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imwrite

Write image to graphics file

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Syntax

imwrite(A,filename)
imwrite(A,map,filename)
imwrite(___,fmt)
imwrite(___,Name,Value)

Description

example

imwrite(A,filename) writes image data A to the file specified by filename, inferring the file format from the extension. imwrite creates the new file in your current folder. The bit depth of the output image depends on the data type of A and the file format. For most formats:

  • If A is of data type uint8, then imwrite outputs 8-bit values.

  • If A is of data type uint16 and the output file format supports 16-bit data (JPEG, PNG, and TIFF), then imwrite outputs 16-bit values. If the output file format does not support 16-bit data, then imwrite returns an error.

  • If A is a grayscale or RGB color image of data type double or single, then imwrite assumes that the dynamic range is [0,1] and automatically scales the data by 255 before writing it to the file as 8-bit values. If the data in A is single, convert A to double before writing to a GIF or TIFF file.

  • If A is of data type logical, then imwrite assumes that the data is a binary image and writes it to the file with a bit depth of 1, if the format allows it. BMP, PNG, or TIFF formats accept binary images as input arrays.

If A contains indexed image data, you should additionally specify the map input argument.

example

imwrite(A,map,filename) writes the indexed image in A and its associated colormap, map, to the file specified by filename.

  • If A is an indexed image of data type double or single, then imwrite converts the indices to zero-based indices by subtracting 1 from each element, and then writes the data as uint8. If the data in A is single, convert A to double before writing to a GIF or TIFF file.

imwrite(___,fmt) writes the image in the format specified by fmt, regardless of the file extension in filename. You can specify fmt after the input arguments in any of the previous syntaxes.

example

imwrite(___,Name,Value) specifies additional parameters for output GIF, HDF, JPEG, PBM, PGM, PNG, PPM, and TIFF files, using one or more name-value pair arguments. You can specify Name,Value after the input arguments in any of the previous syntaxes.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Write a 50-by-50 array of grayscale values to a PNG file in the current folder. 

A = rand(50);
imwrite(A,'myGray.png')

Write an indexed image array and its associated colormap to a PNG file.

Load sample image data from the file, clown.mat.

load clown.mat

The image array X and its associated colormap, map, are loaded into the MATLAB® workspace.

Write the data to a new PNG file.

imwrite(X,map,'myclown.png')

imwrite creates the file, myclown.png, in your current folder.

View the new file by opening it outside of MATLAB.

myclown.png contains an image of a clown.

Write image data to a new PNG file with the built-in MATLAB colormap, copper.

Load sample image data from the file clown.mat.

load clown.mat

The image array X and its associated colormap, map, are loaded into the MATLAB workspace. map is a matrix of 81 RGB vectors.

Define a copper-tone colormap with 81 RGB vectors. Then, write the image data to a PNG file using the new colormap.

newmap = copper(81);
imwrite(X,newmap,'copperclown.png');

imwrite creates the file, copperclown.png, in your current folder.

View the new file by opening it outside of MATLAB.

copperclown.png contains a copper-tone image of a clown.

Create and write truecolor image data to a JPEG file.

Create a 49-by-49-by-3 array of random RGB values.

A = rand(49,49);
A(:,:,2) = rand(49,49);
A(:,:,3) = rand(49,49);

Write the image data to a JPEG file, specifying the output format using 'jpg'. Add a comment to the file using the 'Comment' name-value pair argument.

imwrite(A,'newImage.jpg','jpg','Comment','My JPEG file')

View information about the new file.

imfinfo('newImage.jpg')
ans = 

           Filename: 'S:\newImage.jpg'
        FileModDate: '25-Jan-2013 16:18:41'
           FileSize: 2339
             Format: 'jpg'
      FormatVersion: ''
              Width: 49
             Height: 49
           BitDepth: 24
          ColorType: 'truecolor'
    FormatSignature: ''
    NumberOfSamples: 3
       CodingMethod: 'Huffman'
      CodingProcess: 'Sequential'
            Comment: {'My JPEG file'}
Open Live Script

Write multiple images to a single multipage TIFF file.

