Loading and saving image

$Id: 317

$Score: 0

$SOId: 31686

In memory, an image can be seen as a matrix of pixel (color). However, when an image being stored in a permanent storage, it may be stored as is (RAW format), Bitmap or other image formats with particular compression algorithm for saving storage space, e.g. PNG, JPEG, GIF, etc. When loading an image with particular format, the image must be decoded to image.Image with corresponding algorithm. An [image.Decode](<https://golang.org/pkg/image/#Decode>) function declared as

func Decode(r io.Reader) (Image, string, error)

is provided for this particular usage. In order to be able to handle various image formats, prior to calling the image.Decode function, the decoder must be registered through [image.RegisterFormat](<https://golang.org/pkg/image/#RegisterFormat>) function defined as

func RegisterFormat(name, magic string,
    decode func(io.Reader) (Image, error), decodeConfig func(io.Reader) (Config, error))

Currently, the image package supports three file formats: JPEG, GIF and PNG. To register a decoder, add the following

import _ "image/jpeg"    //register JPEG decoder

to the application’s main package. Somewhere in your code (not necessary in main package), to load a JPEG image, use the following snippets:

f, err := os.Open("inputimage.jpg")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("os.Open() failed with %s\\n", err)
}
defer f.Close()

img, fmtName, err := image.Decode(f)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("image.Decode() failed with %s\\n", err)
}

// `fmtName` contains the name used during format registration
// Work with `img` ...

Save to PNG

To save an image into particular format, the corresponding encoder must be imported explicitly, i.e.

import "image/png"    //needed to use `png` encoder

then an image can be saved with the following snippets:

f, err := os.Create("outimage.png")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("os.Create() failed with %s\\n", err)
}
defer f.Close()

// Encode to `PNG` with `DefaultCompression` level
// then save to file
err = png.Encode(f, img)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("png.Encode() failed with %s\\n", err)
}

If you want to specify compression level other than DefaultCompression level, create an encoder, e.g.

enc := png.Encoder{
    CompressionLevel: png.BestSpeed,
}
err := enc.Encode(f, img)

Save to PNG

Save to JPEG