How to import (load) an image in python ?

Examples of how to import (load) an image in python:

Import an image using matplotlib

To import an image in python, one solution is to use matplotlib:

from matplotlib import image

img = image.imread("eiffel-tower.jpeg")

Note:

print( type(img) )
print( img.shape )

returns:

<class 'numpy.ndarray'>

and

(1280, 850, 3)

3 corresponds to RGB.

It is then possible to plot the image using imshow from matplotlib

plt.imshow(img)

plt.show()

Import an image using Pillow

Another solution is to use Pillow

from PIL import Image

img= Image.open("eiffel-tower.jpeg")

Note that here

type(img)

is not a numpy array:

PIL.JpegImagePlugin.JpegImageFile

However it is always possible to plot the image using imshow

plt.imshow(img)

plt.show()

to convert img to a numpy array

import numpy as np

img = np.asarray(img)

References

• Image tutorial
• Image Module
• Importing Image Data into NumPy Arrays