Get pixels and colours from NSImage - cocoa

I have created an NSImage object, and ideally would like to determine how many of each pixels colour it contains. Is this possible?

This code renders the NSImage into a CGBitmapContext:
- (void)updateImageData {
if (!_image)
return;
// Dimensions - source image determines context size
NSSize imageSize = _image.size;
NSRect imageRect = NSMakeRect(0, 0, imageSize.width, imageSize.height);
// Create a context to hold the image data
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB);
CGContextRef ctx = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL,
imageSize.width,
imageSize.height,
8,
0,
colorSpace,
kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);
// Wrap graphics context
NSGraphicsContext* gctx = [NSGraphicsContext graphicsContextWithCGContext:ctx flipped:NO];
// Make our bitmap context current and render the NSImage into it
[NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext:gctx];
[_image drawInRect:imageRect];
// Calculate the histogram
[self computeHistogramFromBitmap:ctx];
// Clean up
[NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext:nil];
CGContextRelease(ctx);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
}
Given a bitmap context, we can access the raw image data directly, and compute the histograms for each colour channel:
- (void)computeHistogramFromBitmap:(CGContextRef)bitmap {
// NB: Assumes RGBA 8bpp
size_t width = CGBitmapContextGetWidth(bitmap);
size_t height = CGBitmapContextGetHeight(bitmap);
uint32_t* pixel = (uint32_t*)CGBitmapContextGetData(bitmap);
for (unsigned y = 0; y < height; y++)
{
for (unsigned x = 0; x < width; x++)
{
uint32_t rgba = *pixel;
// Extract colour components
uint8_t red = (rgba & 0x000000ff) >> 0;
uint8_t green = (rgba & 0x0000ff00) >> 8;
uint8_t blue = (rgba & 0x00ff0000) >> 16;
// Accumulate each colour
_histogram[kRedChannel][red]++;
_histogram[kGreenChannel][green]++;
_histogram[kBlueChannel][blue]++;
// Next pixel!
pixel++;
}
}
}
#end
I've published a complete project, a Cocoa sample app, which includes the above.
https://github.com/gavinb/CocoaImageHistogram.git

I suggest creating your own bitmap context, wrapping it in a graphics context and setting that as the current context, telling the image to draw itself, and then accessing the pixel data behind the bitmap context directly.
This will be more code, but will save you both a trip through a TIFF representation and the creation of thousands or millions of NSColor objects. If you're working with images of any appreciable size, these expenses will add up quickly.

Get an NSBitmapImageRep from your NSImage. Then you can get access to the pixels.
NSImage* img = ...;
NSBitmapImageRep* raw_img = [NSBitmapImageRep imageRepWithData:[img TIFFRepresentation]];
NSColor* color = [raw_img colorAtX:0 y:0];

Look for "histogram" in the Core Image documentation.

Using colorAtX with NSBitmapImageRep does not always lead to the exact correct color.
I managed to get the correct color with this simple code:
[yourImage lockFocus]; // yourImage is just your NSImage variable
NSColor *pixelColor = NSReadPixel(NSMakePoint(1, 1)); // Or another point
[yourImage unlockFocus];

This maybe a more streamlined approach for some and reduce complexity of dropping into memory management.
https://github.com/koher/EasyImagy
Code sample
https://github.com/koher/EasyImagyCameraSample
import EasyImagy
let image = Image<RGBA<UInt8>>(nsImage: "test.png") // N.B. init with nsImage
print(image[x, y])
image[x, y] = RGBA(red: 255, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 127)
image[x, y] = RGBA(0xFF00007F) // red: 255, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 127
// Iterates over all pixels
for pixel in image {
// ...
}
//// Gets a pixel by subscripts Gets a pixel by
let pixel = image[x, y]
// Sets a pixel by subscripts
image[x, y] = RGBA(0xFF0000FF)
image[x, y].alpha = 127
// Safe get for a pixel
if let pixel = image.pixelAt(x: x, y: y) {
print(pixel.red)
print(pixel.green)
print(pixel.blue)
print(pixel.alpha)
print(pixel.gray) // (red + green + blue) / 3
print(pixel) // formatted like "#FF0000FF"
} else {
// `pixel` is safe: `nil` is returned when out of bounds
print("Out of bounds")
}

Related

How to iterate through all pixels of an UIImage?