Create two sets of random image data, im1 and im2. 

im1 = rand(50,40,3);
im2 = rand(50,50,3);

Write the first image to a new TIFF file. Then, append the second image to the same file. 

imwrite(im1,'myMultipageFile.tif')
imwrite(im2,'myMultipageFile.tif','WriteMode','append')
Open Script

Draw a series of plots, capture them as images, and write them into one animated GIF file.

Plot $y = x^{n}$ for $n = 3$.

x = 0:0.01:1;
n = 3;
y = x.^n;
plot(x,y,'LineWidth',3)
title(['y = x^n,  n = ' num2str(n) ])

Capture a series of plots for increasing values of $n$.

n = 1:0.5:5;
nImages = length(n);

fig = figure;
for idx = 1:nImages
    y = x.^n(idx);
    plot(x,y,'LineWidth',3)
    title(['y = x^n,  n = ' num2str( n(idx)) ])
    drawnow
    frame = getframe(fig);
    im{idx} = frame2im(frame);
end
close;

Display the series of images in one figure.

figure;
for idx = 1:nImages
    subplot(3,3,idx)
    imshow(im{idx});
end

Save the nine images into a GIF file. Because three-dimensional data is not supported for GIF files, call rgb2ind to convert the RGB data in the image to an indexed image A with a colormap map. To append multiple images to the first image, call imwrite with the name-value pair argument 'WriteMode','append'.

filename = 'testAnimated.gif'; % Specify the output file name
for idx = 1:nImages
    [A,map] = rgb2ind(im{idx},256);
    if idx == 1
        imwrite(A,map,filename,'gif','LoopCount',Inf,'DelayTime',1);
    else
        imwrite(A,map,filename,'gif','WriteMode','append','DelayTime',1);
    end
end

imwrite writes the GIF file to your current folder. Name-value pair 'LoopCount',Inf causes the animation to continuously loop. 'DelayTime',1 specifies a 1-second delay between the display of each image in the animation.

Input Arguments

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Image data, specified as a full (nonsparse) matrix.

  • For grayscale images, A can be m-by-n.

  • For indexed images, A can be m-by-n. Specify the associated colormap in the map input argument.

  • For truecolor images, A must be m-by-n-by-3. imwrite does not support writing RGB images to GIF files.

For TIFF files, A can be an m-by-n-by-4 array containing color data that uses the CMYK color space.

For multiframe GIF files, A can be an m-by-n-by-1-by-p array containing grayscale or indexed images, where p is the number of frames to write. RGB images are not supported in this case.

Data Types: double | single | uint8 | uint16 | logical

Name of the output file, specified as a character vector or string scalar.

Depending on the location you are writing to, filename can take on one of these forms.

Location

Form

Current folder

To write to the current folder, specify the name of the file in filename.

filename must include the file extension. For a list of the image types that imwrite can write, see the description for the fmt input argument.

Example: 'myImage.jpg'

Other folders

To write to a folder different from the current folder, specify the full or relative path name in filename.

Example: 'C:\myFolder\myImage.ext'

Example: '\imgDir\myImage.ext'

Remote Location

To write to a remote location, filename must contain the full path of the file specified as a uniform resource locator (URL) of the form:

scheme_name://path_to_file/my_file.ext

Based on the remote location, scheme_name can be one of the values in this table.

Remote Locationscheme_name
Amazon S3™s3
Windows Azure® Blob Storagewasb, wasbs
HDFS™hdfs

For more information, see Work with Remote Data.

Example: 's3://bucketname/path_to_file/my_image.jpg'

Data Types: char | string

Colormap associated with indexed image data in A, specified as an m-by-3 array. map must be a valid MATLAB colormap. See colormap for a list of built-in MATLAB colormaps. Most image file formats do not support colormaps with more than 256 entries.

