Getting the pixel data from a CGImage object
Q:
How do I access the pixel data of a CGImage object?
A: How do I access the pixel data of a CGImage object?
On Mac OS X 10.5 or later, a new call has been added that allows you to obtain the actual pixel data from a CGImage object. This call, CGDataProviderCopyData, returns a CFData object that contains the pixel data from the image in question. An example of using this call to obtain pixel data from a CGImage is shown in Listing 1. Once you have the CFData object with your pixel information, you can call CFDataGetBytePtr to get a pointer to the pixel data, or CFDataGetBytes to copy a subrange of pixel data.
Listing 1 Getting raw pixel data from a CGImage.
CFDataRef CopyImagePixels(CGImageRef inImage) { return CGDataProviderCopyData(CGImageGetDataProvider(inImage)); } |
Prior to Mac OS X 10.5 an image's pixels are not as readily available. The only way to guarantee access to the equivalent bits is to create a bitmap context with a memory buffer you specify and then draw the CGImage to the context using CGContextDrawImage. After drawing the CGImage to the context you will have a copy of the data in the buffer you specified (which can also be easily accessed using the CGBitmapContexGetData function). The code in Listing 2 demonstrates how to do this.
For more information about creating bitmap contexts for other pixel formats, see the Quartz 2D Programming Guide.
Listing 2 Accessing the pixel data of a CGImage.
void ManipulateImagePixelData(CGImageRef inImage)
{
// Create the bitmap context
CGContextRef cgctx = CreateARGBBitmapContext(inImage);
if (cgctx == NULL)
{
// error creating context
return;
}
// Get image width, height. We'll use the entire image.
size_t w = CGImageGetWidth(inImage);
size_t h = CGImageGetHeight(inImage);
CGRect rect = {{0,0},{w,h}};
// Draw the image to the bitmap context. Once we draw, the memory
// allocated for the context for rendering will then contain the
// raw image data in the specified color space.
CGContextDrawImage(cgctx, rect, inImage);
// Now we can get a pointer to the image data associated with the bitmap
// context.
void *data = CGBitmapContextGetData (cgctx);
if (data != NULL)
{
// **** You have a pointer to the image data ****
// **** Do stuff with the data here ****
}
// When finished, release the context
CGContextRelease(cgctx);
// Free image data memory for the context
if (data)
{
free(data);
}
}
CGContextRef CreateARGBBitmapContext (CGImageRef inImage)
{
CGContextRef context = NULL;
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace;
void * bitmapData;
int bitmapByteCount;
int bitmapBytesPerRow;
// Get image width, height. We'll use the entire image.
size_t pixelsWide = CGImageGetWidth(inImage);
size_t pixelsHigh = CGImageGetHeight(inImage);
// Declare the number of bytes per row. Each pixel in the bitmap in this
// example is represented by 4 bytes; 8 bits each of red, green, blue, and
// alpha.
bitmapBytesPerRow = (pixelsWide * 4);
bitmapByteCount = (bitmapBytesPerRow * pixelsHigh);
// Use the generic RGB color space.
colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB);
if (colorSpace == NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Error allocating color space\n");
return NULL;
}
// Allocate memory for image data. This is the destination in memory
// where any drawing to the bitmap context will be rendered.
bitmapData = malloc( bitmapByteCount );
if (bitmapData == NULL)
{
fprintf (stderr, "Memory not allocated!");
CGColorSpaceRelease( colorSpace );
return NULL;
}
// Create the bitmap context. We want pre-multiplied ARGB, 8-bits
// per component. Regardless of what the source image format is
// (CMYK, Grayscale, and so on) it will be converted over to the format
// specified here by CGBitmapContextCreate.
context = CGBitmapContextCreate (bitmapData,
pixelsWide,
pixelsHigh,
8, // bits per component
bitmapBytesPerRow,
colorSpace,
kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst);
if (context == NULL)
{
free (bitmapData);
fprintf (stderr, "Context not created!");
}
// Make sure and release colorspace before returning
CGColorSpaceRelease( colorSpace );
return context;
} |
References
Document Revision History
| Date | Notes |
|---|---|
| 2008-08-27 | Updated to refer to CGDataProviderCopyData(), available as of Mac OS X 10.5. |
| 2007-03-05 | New document that describes how to access the pixel data of a CGImage object |
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