Image Module

The Image module provides a class with the same name which is used to represent a PIL image. The module also provides a number of factory functions, including functions to load images from files, and to create new images.

Examples

Open, rotate, and display an image (using the default viewer)

The following script loads an image, rotates it 45 degrees, and displays it using an external viewer (usually xv on Unix, and the Paint program on Windows).

from PIL import Image
im = Image.open("bride.jpg")
im.rotate(45).show()

Create thumbnails

The following script creates nice thumbnails of all JPEG images in the current directory preserving aspect ratios with 128x128 max resolution.

from PIL import Image
import glob, os

size = 128, 128

for infile in glob.glob("*.jpg"):
    file, ext = os.path.splitext(infile)
    im = Image.open(infile)
    im.thumbnail(size)
    im.save(file + ".thumbnail", "JPEG")

Functions

Image processing

Constructing images

Registering plugins

Note

These functions are for use by plugin authors. Application authors can ignore them.

The Image Class

An instance of the Image class has the following methods. Unless otherwise stated, all methods return a new instance of the Image class, holding the resulting image.

The following example converts an RGB image (linearly calibrated according to ITU-R 709, using the D65 luminant) to the CIE XYZ color space:

rgb2xyz = (
    0.412453, 0.357580, 0.180423, 0,
    0.212671, 0.715160, 0.072169, 0,
    0.019334, 0.119193, 0.950227, 0)
out = im.convert("RGB", rgb2xyz)

This crops the input image with the provided coordinates:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")

# The crop method from the Image module takes four coordinates as input.
# The right can also be represented as (left+width)
# and lower can be represented as (upper+height).
(left, upper, right, lower) = (20, 20, 100, 100)

# Here the image "im" is cropped and assigned to new variable im_crop
im_crop = im.crop((left, upper, right, lower))

This blurs the input image using a filter from the ImageFilter module:

from PIL import Image, ImageFilter

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")

# Blur the input image using the filter ImageFilter.BLUR
im_blurred = im.filter(filter=ImageFilter.BLUR)

This helps to get the bands of the input image:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")
print(im.getbands())  # Returns ('R', 'G', 'B')

This helps to get the bounding box coordinates of the input image:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")
print(im.getbbox())
# Returns four coordinates in the format (left, upper, right, lower)

This resizes the given image from (width, height) to (width/2, height/2):

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")

# Provide the target width and height of the image
(width, height) = (im.width // 2, im.height // 2)
im_resized = im.resize((width, height))

This rotates the input image by theta degrees counter clockwise:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")

# Rotate the image by 60 degrees counter clockwise
theta = 60
# Angle is in degrees counter clockwise
im_rotated = im.rotate(angle=theta)

This flips the input image by using the Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT method.

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.jpg")

# Flip the image from left to right
im_flipped = im.transpose(method=Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT)
# To flip the image from top to bottom,
# use the method "Image.FLIP_TOP_BOTTOM"

Attributes

Instances of the Image class have the following attributes:

PIL.Image.filename

The filename or path of the source file. Only images created with the factory function open have a filename attribute. If the input is a file like object, the filename attribute is set to an empty string.

Type

string

PIL.Image.format

The file format of the source file. For images created by the library itself (via a factory function, or by running a method on an existing image), this attribute is set to None.

Type

string or None

PIL.Image.mode

Image mode. This is a string specifying the pixel format used by the image. Typical values are “1”, “L”, “RGB”, or “CMYK.” See Modes for a full list.

Type

string

PIL.Image.size

Image size, in pixels. The size is given as a 2-tuple (width, height).

Type

(width, height)

PIL.Image.width

Image width, in pixels.

Type

int

PIL.Image.height

Image height, in pixels.

Type

int

PIL.Image.palette

Colour palette table, if any. If mode is “P” or “PA”, this should be an instance of the ImagePalette class. Otherwise, it should be set to None.

Type

ImagePalette or None

PIL.Image.info

A dictionary holding data associated with the image. This dictionary is used by file handlers to pass on various non-image information read from the file. See documentation for the various file handlers for details.

Most methods ignore the dictionary when returning new images; since the keys are not standardized, it’s not possible for a method to know if the operation affects the dictionary. If you need the information later on, keep a reference to the info dictionary returned from the open method.

Unless noted elsewhere, this dictionary does not affect saving files.

Type

dict