Example: [0,0,0;0.5,0.5,0.5;1,1,1]

Example: jet(60)

Data Types: double

Format of the output file, specified as one of the formats in this table.

This table also summarizes the types of images that imwrite can write. The MATLAB file format registry determines which file formats are supported. See imformats for more information about this registry.

For certain formats, imwrite can accept additional name-value pair arguments. To view these arguments, click the linked format names below.

Value of fmt

Format of Output File

Description

'bmp'

Windows® Bitmap (BMP)

1-bit, 8-bit, and 24-bit uncompressed images

'gif'

GIF — Graphics Interchange Format

8-bit images

'hdf'

HDF4 — Hierarchical Data Format

8-bit raster image data sets with or without associated colormap, 24-bit raster image data sets

'jpg' or 'jpeg'

JPEG — Joint Photographic Experts Group

8-bit, 12-bit, and 16-bit Baseline JPEG images

Note

imwrite converts indexed images to RGB before writing data to JPEG files, because the JPEG format does not support indexed images.

'jp2' or 'jpx'

JPEG 2000— Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000

1-bit, 8-bit, and 16-bit JPEG 2000 images

'pbm'

Portable Bitmap (PBM)

Any 1-bit PBM image, ASCII (plain) or raw (binary) encoding

'pcx'

Windows Paintbrush (PCX)

8-bit images

'pgm'

Portable Graymap (PGM)

Any standard PGM image; ASCII (plain) encoded with arbitrary color depth; raw (binary) encoded with up to 16 bits per gray value

'png'

PNG — Portable Network Graphics

1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, and 16-bit grayscale images; 8-bit and 16-bit grayscale images with alpha channels; 1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, and 8-bit indexed images; 24-bit and 48-bit truecolor images; 24-bit and 48-bit truecolor images with alpha channels

Note

The imwrite function does not support writing of indexed PNG files that have insufficient colormap entries.

'pnm'

Portable Anymap (PNM)

Any of the PPM/PGM/PBM formats, chosen automatically

'ppm'

Portable Pixmap (PPM)

Any standard PPM image: ASCII (plain) encoded with arbitrary color depth or raw (binary) encoded with up to 16 bits per color component

'ras'

Sun™ Raster (RAS)

Any RAS image, including 1-bit bitmap, 8-bit indexed, 24-bit truecolor, and 32-bit truecolor with alpha

'tif' or 'tiff'

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)

Baseline TIFF images, including:

  • 1-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, and 48-bit uncompressed images and images with packbits, LZW, or Deflate compression

  • 1-bit images with CCITT 1D, Group 3, and Group 4 compression

  • CIELAB, ICCLAB, and CMYK images

'xwd'

X Windows Dump (XWD)

8-bit ZPixmaps

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: imwrite(A,'myFile.png','BitDepth',8) writes the data in A using 8 bits to represent each pixel.

GIF — Graphics Interchange Format

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Color to use as background color for the indexed image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'BackgroundColor' and a scalar integer corresponding to the colormap index.

The background color is used for some disposal methods in animated GIFs.

  • If image data A is uint8 or logical, then the colormap index is zero-based.

  • If image data A is double, then the colormap index is one-based.

The default background color corresponds to the first color in the colormap.

Example: 'BackgroundColor',15

Comment to add to the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Comment' and a character vector, string scalar, a 1-by-n cell array of character vectors, or a string array. For a cell array of character vectors, imwrite adds a carriage return after each character vector.

Example: 'Comment',{'Sample #314','January 5, 2013'}

Data Types: char | cell | string

Delay before displaying next image, in seconds, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'DelayTime' and a scalar value in the range [0,655]. A value of 0 displays images as fast as your hardware allows.

Example: 'DelayTime',60

Disposal method of an animated GIF, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'DisposalMethod' and one of the methods in this table.

