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NAME

Imager::ImageTypes - image models for Imager

SYNOPSIS

  use Imager;

  $img = Imager->new(); #  Empty image (size is 0 by 0)
  $img->open(file=>'lena.png',type=>'png'); # Read image from file

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>400, ysize=>300); # RGB data

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>400, ysize=>300,  # Grayscale
                     channels=>1);            #

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>400, ysize=>300,  # RGB with alpha
                     channels=>4);            #
                                              
  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200,  
                     type=>'paletted');       # paletted image
                                              
  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200,  
                     bits=>16);               # 16 bits/channel rgb
                                              
  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200,  
                     bits=>'double');         # 'double' floating point
                                              #  per channel

  $img->img_set(xsize=>500, ysize=>500,       # reset the image object
                channels=>4);


  # Example getting information about an Imager object

  print "Image information:\n";
  print "Width:        ", $img->getwidth(),    "\n";
  print "Height:       ", $img->getheight(),   "\n";
  print "Channels:     ", $img->getchannels(), "\n";
  print "Bits/Channel: ", $img->bits(),        "\n";
  print "Virtual:      ", $img->virtual() ? "Yes" : "No", "\n";
  my $colorcount = $img->getcolorcount(maxcolors=>512);
        print "Actual number of colors in image: ";
  print defined($colorcount) ? $colorcount : ">512", "\n";
  print "Type:         ", $img->type(),        "\n";

  if ($img->type() eq 'direct') {
    print "Modifiable Channels: ";
    print join " ", map {
      ($img->getmask() & 1<<$_) ? $_ : ()
    } 0..$img->getchannels();
    print "\n";
  
  } else {
    # palette info
    my $count = $img->colorcount;  
    @colors = $img->getcolors();
    print "Palette size: $count\n";
    my $mx = @colors > 4 ? 4 : 0+@colors;
    print "First $mx entries:\n";
    for (@colors[0..$mx-1]) {
      my @res = $_->rgba();
      print "(", join(", ", @res[0..$img->getchannels()-1]), ")\n";
    }
  }
  
  my @tags = $img->tags();
  if (@tags) {
    print "Tags:\n";
    for(@tags) {
      print shift @$_, ": ", join " ", @$_, "\n";
    }
  } else {
    print "No tags in image\n";
  }

DESCRIPTION

Imager supports two basic models of image:

Direct color or paletted images can have 1 to 4 samples per color stored. Imager treats these as follows:

Direct color images can have sample sizes of 8-bits per sample, 16-bits per sample or a double precision floating point number per sample (64-bits on many systems).

Paletted images are always 8-bits/sample.

To query an existing image about it's parameters see the bits(), type(), getwidth(), getheight(), getchannels() and virtual() methods.

The coordinate system in Imager has the origin in the upper left corner, see Imager::Draw for details.

The alpha channel when one is present is considered unassociated - ie the color data has not been scaled by the alpha channel. Note that not all code follows this (recent) rule, but will over time.

Creating Imager Objects

new()
  $img = Imager->new();
  $img->read(file=>"alligator.ppm") or die $img->errstr;

Here new() creates an empty image with width and height of zero. It's only useful for creating an Imager object to call the read() method on later.

  %opts = (xsize=>300, ysize=>200);
  $img = Imager->new(%opts); # create direct mode RGBA image
  $img = Imager->new(%opts, channels=>4); # create direct mode RGBA image

You can also read a file from new():

  $img = Imager->new(file => "someimage.png");

The parameters for new are:

In the simplest case just supply the width and height of the image:

  # 8 bit/sample, RGB image
  my $img = Imager->new(xsize => $width, ysize => $height);

or if you want an alpha channel:

  # 8 bits/sample, RGBA image
  my $img = Imager->new(xsize => $width, ysize => $height, channels=>4);

Note that it is possible for image creation to fail, for example if channels is out of range, or if the image would take too much memory.

To create paletted images, set the 'type' parameter to 'paletted':

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200, type=>'paletted');

which creates an image with a maximum of 256 colors, which you can change by supplying the maxcolors parameter.