Hey Guys i am currently trying to iterate through all pixels of an UIImage but the way i implemented it it takes sooo much time. So i thought it is the wrong way i implemented it.
This is my method how i get the RGBA Values of an Pixel :
+(NSArray*)getRGBAsFromImage:(UIImage*)image atX:(int)xx andY:(int)yy count:(int)count
{
// Initializing the result array
NSMutableArray *result = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:count];
// First get the image into your data buffer
CGImageRef imageRef = [image CGImage]; // creating an Instance of
NSUInteger width = CGImageGetWidth(imageRef); // Get width of our Image
NSUInteger height = CGImageGetHeight(imageRef); // Get height of our Image
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); // creating our colour Space
// Getting that raw Data out of an image
unsigned char *rawData = (unsigned char*) calloc(height * width * 4, sizeof(unsigned char));
NSUInteger bytesPerPixel = 4; // Bytes per pixel defined
NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width; // Bytes per row
NSUInteger bitsPerComponent = 8; // Bytes per component
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rawData, width, height,
bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace,
kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace); // releasing the color space
CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), imageRef);
CGContextRelease(context);
// Now your rawData contains the image data in the RGBA8888 pixel format.
int byteIndex = (bytesPerRow * yy) + xx * bytesPerPixel;
for (int ii = 0 ; ii < count ; ++ii)
{
CGFloat red = (rawData[byteIndex] * 1.0) / 255.0;
CGFloat green = (rawData[byteIndex + 1] * 1.0) / 255.0;
CGFloat blue = (rawData[byteIndex + 2] * 1.0) / 255.0;
CGFloat alpha = (rawData[byteIndex + 3] * 1.0) / 255.0;
byteIndex += 4;
UIColor *acolor = [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:alpha];
[result addObject:acolor];
}
free(rawData);
return result;
}
And this is the code how i parse through all the pixels :
for (NSUInteger y = 0 ; y < self.originalPictureWidth; y++) {
for (NSUInteger x = 0 ; x < self.originalPictureHeight; x++) {
NSArray * originalRGBA = [ComputerVisionHelperClass getRGBAsFromImage:self.originalPicture atX:(int)x andY:(int)y count:1];
NSArray * referenceRGBA = [ComputerVisionHelperClass getRGBAsFromImage:self.referencePicture atX:(int)referenceIndexX andY:(int)referenceIndexY count:1];
// Do something else ....
}
}
Is there a faster way of getting all RGBA values of an uiimage instance ?
For every pixel, you're generating a new copy of the image and then throwing it away. Yes, it would be much faster by just getting the data once and then processing on that byte array.
But it heavily depends on what is in "Do something else." There are many CoreImage and vImage functions that can do image processing very quickly, but you may need to approach the problem differently. It depends on what you're doing.

Gaussian Noise using Core Graphics only?

How would I ever use Core graphics only to generate a noise texture background? I'm stuck on the noise part because there is no way to add a noise filter in core graphics...
About a year later, I've found the answer:
CGImageRef CGGenerateNoiseImage(CGSize size, CGFloat factor) CF_RETURNS_RETAINED {
NSUInteger bits = fabs(size.width) * fabs(size.height);
char *rgba = (char *)malloc(bits);
srand(124);
for(int i = 0; i < bits; ++i)
rgba[i] = (rand() % 256) * factor;
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceGray();
CGContextRef bitmapContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(rgba, fabs(size.width), fabs(size.height),
8, fabs(size.width), colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNone);
CGImageRef image = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmapContext);
CFRelease(bitmapContext);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
free(rgba);
return image;
}
This effectively generates a noise image that's guaranteed to be random, and can be drawn, using the code from Jason Harwig's answer.
Create a noise png, then draw it using an overlay blend.
// draw background
CGContextFillRect(context, ...)
// blend noise on top
CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeOverlay);
CGImageRef cgImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"noise"].CGImage;
CGContextDrawImage(context, rect, cgImage);
CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeNormal);
There is a CIRandomGenerator in CoreImageFilters as of iOS 6.
But bear in mind that this one is not gaussian noise (as it is not in the previous answer).
- (UIImage*)linearRandomImage:(CGRect)rect
{
CIContext *randomContext = [CIContext contextWithOptions:nil];
CIFilter *randomGenerator = [CIFilter filterWithName: #"CIColorMonochrome"];
[randomGenerator setValue:[[CIFilter filterWithName:#"CIRandomGenerator"] valueForKey:#"outputImage"] forKey:#"inputImage"];
[randomGenerator setDefaults];
CIImage *resultImage = [randomGenerator outputImage];
CGImageRef ref = [randomContext createCGImage:resultImage fromRect:rect];
UIImage *endImage=[UIImage imageWithCGImage:ref];
return endImage;
}