Value of DisposalMethod Result
'doNotSpecify' (default)Replace one full-size, nontransparent frame with another.
'leaveInPlace'Any pixels not covered up by the next frame continue to display.
'restoreBG'The background color or background tile shows through transparent pixels.
'restorePrevious'Restore to the state of a previous, undisposed frame.

Example: 'DisposalMethod','restoreBG'

Offset of the screen relative to the image, measured from the top left corner of each, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Location' and a two-element vector. The first vector element specifies the offset from the top, and the second element specifies the offset from the left, in pixels.

Example: 'Location',[10,15]

Data Types: double

Number of times to repeat the animation, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LoopCount' and either an integer in the range [0,65535], or the value Inf. If you specify 0, the animation plays once. If you specify the value 1, the animation plays twice, and so on. A LoopCount value of Inf causes the animation to continuously loop.

To enable animation within Microsoft® PowerPoint®, specify a value for 'LoopCount' within the range [1,65535]. Some Microsoft applications interpret the value 0 to mean do not loop at all.

Example: 'LoopCount',3

Height and width of the frame, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ScreenSize' and a two-element vector. When you use the ScreenSize argument with 'Location', it provides a way to write frames to the image that are smaller than the whole frame. 'DisposalMethod' determines the fill value for pixels outside the frame.

Example: 'ScreenSize',[1000 1060]

Data Types: double

Color to use as transparent color for the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'TransparentColor' and a scalar integer corresponding to the colormap index.

  • If image data A is uint8 or logical, then indexing begins at 0.

  • If image data A is double, then indexing begins at 1.

Example: 'TransparentColor',20

Writing mode, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'WriteMode' and either 'overwrite' or 'append'. In overwrite mode, imwrite overwrites an existing file,filename. In append mode, imwrite adds a single frame to the existing file.

Example: 'WriteMode','append'

HDF4 — Hierarchical Data Format

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Compression scheme, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Compression' and one of the options in this table.

Value of Compression Result
'none' (default)No compression
'jpeg'JPEG compression. Valid only for grayscale and RGB images.
'rle'Run-length encoding. Valid only for grayscale and indexed images.

Example: 'Compression','jpeg'

Quality of the JPEG-compressed file, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Quality' and a scalar in the range [0,100], where 0 is lower quality and higher compression, and 100 is higher quality and lower compression. This parameter applies only if 'Compression' is 'jpeg'.

Example: 'Quality',25

Writing mode, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'WriteMode' and either 'overwrite' or 'append'. In overwrite mode, imwrite overwrites an existing file,filename. In append mode, imwrite adds a single frame to the existing file.

Example: 'WriteMode','append'

JPEG — Joint Photographic Experts Group

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Number of bits per pixel, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'BitDepth' and a scalar.

  • For grayscale images, the BitDepth value can be 8, 12, or 16. The default value is 8. For 16-bit images, the 'Mode' name-value pair argument must be 'lossless'.

  • For color images, the BitDepth value is the number of bits per plane, and can be 8 or 12. The default is 8 bits per plane.

Example: 'BitDepth',12

Comment to add to the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Comment' and a character vector, a string scalar, a character array, an n-by-1 cell array of character vectors, or a string array. imwrite writes each row of input as a comment in the JPEG file.

Example: 'Comment',{'First line';'second line';'third line'}

Data Types: char | string | cell

Type of compression, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Mode' and one of these options:

  • 'lossy'

  • 'lossless'

Example: 'Mode','lossless'

Quality of the output file, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Quality' and a scalar in the range [0,100], where 0 is lower quality and higher compression, and 100 is higher quality and lower compression. A Quality value of 100 does not write a lossless JPEG image. Instead, use the 'Mode','lossless' name-value pair argument.

Example: 'Quality',100

JPEG 2000— Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000

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Comment to add to the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Comment' and a character vector, a character array, string scalar, a cell array of character vectors, or string array. imwrite writes each row of input as a comment in the JPEG 2000 file.