For improved color precision you can use the bits parameter to specify 16 bit per channel:

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200,
                     channels=>3, bits=>16);

or for even more precision:

  $img = Imager->new(xsize=>200, ysize=>200,
                     channels=>3, bits=>'double');

to get an image that uses a double for each channel.

Note that as of this writing all functions should work on images with more than 8-bits/channel, but many will only work at only 8-bit/channel precision.

If you want an empty Imager object to call the read() method on, just call new() with no parameters:

  my $img = Imager->new;
  $img->read(file=>$filename)
    or die $img->errstr;

Though it's much easier now to just call new() with a file parameter:

  my $img = Imager->new(file => $filename)
    or die Imager->errstr;
img_set()

img_set destroys the image data in the object and creates a new one with the given dimensions and channels. For a way to convert image data between formats see the convert() method.

  $img->img_set(xsize=>500, ysize=>500, channels=>4);

This takes exactly the same parameters as the new() method.

Image Attribute functions

These return basic attributes of an image object.

getwidth()
  print "Image width: ", $img->getwidth(), "\n";

The getwidth() method returns the width of the image. This value comes either from new() with xsize, ysize parameters or from reading data from a file with read(). If called on an image that has no valid data in it like Imager->new() returns, the return value of getwidth() is undef.

getheight()
  print "Image height: ", $img->getheight(), "\n";

Same details apply as for "getwidth()".

getchannels()
  print "Image has ",$img->getchannels(), " channels\n";

To get the number of channels in an image getchannels() is used.

bits()

The bits() method retrieves the number of bits used to represent each channel in a pixel, 8 for a normal image, 16 for 16-bit image and 'double' for a double/channel image.

  if ($img->bits eq 8) {
    # fast but limited to 8-bits/sample
  }
  else {
    # slower but more precise
  }
type()

The type() method returns either 'direct' for direct color images or 'paletted' for paletted images.

  if ($img->type eq 'paletted') {
    # print the palette
    for my $color ($img->getcolors) {
      print join(",", $color->rgba), "\n";
    }
  }
virtual()

The virtual() method returns non-zero if the image contains no actual pixels, for example masked images.

This may also be used for non-native Imager images in the future, for example, for an Imager object that draws on an SDL surface.

is_bilevel()

Tests if the image will be written as a monochrome or bi-level image for formats that support that image organization.

In scalar context, returns true if the image is bi-level.

In list context returns a list:

  ($is_bilevel, $zero_is_white) = $img->is_bilevel;

An image is considered bi-level, if all of the following are true:

If a real bi-level organization image is ever added to Imager, this function will return true for that too.

Direct Type Images

Direct images store the color value directly for each pixel in the image.

getmask()
  @rgbanames = qw( red green blue alpha );
  my $mask = $img->getmask();
  print "Modifiable channels:\n";
  for (0..$img->getchannels()-1) {
    print $rgbanames[$_],"\n" if $mask & 1<<$_;
  }

getmask() is used to fetch the current channel mask. The mask determines what channels are currently modifiable in the image. The channel mask is an integer value, if the i-th least significant bit is set the i-th channel is modifiable. eg. a channel mask of 0x5 means only channels 0 and 2 are writable.

setmask()
  $mask = $img->getmask();
  $img->setmask(mask=>8);     # modify alpha only

    ...

  $img->setmask(mask=>$mask); # restore previous mask

setmask() is used to set the channel mask of the image. See "getmask()" for details.

Palette Type Images

Paletted images keep an array of up to 256 colors, and each pixel is stored as an index into that array.

In general you can work with paletted images in the same way as RGB images, except that if you attempt to draw to a paletted image with a color that is not in the image's palette, the image will be converted to an RGB image. This means that drawing on a paletted image with anti-aliasing enabled will almost certainly convert the image to RGB.

Palette management takes place through addcolors(), setcolors(), getcolors() and findcolor():

addcolors()

You can add colors to a paletted image with the addcolors() method:

   my @colors = ( Imager::Color->new(255, 0, 0), 
                  Imager::Color->new(0, 255, 0) );
   my $index = $img->addcolors(colors=>\@colors);

The return value is the index of the first color added, or undef if adding the colors would overflow the palette.

