How to read an Image in Python

Python provides many tools for processing image. In this article, we will see how to read an image in Python using OpenCV, Pillow module.

Using OpenCV

OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) is a computer vision library that contains various functions to perform operations on pictures or videos. This cross-platform library is available on multiple programming languages such as Python, C++ etc.

# importing OpenCV(cv2) module 
import cv2 
  
# Save image in set directory 
# Read RGB image 
img = cv2.imread('Pythonpoint.net-logo.png')  
  
# Output img with window name as 'image-read' 
cv2.imshow('image-read', img)  
  
# Maintain output window until user presses a key 
cv2.waitKey(0)         
  
# Destroying present windows on screen 
cv2.destroyAllWindows() 

Output:

Using Pillow module

Pillow is built on top of PIL (Python Image Library). PIL is one of the important modules for image processing in Python. However, the PIL module is not supported since 2011 and doesn’t support python 3.

# importing PIL 
from PIL import Image 
  
# Read image 
img = Image.open('Pythonpoint.net-logo.png') 
  
# Output Images 
img.show() 
  
# prints format of image 
print(img.format) 
  
# prints mode of image 
print(img.mode) 

Output: