How to read the RGB value of a given pixel in Python?

Question

If I open an image with open("image.jpg"), how can I get the RGB values of a pixel assuming I have the coordinates of the pixel?

Then, how can I do the reverse of this? Starting with a blank graphic, 'write' a pixel with a certain RGB value?

I would prefer if I didn't have to download any additional libraries.

Remit

Answer 1

It's probably best to use the Python Image Library to do this which I'm afraid is a separate download.

The easiest way to do what you want is via the load() method on the Image object which returns a pixel access object which you can manipulate like an array:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open('dead_parrot.jpg') # Can be many different formats.
pix = im.load()
print im.size  # Get the width and hight of the image for iterating over
print pix[x,y]  # Get the RGBA Value of the a pixel of an image
pix[x,y] = value  # Set the RGBA Value of the image (tuple)
im.save('alive_parrot.png')  # Save the modified pixels as .png

Alternatively, look at ImageDraw which gives a much richer API for creating images.

Marquismarquisate

Fortunately installing PIL is very straightforward in Linux and Windows (don't know about Mac) – Vidette

@ArturSapek, I installed PIL by pip which was fairly easy. – Gond

I used this on my Mac (Pypi): easy_install --find-links http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/ Imaging – Sergio

For future readers: pip install pillow will install PIL successfully and fairly quickly (may need sudo if not in a virtualenv). – Fults

pillow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/… shows bash commands in windows installation steps. No really sure how to proceed. – Escalator

It this time, PIL does not support python 3.x. So the pillow is the best choise because has the same synthax. Install it using pip install pillow – Plebs

Does it work for .png format with transparent background? I just loaded one and the output pixel values look incorrect. imgur.com/a/6DwRa1h – Alloy

Answer 2

Using Pillow (which works with Python 3.X as well as Python 2.7+), you can do the following:

from PIL import Image
im = Image.open('image.jpg', 'r')
width, height = im.size
pixel_values = list(im.getdata())

Now you have all pixel values. If it is RGB or another mode can be read by im.mode. Then you can get pixel (x, y) by:

pixel_values[width*y+x]

Alternatively, you can use Numpy and reshape the array:

>>> pixel_values = numpy.array(pixel_values).reshape((width, height, 3))
>>> x, y = 0, 1
>>> pixel_values[x][y]
[ 18  18  12]

A complete, simple to use solution is

# Third party modules
import numpy
from PIL import Image


def get_image(image_path):
    """Get a numpy array of an image so that one can access values[x][y]."""
    image = Image.open(image_path, "r")
    width, height = image.size
    pixel_values = list(image.getdata())
    if image.mode == "RGB":
        channels = 3
    elif image.mode == "L":
        channels = 1
    else:
        print("Unknown mode: %s" % image.mode)
        return None
    pixel_values = numpy.array(pixel_values).reshape((width, height, channels))
    return pixel_values


image = get_image("gradient.png")

print(image[0])
print(image.shape)

Smoke testing the code

You might be uncertain about the order of width / height / channel. For this reason I've created this gradient:

The image has a width of 100px and a height of 26px. It has a color gradient going from #ffaa00 (yellow) to #ffffff (white). The output is:

[[255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   4]
 [255 172   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 171   5]
 [255 172   5]]
(100, 26, 3)

Things to note:

• The shape is (width, height, channels)
• The image[0], hence the first row, has 26 triples of the same color

Whatever

Pillow supports python 2.7 on macosx while I only find python 2.5 support on PIL. Thanks! – Olympias

Be careful, the 'reshape' params list should be (height, width, channels). and for rgba images you could include image.mode = RGBA with channels = 4 – Hamelin

Is the point by @Hamelin true on the width and height? Is it really the case that both are valid? You need to be aware of how the data is output so you know what shape the output array will have and where the row and column pixel data of the image will be. – Fuel

@Fuel I've added a "smoke testing" section in my answer so it's easier to tell. – Whatever

Example is confusing. If it's row, shouldn't there be 100 data points? If 'row' actually means column of the pic, shouldn't its value change to #fff? – Billibilliard

@Billibilliard Yes, the problem lays in the reshape, it should be pixel_values = numpy.array(pixel_values).reshape((height, width, channels)) – Jackinthebox

Answer 3

PyPNG - lightweight PNG decoder/encoder

Although the question hints at JPG, I hope my answer will be useful to some people.

Here's how to read and write PNG pixels using PyPNG module:

import png, array

point = (2, 10) # coordinates of pixel to be painted red

reader = png.Reader(filename='image.png')
w, h, pixels, metadata = reader.read_flat()
pixel_byte_width = 4 if metadata['alpha'] else 3
pixel_position = point[0] + point[1] * w
new_pixel_value = (255, 0, 0, 0) if metadata['alpha'] else (255, 0, 0)
pixels[
  pixel_position * pixel_byte_width :
  (pixel_position + 1) * pixel_byte_width] = array.array('B', new_pixel_value)

output = open('image-with-red-dot.png', 'wb')
writer = png.Writer(w, h, **metadata)
writer.write_array(output, pixels)
output.close()

PyPNG is a single pure Python module less than 4000 lines long, including tests and comments.

PIL is a more comprehensive imaging library, but it's also significantly heavier.