Example: 'Comment',{'First line';'second line';'third line'}

Example: 'Comment',{'First line','second line','third line'}

Data Types: cell | char | string

Target compression ratio, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'CompressionRatio' and a real scalar greater than or equal to 1. The compression ratio is the ratio of the input image size to the output compressed size. For example, a value of 2.0 implies that the output image size is half of the input image size or less. A higher value implies a smaller file size and reduced image quality. The compression ratio does not take into account the header size.

Specifying CompressionRatio is valid only when 'Mode' is 'lossy'.

Example: 'CompressionRatio',3

Type of compression, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Mode' and one of these options:

  • 'lossy'

  • 'lossless'

Example: 'Mode','lossless'

Order of packets in the code stream, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ProgressionOrder' and one of these options:

  • 'LRCP'

  • 'RLCP'

  • 'RPCL'

  • 'PCRL'

  • 'CPRL'

The characters represent the following: L = layer, R = resolution, C = component and P = position.

Example: 'ProgressionOrder','RLCP'

Number of quality layers, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'QualityLayers' and an integer in the range [1,20].

Example: 'QualityLayers',8

Number of reduction levels, or wavelet decomposition levels, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ReductionLevels' and an integer in the range [1,8].

Example: 'ReductionLevels',6

Tile height and width, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'TileSize' and a two-element vector. The minimum size you can specify is [128 128].

Example: 'TileSize',[130 130]

PBM-, PGM-, and PPM — Portable Bitmap, Graymap, Pixmap

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Encoding, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Encoding' and either 'rawbits' for binary encoding, or 'ASCII' for plain encoding.

Example: 'Encoding','ASCII'

Maximum gray or color value, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'MaxValue' and a scalar.

Available only for PGM and PPM files. For PBM files, this value is always 1.

If the image array is uint16, then the default value for MaxValue is 65535. Otherwise, the default value is 255.

Example: 'MaxValue',510

PNG — Portable Network Graphics

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Transparency of each pixel, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Alpha' and a matrix of values in the range [0,1]. The row and column dimensions of the Alpha matrix must be the same as those of the image data array. You can specify Alpha only for grayscale (m-by-n) and truecolor (m-by-n-by-3) image data.

Note

You cannot specify both 'Alpha' and 'Transparency' at the same time.

Data Types: double | uint8 | uint16

Author information, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Author' and a character vector or string scalar.

Example: "Author','Ann Smith'

Data Types: char

Background color when compositing transparent pixels, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Background' and a value dependent on the image data, as follows.

Image TypeForm of Background Value
Grayscale imagesScalar in the range [0,1].
Indexed imagesInteger in the range [1,P], where P is the colormap length. For example, 'Background',50 sets the background color to the color specified by the 50th index in the colormap.
Truecolor imagesThree-element vector of RGB intensities in the range [0,1]. For example, 'Background',[0 1 1] sets the background color to cyan.

Data Types: double

Number of bits per pixel, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'BitDepth' and a scalar. Depending on the output image, the scalar can be one of the following values.

Image TypeAllowed Values for BitDepth
Grayscale images1, 2, 4, 8, or 16
Grayscale images with an alpha channel8 or 16
Indexed images1, 2, 4, or 8
Truecolor images8 or 16

  • If the image is of class double or uint8, then the default bit depth is 8 bits per pixel.

  • If the image is uint16, then the default is 16 bits per pixel.

  • If the image is logical, then the default is 1 bit per pixel.

Example: 'BitDepth',4

Reference white point and primary chromaticities, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Chromaticities' and an 8-element vector, [wx wy rx ry gx gy bx by]. The elements wx and wy are the chromaticity coordinates of the white point, and the elements rx, ry, gx, gy, bx, and by are the chromaticity coordinates of the three primary colors.

