

for infile in sys.argv[1:]:
    outfile = os.path.splitext(infile)[0] + ".thumbnail"
    if infile != outfile:
        try:
            im = Image.open(infile)
            im.thumbnail(size, Image.ANTIALIAS)
            im.save(outfile, "JPEG")
        except IOError:
            print "cannot create thumbnail for '%s'" % infile

Python – How to convert a PIL Image into a numpy array

You're not saying how exactly putdata() is not behaving. I'm assuming you're doing

>>> pic.putdata(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "...blablabla.../PIL/Image.py", line 1185, in putdata
    self.im.putdata(data, scale, offset)
SystemError: new style getargs format but argument is not a tuple

This is because putdata expects a sequence of tuples and you're giving it a numpy array. This

>>> data = list(tuple(pixel) for pixel in pix)
>>> pic.putdata(data)

will work but it is very slow.

As of PIL 1.1.6, the "proper" way to convert between images and numpy arrays is simply

>>> pix = numpy.array(pic)

although the resulting array is in a different format than yours (3-d array or rows/columns/rgb in this case).

Then, after you make your changes to the array, you should be able to do either pic.putdata(pix) or create a new image with Image.fromarray(pix).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – How to resize an image using PIL and maintain its aspect ratio

Python – How to convert a PIL Image into a numpy array

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