Buffere write becomes slow after CGBitmapContextCreate

I have code something like this...
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
CGContextRef ctx = CGBitmapContextCreate(pixelArray, width, height, 8, 4 * width, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast);
CGImageRef createdImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage (ctx);
uiImage = [[UIImage imageWithCGImage:createdImage] retain];
The problem is that, once I create CGImage and UIImage from the buffer (pixelArray), any write operations into the buffer becomes at least 4x slower. This happens only on iPad device not on iPhone. Has anyones face the same problem? What is going on here?
Here is the write operation code, and I call these in loops (setPixel)...
- (RGBA*) getPixel:(NSInteger)x y:(NSInteger)y {
// Bound the co-cordinates.
x = MIN(MAX(x, 0), width - 1);
y = MIN(MAX(y, 0), height - 1);
// yIndexes are pre populated
return (RGBA*)(&pixelArray[(x + yIndexes[y]) << 2]);
}
- (void) setPixel:(RGBA*)color x:(NSInteger)x y:(NSInteger)y {
// Bound the co-cordinates.
x = MIN(MAX(x, 0), _width);
y = MIN(MAX(y, 0), _height);
memcpy([self getPixel:x y:y], color, 3);
colorDirtyBit = YES;
}
I am not sure what is going wrong, but I believe it might be your write operation code that differ in speed. Could you try raw-writing operation without using those functions instead? e.g.
for(int i = 0; i < bufferlen; i++) {
pixelArray[i] = i; // or any arbitrary value
}

How do I create an 8-bit PNG with transparency from an NSBitmapImageRep?

I have a 32-bit NSBitmapImageRep which has an alpha channel with essentially 1-bit values (the pixels are either on or off).
I want to save this bitmap to an 8-bit PNG file with transparency. If I use the -representationUsingType:properties: method of NSBitmapImageRep and pass in NSPNGFileType, a 32-bit PNG is created, which is not what I want.
I know that 8-bit PNGs can be read, they open in Preview with no problems, but is it possible to write this type of PNG file using any built-in Mac OS X APIs? I'm happy to drop down to Core Image or even QuickTime if necessary. A cursory examination of the CGImage docs didn't reveal anything obvious.
EDIT:
I've started a bounty on this question, if someone can provide working source code that takes a 32-bit NSBitmapImageRep and writes a 256-color PNG with 1-bit transparency, it's yours.
How about pnglib? It's really lightweight and easy to use.
pngnq (and new pngquant which achieves higher quality) has BSD-style license, so you can just include it in your program. No need to spawn as separate task.
A great reference for working with lower level APIs is Programming With Quartz
Some of the code below is based on examples from that book.
Note: This is un-tested code meant to be a starting point only....
- (NSBitmapImageRep*)convertImageRep:(NSBitmapImageRep*)startingImage{
CGImageRef anImage = [startingImage CGImage];
CGContextRef bitmapContext;
CGRect ctxRect;
size_t bytesPerRow, width, height;
width = CGImageGetWidth(anImage);
height = CGImageGetHeight(anImage);
ctxRect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, width, height);
bytesPerRow = (width * 4 + 63) & ~63;
bitmapData = calloc(bytesPerRow * height, 1);
bitmapContext = createRGBBitmapContext(width, height, TRUE);
CGContextDrawImage (bitmapContext, ctxRect, anImage);
//Now extract the image from the context
CGImageRef bitmapImage = nil;
bitmapImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmapContext);
if(!bitmapImage){
fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't create the image!\n");
return nil;
}
NSBitmapImageRep *newImage = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithCGImage:bitmapImage];
return newImage;
}
Context Creation Function:
CGContextRef createRGBBitmapContext(size_t width, size_t height, Boolean needsTransparentBitmap)
{
CGContextRef context;
size_t bytesPerRow;
unsigned char *rasterData;
//minimum bytes per row is 4 bytes per sample * number of samples
bytesPerRow = width*4;
//round up to nearest multiple of 16.
bytesPerRow = COMPUTE_BEST_BYTES_PER_ROW(bytesPerRow);
int bitsPerComponent = 2; // to get 256 colors (2xRGBA)
//use function 'calloc' so memory is initialized to 0.
rasterData = calloc(1, bytesPerRow * height);
if(rasterData == NULL){
fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't allocate the needed amount of memory!\n");
return NULL;
}
// uses the generic calibrated RGB color space.
context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rasterData, width, height, bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow,
CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB),
(needsTransparentBitmap ? kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst :
kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst)
);
if(context == NULL){
free(rasterData);
fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't create the context!\n");
return NULL;
}
//Either clear the rect or paint with opaque white,
if(needsTransparentBitmap){
CGContextClearRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
}else{
CGContextSaveGState(context);
CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, getRGBOpaqueWhiteColor());
CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
CGContextRestoreGState(context);
}
return context;
}
Usage would be:
NSBitmapImageRep *startingImage; // assumed to be previously set.
NSBitmapImageRep *endingImageRep = [self convertImageRep:startingImage];
// Write out as data
NSData *outputData = [endingImageRep representationUsingType:NSPNGFileType properties:nil];
// somePath is set elsewhere
[outputData writeToFile:somePath atomically:YES];
One thing to try would be creating a NSBitmapImageRep with 8 bits, then copying the data to it.
This would actually be a lot of work, as you would have to compute the color index table yourself.
CGImageDestination is your man for low-level image writing, but I don't know if it supports that specific ability.