If you specify Chromaticities, you should also specify the Gamma name-value pair argument.

Example: 'Chromaticities',[0.312,0.329,0.002,0.002,0.001,0.001,0.115,0.312]

Data Types: double

Comment to add to the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Comment' and a character vector or string scalar.

Copyright notice, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Copyright' and a character vector or string scalar.

Time of original image creation, specified as a character vector or string scalar.

Description of the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Description' and a character vector or string scalar.

Legal disclaimer, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Disclaimer' and a character vector or string scalar.

File gamma, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Gamma' and a scalar.

Example: 'Gamma',2.2

Time of the last image modification, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ImageModTime' and a MATLAB serial date number or a character vector or string scalar of a date that can be converted to a date vector using the datevec function. Values should be in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The default ImageModTime value is the time when you call imwrite.

Example: 'ImageModTime','17-Jan-2013 11:23:10'

Data Types: double | char | string

Interlacing scheme, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'InterlaceType' and either 'none' for no interlacing, or 'adam7' to use the Adam7 algorithm.

Example: 'InterlaceType','adam7'

Unit for image resolution, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ResolutionUnit' and either 'unknown' or 'meter'. If you specify ResolutionUnit, you must include at least one of the XResolution and YResolution name-value pair arguments. When the value of ResolutionUnit is 'meter', the XResolution and YResolution values are interpreted in pixels per meter.

Example: 'ResolutionUnit','meter','XResolution',1000

Number of bits in the data array to regard as significant, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'SignificantBits' and a scalar or a vector in the range [1,BitDepth]. Depending on the output image type, the value must be in the following form.

Image TypeForm of SignificantBits Value
Grayscale image without an alpha channelScalar
Grayscale image with an alpha channel2-element vector
Indexed image3-element vector
Truecolor image without an alpha channel3-element vector
Truecolor image with an alpha channel4-element vector

Example: 'SignificantBits',[2,3]

Software used to create the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Software' and a character vector or string scalar.

Device used to create the image, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Source' and a character vector or string scalar.

Pixels to consider transparent when no alpha channel is used, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Transparency' and a scalar or a vector. Depending on the output image, the value must be in the following form.

Image TypeForm of Transparency Value
Grayscale imagesScalar in the range [0,1], indicating the grayscale color to be considered transparent.
Indexed imagesQ-element vector of values in the range [0,1], where Q is no larger than the colormap length and each value indicates the transparency associated with the corresponding colormap entry. In most cases, Q = 1.
Truecolor images3-element vector of RGB intensities in the range [0,1], indicating the truecolor color to consider transparent.

Note

You cannot specify both 'Transparency' and 'Alpha' at the same time.

Example: 'Transparency',[1 1 1]

Data Types: double

Warning of nature of content, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Warning' and a character vector or string scalar.

Image resolution in the horizontal direction, in pixels/unit, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'XResolution' and a scalar. Define the unit by specifying the ResolutionUnit name-value pair argument.

If you do not also specify YResolution, then the XResolution value applies to both the horizontal and vertical directions.

Example: 'XResolution',900

Image resolution in the vertical direction, in pixels/unit, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'XResolution' and a scalar. Define the unit by specifying the ResolutionUnit name-value pair argument.

If you do not also specify XResolution, then the YResolution value applies to both the horizontal and vertical directions.

Example: 'YResolution',900

In addition to the listed name-value pair arguments for PNG, you can use any parameter name that satisfies the PNG specification for keywords. That is, the name uses only printable characters, contains 80 or fewer characters, and does not contain leading or trailing spaces. The value corresponding to these user-specified names must be a character vector or string scalar that contains no control characters other than linefeed.

RAS — Sun Raster Graphic

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Transparency of each pixel, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Alpha' and a matrix with row and column dimensions the same as those of the image data array.

Valid only for truecolor (m-by-n-by-3) image data.

Data Types: double | single | uint8 | uint16

Image type, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Type' and one of the options in this table.

