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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