How to get pixel data from a UIImage (Cocoa Touch) or CGImage (Core Graphics)?

I have a UIImage (Cocoa Touch). From that, I'm happy to get a CGImage or anything else you'd like that's available. I'd like to write this function:
- (int)getRGBAFromImage:(UIImage *)image atX:(int)xx andY:(int)yy {
// [...]
// What do I want to read about to help
// me fill in this bit, here?
// [...]
int result = (red << 24) | (green << 16) | (blue << 8) | alpha;
return result;
}
FYI, I combined Keremk's answer with my original outline, cleaned-up the typos, generalized it to return an array of colors and got the whole thing to compile. Here is the result:
+ (NSArray*)getRGBAsFromImage:(UIImage*)image atX:(int)x andY:(int)y count:(int)count
{
NSMutableArray *result = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:count];
// First get the image into your data buffer
CGImageRef imageRef = [image CGImage];
NSUInteger width = CGImageGetWidth(imageRef);
NSUInteger height = CGImageGetHeight(imageRef);
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
unsigned char *rawData = (unsigned char*) calloc(height * width * 4, sizeof(unsigned char));
NSUInteger bytesPerPixel = 4;
NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width;
NSUInteger bitsPerComponent = 8;
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rawData, width, height,
bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace,
kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), imageRef);
CGContextRelease(context);
// Now your rawData contains the image data in the RGBA8888 pixel format.
NSUInteger byteIndex = (bytesPerRow * y) + x * bytesPerPixel;
for (int i = 0 ; i < count ; ++i)
{
CGFloat alpha = ((CGFloat) rawData[byteIndex + 3] ) / 255.0f;
CGFloat red = ((CGFloat) rawData[byteIndex] ) / alpha;
CGFloat green = ((CGFloat) rawData[byteIndex + 1] ) / alpha;
CGFloat blue = ((CGFloat) rawData[byteIndex + 2] ) / alpha;
byteIndex += bytesPerPixel;
UIColor *acolor = [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:alpha];
[result addObject:acolor];
}
free(rawData);
return result;
}
One way of doing it is to draw the image to a bitmap context that is backed by a given buffer for a given colorspace (in this case it is RGB): (note that this will copy the image data to that buffer, so you do want to cache it instead of doing this operation every time you need to get pixel values)
See below as a sample:
// First get the image into your data buffer
CGImageRef image = [myUIImage CGImage];
NSUInteger width = CGImageGetWidth(image);
NSUInteger height = CGImageGetHeight(image);
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
unsigned char *rawData = malloc(height * width * 4);
NSUInteger bytesPerPixel = 4;
NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width;
NSUInteger bitsPerComponent = 8;
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rawData, width, height, bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
CGContextRelease(context);
// Now your rawData contains the image data in the RGBA8888 pixel format.
int byteIndex = (bytesPerRow * yy) + xx * bytesPerPixel;
red = rawData[byteIndex];
green = rawData[byteIndex + 1];
blue = rawData[byteIndex + 2];
alpha = rawData[byteIndex + 3];
Apple's Technical Q&A QA1509 shows the following simple approach:
CFDataRef CopyImagePixels(CGImageRef inImage)
{
return CGDataProviderCopyData(CGImageGetDataProvider(inImage));
}
Use CFDataGetBytePtr to get to the actual bytes (and various CGImageGet* methods to understand how to interpret them).
Couldn't believe that there is not one single correct answer here. No need to allocate pointers, and the unmultiplied values still need to be normalized. To cut to the chase, here is the correct version for Swift 4. For UIImage just use .cgImage.
extension CGImage {
func colors(at: [CGPoint]) -> [UIColor]? {
let colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB()
let bytesPerPixel = 4
let bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width
let bitsPerComponent = 8
let bitmapInfo: UInt32 = CGImageAlphaInfo.premultipliedLast.rawValue | CGBitmapInfo.byteOrder32Big.rawValue
guard let context = CGContext(data: nil, width: width, height: height, bitsPerComponent: bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow: bytesPerRow, space: colorSpace, bitmapInfo: bitmapInfo),
let ptr = context.data?.assumingMemoryBound(to: UInt8.self) else {
return nil
}
context.draw(self, in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: width, height: height))
return at.map { p in
let i = bytesPerRow * Int(p.y) + bytesPerPixel * Int(p.x)
let a = CGFloat(ptr[i + 3]) / 255.0
let r = (CGFloat(ptr[i]) / a) / 255.0
let g = (CGFloat(ptr[i + 1]) / a) / 255.0
let b = (CGFloat(ptr[i + 2]) / a) / 255.0
return UIColor(red: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: a)
}
}
}
The reason you have to draw/convert the image first into a buffer is because images can have several different formats. This step is required to convert it to a consistent format you can read.
NSString * path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"filename" ofType:#"jpg"];
UIImage * img = [[UIImage alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:path];
CGImageRef image = [img CGImage];
CFDataRef data = CGDataProviderCopyData(CGImageGetDataProvider(image));
const unsigned char * buffer = CFDataGetBytePtr(data);
Here is a SO thread where #Matt renders only the desired pixel into a 1x1 context by displacing the image so that the desired pixel aligns with the one pixel in the context.
Swift 5 version
The answers given here are either outdated or incorrect because they don't take into account the following:
The pixel size of the image can differ from its point size that is returned by image.size.width/image.size.height.
There can be various layouts used by pixel components in the image, such as BGRA, ABGR, ARGB etc. or may not have an alpha component at all, such as BGR and RGB. For example, UIView.drawHierarchy(in:afterScreenUpdates:) method can produce BGRA images.
Color components can be premultiplied by the alpha for all pixels in the image and need to be divided by alpha in order to restore the original color.
For memory optimization used by CGImage, the size of a pixel row in bytes can be greater than the mere multiplication of the pixel width by 4.
The code below is to provide a universal Swift 5 solution to get the UIColor of a pixel for all such special cases. The code is optimized for usability and clarity, not for performance.
public extension UIImage {
var pixelWidth: Int {
return cgImage?.width ?? 0
}
var pixelHeight: Int {
return cgImage?.height ?? 0
}
func pixelColor(x: Int, y: Int) -> UIColor {
assert(
0..<pixelWidth ~= x && 0..<pixelHeight ~= y,
"Pixel coordinates are out of bounds")
guard
let cgImage = cgImage,
let data = cgImage.dataProvider?.data,
let dataPtr = CFDataGetBytePtr(data),
let colorSpaceModel = cgImage.colorSpace?.model,
let componentLayout = cgImage.bitmapInfo.componentLayout
else {
assertionFailure("Could not get a pixel of an image")
return .clear
}
assert(
colorSpaceModel == .rgb,
"The only supported color space model is RGB")
assert(
cgImage.bitsPerPixel == 32 || cgImage.bitsPerPixel == 24,
"A pixel is expected to be either 4 or 3 bytes in size")
let bytesPerRow = cgImage.bytesPerRow
let bytesPerPixel = cgImage.bitsPerPixel/8
let pixelOffset = y*bytesPerRow + x*bytesPerPixel
if componentLayout.count == 4 {
let components = (
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 0],
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 1],
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 2],
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 3]
)
var alpha: UInt8 = 0
var red: UInt8 = 0
var green: UInt8 = 0
var blue: UInt8 = 0
switch componentLayout {
case .bgra:
alpha = components.3
red = components.2