The only parameter is colors which must be a reference to an array of Imager::Color objects.

setcolors()
  $img->setcolors(start=>$start, colors=>\@colors);

Once you have colors in the palette you can overwrite them with the setcolors() method: setcolors() returns true on success.

Parameters:

getcolors()

To retrieve existing colors from the palette use the getcolors() method:

  # get the whole palette
  my @colors = $img->getcolors();
  # get a single color
  my $color = $img->getcolors(start=>$index);
  # get a range of colors
  my @colors = $img->getcolors(start=>$index, count=>$count);
findcolor()

To quickly find a color in the palette use findcolor():

  my $index = $img->findcolor(color=>$color);

which returns undef on failure, or the index of the color.

Parameter:

colorcount()

Returns the number of colors in the image's palette:

  my $count = $img->colorcount;
maxcolors()

Returns the maximum size of the image's palette.

  my $maxcount = $img->maxcolors;

Color Distribution

getcolorcount()

Calculates the number of colors in an image.

The amount of memory used by this is proportional to the number of colors present in the image, so to avoid using too much memory you can supply a maxcolors() parameter to limit the memory used.

Note: getcolorcount() treats the image as an 8-bit per sample image.

  if (defined($img->getcolorcount(maxcolors=>512)) {
    print "Less than 512 colors in image\n";
  }
getcolorusagehash()

Calculates a histogram of colors used by the image.

Returns a reference to a hash where the keys are the raw color as bytes, and the values are the counts for that color.

The alpha channel of the image is ignored. If the image is gray scale then the hash keys will each be a single character.

  my $colors = $img->getcolorusagehash;
  my $blue_count = $colors->{pack("CCC", 0, 0, 255)} || 0;
  print "#0000FF used $blue_count times\n";
getcolorusage()

Calculates color usage counts and returns just the counts.

Returns a list of the color frequencies in ascending order.

  my @counts = $img->getcolorusage;
  print "The most common color is used $counts[0] times\n";

Conversion Between Image Types

Warning: if you draw on a paletted image with colors that aren't in the palette, the image will be internally converted to a normal image.

to_paletted()

You can create a new paletted image from an existing image using the to_paletted() method:

 $palimg = $img->to_paletted(\%opts)

where %opts contains the options specified under "Quantization options".

  # convert to a paletted image using the web palette
  # use the closest color to each pixel
  my $webimg = $img->to_paletted({ make_colors => 'webmap' });

  # convert to a paletted image using a fairly optimal palette
  # use an error diffusion dither to try to reduce the average error
  my $optimag = $img->to_paletted({ make_colors => 'mediancut',
                                    translate => 'errdiff' });
to_rgb8()

You can convert a paletted image (or any image) to an 8-bit/channel RGB image with:

  $rgbimg = $img->to_rgb8;

No parameters.

to_rgb16()

Convert a paletted image (or any image) to a 16-bit/channel RGB image.

  $rgbimg = $img->to_rgb16;

No parameters.

to_rgb_double()

Convert a paletted image (or any image) to an double/channel direct color image.

  $rgbimg = $img->to_rgb_double;

No parameters.

masked()

Creates a masked image. A masked image lets you create an image proxy object that protects parts of the underlying target image.

In the discussion below there are 3 image objects involved:

Parameters:

Masked images let you control which pixels are modified in an underlying image. Where the first channel is completely black in the mask image, writes to the underlying image are ignored.

For example, given a base image called $img:

  my $mask = Imager->new(xsize=>$img->getwidth, ysize=>$img->getheight,
                         channels=>1);
  # ... draw something on the mask
  my $maskedimg = $img->masked(mask=>$mask);

  # now draw on $maskedimg and it will only draw on areas of $img 
  # where $mask is non-zero in channel 0.

You can specify the region of the underlying image that is masked using the left, top, right and bottom options.