Marksman

Answer 4

As Dave Webb said:

Here is my working code snippet printing the pixel colours from an image:

import os, sys
import Image

im = Image.open("image.jpg")
x = 3
y = 4

pix = im.load()
print pix[x,y]

Broider

Why do I get four values, when running Lachlan Phillips's code? I give this: print(pix[10,200]) and I get this: (156, 158, 157, 255) Why? – Waite

The reason for this is likely because your image supports alpha transparency and is in rgba format, meaning that the fourth value is how transparent that pixel is. – Muzz

Why do I get this error??? File "/home/UbuntuUser/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/PIL/Image.py", line 3008, in open raise UnidentifiedImageError( PIL.UnidentifiedImageError: cannot identify image file 'test_images/test_UAV.tif') – Waite

Answer 5

photo = Image.open('IN.jpg') #your image
photo = photo.convert('RGB')

width = photo.size[0] #define W and H
height = photo.size[1]

for y in range(0, height): #each pixel has coordinates
    row = ""
    for x in range(0, width):

        RGB = photo.getpixel((x,y))
        R,G,B = RGB  #now you can use the RGB value

Vaticinate

Answer 6

Using a library called Pillow, you can make this into a function, for ease of use later in your program, and if you have to use it multiple times. The function simply takes in the path of an image and the coordinates of the pixel you want to "grab." It opens the image, converts it to an RGB color space, and returns the R, G, and B of the requested pixel.

from PIL import Image
def rgb_of_pixel(img_path, x, y):
    im = Image.open(img_path).convert('RGB')
    r, g, b = im.getpixel((x, y))
    a = (r, g, b)
    return a

*Note: I was not the original author of this code; it was left without an explanation. As it is fairly easy to explain, I am simply providing said explanation, just in case someone down the line does not understand it.

Benz

While this code snippet may be the solution, including an explanation really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. – Womble

Answer 7

You could use the Tkinter module, which is the standard Python interface to the Tk GUI toolkit and you don't need extra download. See https://docs.python.org/2/library/tkinter.html.

(For Python 3, Tkinter is renamed to tkinter)

Here is how to set RGB values:

#from http://tkinter.unpythonic.net/wiki/PhotoImage
from Tkinter import *

root = Tk()

def pixel(image, pos, color):
    """Place pixel at pos=(x,y) on image, with color=(r,g,b)."""
    r,g,b = color
    x,y = pos
    image.put("#%02x%02x%02x" % (r,g,b), (y, x))

photo = PhotoImage(width=32, height=32)

pixel(photo, (16,16), (255,0,0))  # One lone pixel in the middle...

label = Label(root, image=photo)
label.grid()
root.mainloop()

And get RGB:

#from http://www.kosbie.net/cmu/spring-14/15-112/handouts/steganographyEncoder.py
def getRGB(image, x, y):
    value = image.get(x, y)
    return tuple(map(int, value.split(" ")))

Indiscriminate

Perfect, doesn't require any installation and works like a charm. You can also load an existing image with PhotoImage(file="image.png"). – Bituminous

Answer 8

You can use pygame's surfarray module. This module has a 3d pixel array returning method called pixels3d(surface). I've shown usage below:

from pygame import surfarray, image, display
import pygame
import numpy #important to import

pygame.init()
image = image.load("myimagefile.jpg") #surface to render
resolution = (image.get_width(),image.get_height())
screen = display.set_mode(resolution) #create space for display
screen.blit(image, (0,0)) #superpose image on screen
display.flip()
surfarray.use_arraytype("numpy") #important!
screenpix = surfarray.pixels3d(image) #pixels in 3d array:
#[x][y][rgb]
for y in range(resolution[1]):
    for x in range(resolution[0]):
        for color in range(3):
            screenpix[x][y][color] += 128
            #reverting colors
screen.blit(surfarray.make_surface(screenpix), (0,0)) #superpose on screen
display.flip() #update display
while 1:
    print finished

I hope been helpful. Last word: screen is locked for lifetime of screenpix.

Gardner

Answer 9

Image manipulation is a complex topic, and it's best if you do use a library. I can recommend gdmodule which provides easy access to many different image formats from within Python.

Rebbeccarebe

Anyone know why this was downvoted? Is there a known problem with libgd or something? (I had never looked at it, but it's always nice to know there's an alternative to PiL) – Koetke

Answer 10

There's a really good article on wiki.wxpython.org entitled Working With Images. The article mentions the possiblity of using wxWidgets (wxImage), PIL or PythonMagick. Personally, I've used PIL and wxWidgets and both make image manipulation fairly easy.

Selma

Answer 11

install PIL using the command "sudo apt-get install python-imaging" and run the following program. It will print RGB values of the image. If the image is large redirect the output to a file using '>' later open the file to see RGB values

import PIL
import Image
FILENAME='fn.gif' #image can be in gif jpeg or png format 
im=Image.open(FILENAME).convert('RGB')
pix=im.load()
w=im.size[0]
h=im.size[1]
for i in range(w):
  for j in range(h):
    print pix[i,j]

Enthusiastic

Answer 12

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.image as mpimg

img=mpimg.imread('Cricket_ACT_official_logo.png')
imgplot = plt.imshow(img)

Blah

Answer 13

If you are looking to have three digits in the form of an RGB colour code, the following code should do just that.

i = Image.open(path)
pixels = i.load() # this is not a list, nor is it list()'able
width, height = i.size

all_pixels = []
for x in range(width):
    for y in range(height):
        cpixel = pixels[x, y]
        all_pixels.append(cpixel)

This may work for you.

Carrier

So, If instead of image path, I have a list with the pixels of an area extracted (and not stored as an image) from an image how can I read the pixel values? – Waite