green = components.1
blue = components.0
case .abgr:
alpha = components.0
red = components.3
green = components.2
blue = components.1
case .argb:
alpha = components.0
red = components.1
green = components.2
blue = components.3
case .rgba:
alpha = components.3
red = components.0
green = components.1
blue = components.2
default:
return .clear
}
// If chroma components are premultiplied by alpha and the alpha is `0`,
// keep the chroma components to their current values.
if cgImage.bitmapInfo.chromaIsPremultipliedByAlpha && alpha != 0 {
let invUnitAlpha = 255/CGFloat(alpha)
red = UInt8((CGFloat(red)*invUnitAlpha).rounded())
green = UInt8((CGFloat(green)*invUnitAlpha).rounded())
blue = UInt8((CGFloat(blue)*invUnitAlpha).rounded())
}
return .init(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: alpha)
} else if componentLayout.count == 3 {
let components = (
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 0],
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 1],
dataPtr[pixelOffset + 2]
)
var red: UInt8 = 0
var green: UInt8 = 0
var blue: UInt8 = 0
switch componentLayout {
case .bgr:
red = components.2
green = components.1
blue = components.0
case .rgb:
red = components.0
green = components.1
blue = components.2
default:
return .clear
}
return .init(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: UInt8(255))
} else {
assertionFailure("Unsupported number of pixel components")
return .clear
}
}
}
public extension UIColor {
convenience init(red: UInt8, green: UInt8, blue: UInt8, alpha: UInt8) {
self.init(
red: CGFloat(red)/255,
green: CGFloat(green)/255,
blue: CGFloat(blue)/255,
alpha: CGFloat(alpha)/255)
}
}
public extension CGBitmapInfo {
enum ComponentLayout {
case bgra
case abgr
case argb
case rgba
case bgr
case rgb
var count: Int {
switch self {
case .bgr, .rgb: return 3
default: return 4
}
}
}
var componentLayout: ComponentLayout? {
guard let alphaInfo = CGImageAlphaInfo(rawValue: rawValue & Self.alphaInfoMask.rawValue) else { return nil }
let isLittleEndian = contains(.byteOrder32Little)
if alphaInfo == .none {
return isLittleEndian ? .bgr : .rgb
}
let alphaIsFirst = alphaInfo == .premultipliedFirst || alphaInfo == .first || alphaInfo == .noneSkipFirst
if isLittleEndian {
return alphaIsFirst ? .bgra : .abgr
} else {
return alphaIsFirst ? .argb : .rgba
}
}
var chromaIsPremultipliedByAlpha: Bool {
let alphaInfo = CGImageAlphaInfo(rawValue: rawValue & Self.alphaInfoMask.rawValue)
return alphaInfo == .premultipliedFirst || alphaInfo == .premultipliedLast
}
}
UIImage is a wrapper the bytes are CGImage or CIImage
According the the Apple Reference on UIImage the object is immutable and you have no access to the backing bytes. While it is true that you can access the CGImage data if you populated the UIImage with a CGImage (explicitly or implicitly), it will return NULL if the UIImage is backed by a CIImage and vice-versa.
Image objects not provide direct access to their underlying image
data. However, you can retrieve the image data in other formats for
use in your app. Specifically, you can use the cgImage and ciImage
properties to retrieve versions of the image that are compatible with
Core Graphics and Core Image, respectively. You can also use the
UIImagePNGRepresentation(:) and UIImageJPEGRepresentation(:_:)
functions to generate an NSData object containing the image data in
either the PNG or JPEG format.
Common tricks to getting around this issue
As stated your options are
UIImagePNGRepresentation or JPEG
Determine if image has CGImage or CIImage backing data and get it there
Neither of these are particularly good tricks if you want output that isn't ARGB, PNG, or JPEG data and the data isn't already backed by CIImage.
My recommendation, try CIImage