Value of TypeDescription
'standard' (default)Uncompressed, B-G-R color order for truecolor images
'rgb'Uncompressed, R-G-B color order for truecolor images
'rleRun-length encoding of 1-bit and 8-bit images

Example: 'Type','rgb'

TIFF — Tagged Image File Format

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Color space representing the color data, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ColorSpace' and one of these options:

  • 'rgb'

  • 'cielab'

  • 'icclab'

Valid only when the image data array, A, is truecolor (m-by-n-by-3). To use the CMYK color space in a TIFF file, do not use the 'ColorSpace' name-value pair argument. Instead, specify an m-by-n-by-4 image data array.

imwrite can write color image data that uses the L*a*b* color space to TIFF files. The 1976 CIE L*a*b* specification defines numeric values that represent luminance (L*) and chrominance (a* and b*) information. To store L*a*b* color data in a TIFF file, the values must be encoded to fit into either 8-bit or 16-bit storage. imwrite can store L*a*b* color data in a TIFF file using the following encodings:

  • CIELAB encodings — 8-bit and 16-bit encodings defined by the TIFF specification

  • ICCLAB encodings — 8-bit and 16-bit encodings defined by the International Color Consortium

The output class and encoding used by imwrite depends on the class of the input image data array and the ColorSpace value, as shown in the following table. (The 8-bit and 16-bit CIELAB encodings cannot be input arrays because they use a mixture of signed and unsigned values and cannot be represented as a single MATLAB array.)

Input Class and Encoding

Value of ColorSpace

Output Class and Encoding

8-bit ICCLAB


Values are integers in the range [0 255]. L* values are multiplied by 255/100.
128 is added to both the a* and b* values.

'icclab'

8-bit ICCLAB

'cielab'

8-bit CIELAB

16-bit ICCLAB


Values are integers in the range [0, 65280]. L* values are multiplied by 65280/100.
32768 is added to both the a* and b* values, which are represented as integers in the range [0,65535].

'icclab'

16-bit ICCLAB

'cielab'

16-bit CIELAB

Double-precision 1976 CIE L*a*b* values


L* is in the dynamic range [0, 100]. a* and b* can take any value. Setting a* and b* to 0 (zero) produces a neutral color (gray).

'icclab'

8-bit ICCLAB

'cielab'

8-bit CIELAB

Example: 'ColorSpace','cielab'

Compression scheme, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Compression' and one of these options:

  • 'packbits' (default for nonbinary images)

  • 'none'

  • 'lzw'

  • 'deflate'

  • 'jpeg'

  • 'ccitt' (binary images only, and the default for such images)

  • 'fax3' (binary images only)

  • 'fax4' (binary images only)

'jpeg' is a lossy compression scheme; other compression modes are lossless. Also, if you specify 'jpeg' compression, you must specify the 'RowsPerStrip' parameter and the value must be a multiple of 8.

Example: 'Compression','none'

Image description, specified by the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Description' and a character vector or string scalar. This is the text that imfinfo returns in the ImageDescription field for the output image.

Example: 'Description','Sample 2A301'

X- and Y-resolution, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Resolution' and a scalar indicating both resolution, or a two-element vector containing the X-Resolution and Y-Resolution.

Example: 'Resolution',80

Example: 'Resolution',[320,72]

Data Types: double

Number of rows to include in each strip, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'RowsPerStrip' and a scalar. The default value is such that each strip is about 8 kilobytes.

You must specify RowsPerStrip if you specify 'jpeg' compression. The value must be a multiple of 8.

Example: 'RowsPerStrip',16

Data Types: double | single | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Writing mode, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'WriteMode' and either 'overwrite' or 'append'. In overwrite mode, imwrite overwrites an existing file. In append mode, imwrite adds a page to the existing file.

Example: 'WriteMode','append'

Tips

  • For copyright information, see the libtiffcopyright.txt file.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

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