Image processing is a crucial task in many applications, and Python provides several libraries to handle it efficiently. One such library is imageio, which is a versatile library for reading and writing images in various formats. In this blog post, we will explore how to use imageio to save images in Python.

Installation

Before we begin, make sure you have imageio installed in your Python environment. Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following command:

pip install imageio

Once imageio is installed, we can start using it to save images.

Saving Images

Saving images with imageio is straightforward. Let’s assume we have an image titled sample_image.jpg that we want to save in a specific format.

Here is an example of how to save an image using imageio:

import imageio

# Read the image
image = imageio.imread('sample_image.jpg')

# Save the image in PNG format
imageio.imwrite('saved_image.png', image)

In the above code, we first use imageio.imread() to read the image from the specified file. Next, we use imageio.imwrite() to save the image in the desired format. In this case, we chose PNG format, but imageio supports various other formats as well, such as JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, etc.

Specifying Image Format

By default, imageio infers the output format based on the file extension specified when saving the image. However, you can also explicitly specify the format using the format argument of imwrite().

imageio.imwrite('saved_image.jpg', image, format='JPEG')

In the above example, we have explicitly specified the output format as JPEG.

Additional Options

imwrite() supports several additional options to customize the saved image. For example, you can adjust the image quality, compression level, or apply specific color mappings. These options vary depending on the output format.

Here is an example of compressing a saved image in JPEG format with a specific quality:

imageio.imwrite('saved_image.jpg', image, format='JPEG', quality=90)

In the above code, we have set the image quality to 90 using the quality option. The value can range from 0 to 100, where higher values indicate better quality but larger file sizes.

Conclusion

imageio is a powerful library that simplifies the process of saving images in Python. With its intuitive API and support for various image formats, it provides a convenient way to handle image processing tasks efficiently.

In this blog post, we have explored the basics of saving images using imageio. With this knowledge, you can now easily incorporate image saving capabilities into your Python projects.

Remember to check the official imageio documentation for more details and advanced usage.

Happy coding!