While developing your project it might make more sense for you to avoid UIImage altogether and pick something else. UIImage, as a Obj-C image wrapper, is often backed by CGImage to the point where we take it for granted. CIImage tends to be a better wrapper format in that you can use a CIContext to get out the format you desire without needing to know how it was created. In your case, getting the bitmap would be a matter of calling
- render:toBitmap:rowBytes:bounds:format:colorSpace:
As an added bonus you can start doing nice manipulations to the image by chaining filters onto the image. This solves a lot of the issues where the image is upside down or needs to be rotated/scaled etc.
Building on Olie and Algal's answer, here is an updated answer for Swift 3
public func getRGBAs(fromImage image: UIImage, x: Int, y: Int, count: Int) -> [UIColor] {
var result = [UIColor]()
// First get the image into your data buffer
guard let cgImage = image.cgImage else {
print("CGContext creation failed")
return []
}
let width = cgImage.width
let height = cgImage.height
let colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB()
let rawdata = calloc(height*width*4, MemoryLayout<CUnsignedChar>.size)
let bytesPerPixel = 4
let bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width
let bitsPerComponent = 8
let bitmapInfo: UInt32 = CGImageAlphaInfo.premultipliedLast.rawValue | CGBitmapInfo.byteOrder32Big.rawValue
guard let context = CGContext(data: rawdata, width: width, height: height, bitsPerComponent: bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow: bytesPerRow, space: colorSpace, bitmapInfo: bitmapInfo) else {
print("CGContext creation failed")
return result
}
context.draw(cgImage, in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: width, height: height))
// Now your rawData contains the image data in the RGBA8888 pixel format.
var byteIndex = bytesPerRow * y + bytesPerPixel * x
for _ in 0..<count {
let alpha = CGFloat(rawdata!.load(fromByteOffset: byteIndex + 3, as: UInt8.self)) / 255.0
let red = CGFloat(rawdata!.load(fromByteOffset: byteIndex, as: UInt8.self)) / alpha
let green = CGFloat(rawdata!.load(fromByteOffset: byteIndex + 1, as: UInt8.self)) / alpha
let blue = CGFloat(rawdata!.load(fromByteOffset: byteIndex + 2, as: UInt8.self)) / alpha
byteIndex += bytesPerPixel
let aColor = UIColor(red: red, green: green, blue: blue, alpha: alpha)
result.append(aColor)
}
free(rawdata)
return result
}
swift
To access the raw RGB values of an UIImage in Swift 5 use the underlying CGImage and its dataProvider:
import UIKit
let image = UIImage(named: "example.png")!
guard let cgImage = image.cgImage,
let data = cgImage.dataProvider?.data,
let bytes = CFDataGetBytePtr(data) else {
fatalError("Couldn't access image data")
}
assert(cgImage.colorSpace?.model == .rgb)
let bytesPerPixel = cgImage.bitsPerPixel / cgImage.bitsPerComponent
for y in 0 ..< cgImage.height {
for x in 0 ..< cgImage.width {
let offset = (y * cgImage.bytesPerRow) + (x * bytesPerPixel)
let components = (r: bytes[offset], g: bytes[offset + 1], b: bytes[offset + 2])
print("[x:\(x), y:\(y)] \(components)")
}
print("---")
}
https://www.ralfebert.de/ios/examples/image-processing/uiimage-raw-pixels/
Based on different answers but mainly on this, this works for what I need:
UIImage *image1 = ...; // The image from where you want a pixel data
int pixelX = ...; // The X coordinate of the pixel you want to retrieve
int pixelY = ...; // The Y coordinate of the pixel you want to retrieve
uint32_t pixel1; // Where the pixel data is to be stored
CGContextRef context1 = CGBitmapContextCreate(&pixel1, 1, 1, 8, 4, CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(), kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst);
CGContextDrawImage(context1, CGRectMake(-pixelX, -pixelY, CGImageGetWidth(image1.CGImage), CGImageGetHeight(image1.CGImage)), image1.CGImage);
CGContextRelease(context1);
As a result of this lines, you will have a pixel in AARRGGBB format with alpha always set to FF in the 4 byte unsigned integer pixel1.

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