If you just want a subset of the image, without masking, just specify the region without specifying a mask. For example:

  # just work with a 100x100 region of $img
  my $maskedimg = $img->masked(left => 100, top=>100,
                               right=>200, bottom=>200);
make_palette()

This doesn't perform an image conversion, but it can be used to construct a common palette for use in several images:

  my @colors = Imager->make_palette(\%opts, @images);

You must supply at least one image, even if the make_colors parameter produces a fixed palette.

On failure returns no colors and you can check Imager->errstr.

Tags

Image tags contain meta-data about the image, ie. information not stored as pixels of the image.

At the perl level each tag has a name or code and a value, which is an integer or an arbitrary string. An image can contain more than one tag with the same name or code, but having more than one tag with the same name is discouraged.

You can retrieve tags from an image using the tags() method, you can get all of the tags in an image, as a list of array references, with the code or name of the tag followed by the value of the tag.

Imager's support for fairly limited, for access to pretty much all image metadata you may want to try Image::ExifTool.

tags()

Retrieve tags from the image.

With no parameters, retrieves a list array references, each containing a name and value: all tags in the image:

  # get a list of ( [ name1 => value1 ], [ name2 => value2 ] ... )
  my @alltags = $img->tags;
  print $_->[0], ":", $_->[1], "\n" for @all_tags;

  # or put it in a hash, but this will lose duplicates
  my %alltags = map @$_, $img->tags;

in scalar context this returns the number of tags:

  my $num_tags = $img->tags;

or you can get all tags values for the given name:

  my @namedtags = $img->tags(name => $name);

in scalar context this returns the first tag of that name:

  my $firstnamed = $img->tags(name => $name);

or a given code:

  my @tags = $img->tags(code=>$code);
addtag()

You can add tags using the addtag() method, either by name:

  my $index = $img->addtag(name=>$name, value=>$value);

or by code:

  my $index = $img->addtag(code=>$code, value=>$value);
deltag()

You can remove tags with the deltag() method, either by index:

  $img->deltag(index=>$index);

or by name:

  $img->deltag(name=>$name);

or by code:

  $img->deltag(code=>$code);

In each case deltag() returns the number of tags deleted.

settag()

settag() replaces any existing tags with a new tag. This is equivalent to calling deltag() then addtag().

Common Tags

Many tags are only meaningful for one format. GIF looping information is pretty useless for JPEG for example. Thus, many tags are set by only a single reader or used by a single writer. For a complete list of format specific tags see Imager::Files.

Since tags are a relatively new addition their use is not wide spread but eventually we hope to have all the readers for various formats set some standard information.

Quantization options

These options can be specified when calling "to_paletted()" in Imager::ImageTypes, write_multi() for GIF files, when writing a single image with the gifquant option set to gen, or for direct calls to i_writegif_gen() and i_writegif_callback().

INITIALIZATION

This documents the Imager initialization function, which you will almost never need to call.

init()

This is a function, not a method.

This function is a mess, it can take the following named parameters:

Example:

  Imager::init(log => 'trace.log', loglevel => 9);

LOGGING METHODS

Imager can open an internal log to send debugging information to. This log is extensively used in Imager's tests, but you're unlikely to use it otherwise.

If Imager has been built with logging disabled, the methods fail quietly.

open_log()

Open the Imager debugging log file.

Returns a true value if the log file was opened successfully.

  # send debug output to test.log
  Imager->open_log(log => "test.log");

  # send debug output to stderr
  Imager->open_log();
close_log()

Close the Imager debugging log file and disable debug logging.

No parameters.

  Imager->close_log();
log()
 Imager->log($message)
 Imager->log($message, $level)

This method does not use named parameters.

The default for $level is 1.

Send a message to the debug log.

  Imager->log("My code got here!");
is_logging()

Returns a true value if logging is enabled.

REVISION

$Revision$

AUTHORS

Tony Cook, Arnar M. Hrafnkelsson

SEE ALSO

Imager(3), Imager::Files(3), Imager::Draw(3), Imager::Color(3), Imager::Fill(3), Imager::Font(3), Imager::Transformations(3), Imager::Engines(3), Imager::Filters(3), Imager::Expr(3), Imager::Matrix2d(3), Imager::Fountain(3)

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