Get pixels and colours from NSImage

Question

I have created an NSImage object, and ideally would like to determine how many of each pixels colour it contains. Is this possible?

Answer 1

I suggest creating your own bitmap context, wrapping it in a graphics context and setting that as the current context, telling the image to draw itself, and then accessing the pixel data behind the bitmap context directly.

This will be more code, but will save you both a trip through a TIFF representation and the creation of thousands or millions of NSColor objects. If you're working with images of any appreciable size, these expenses will add up quickly.

Answer 2

This code renders the NSImage into a CGBitmapContext:

- (void)updateImageData {

    if (!_image)
        return;

    // Dimensions - source image determines context size

    NSSize imageSize = _image.size;
    NSRect imageRect = NSMakeRect(0, 0, imageSize.width, imageSize.height);

    // Create a context to hold the image data

    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB);

    CGContextRef ctx = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL,
                                             imageSize.width,
                                             imageSize.height,
                                             8,
                                             0,
                                             colorSpace,
                                             kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);

    // Wrap graphics context

    NSGraphicsContext* gctx = [NSGraphicsContext graphicsContextWithCGContext:ctx flipped:NO];

    // Make our bitmap context current and render the NSImage into it

    [NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext:gctx];
    [_image drawInRect:imageRect];

    // Calculate the histogram

    [self computeHistogramFromBitmap:ctx];

    // Clean up

    [NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext:nil];
    CGContextRelease(ctx);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
}

Given a bitmap context, we can access the raw image data directly, and compute the histograms for each colour channel:

- (void)computeHistogramFromBitmap:(CGContextRef)bitmap {

    // NB: Assumes RGBA 8bpp

    size_t width = CGBitmapContextGetWidth(bitmap);
    size_t height = CGBitmapContextGetHeight(bitmap);

    uint32_t* pixel = (uint32_t*)CGBitmapContextGetData(bitmap);

    for (unsigned y = 0; y < height; y++)
    {
        for (unsigned x = 0; x < width; x++)
        {
            uint32_t rgba = *pixel;

            // Extract colour components
            uint8_t red   = (rgba & 0x000000ff) >> 0;
            uint8_t green = (rgba & 0x0000ff00) >> 8;
            uint8_t blue  = (rgba & 0x00ff0000) >> 16;

            // Accumulate each colour
            _histogram[kRedChannel][red]++;
            _histogram[kGreenChannel][green]++;
            _histogram[kBlueChannel][blue]++;

            // Next pixel!
            pixel++;
        }
    }
}

@end

I've published a complete project, a Cocoa sample app, which includes the above.

• https://github.com/gavinb/CocoaImageHistogram.git

Answer 3

Get an NSBitmapImageRep from your NSImage. Then you can get access to the pixels.

NSImage* img = ...;
NSBitmapImageRep* raw_img = [NSBitmapImageRep imageRepWithData:[img TIFFRepresentation]];
NSColor* color = [raw_img colorAtX:0 y:0];

Answer 4

This maybe a more streamlined approach for some and reduce complexity of dropping into memory management.

https://github.com/koher/EasyImagy

Code sample https://github.com/koher/EasyImagyCameraSample

import EasyImagy

let image = Image<RGBA<UInt8>>(nsImage: "test.png") // N.B. init with nsImage 

print(image[x, y])
image[x, y] = RGBA(red: 255, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 127)
image[x, y] = RGBA(0xFF00007F) // red: 255, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 127

// Iterates over all pixels
for pixel in image {
    // ...
}



//// Gets a pixel by subscripts Gets a pixel by  
let pixel = image[x, y]
// Sets a pixel by subscripts
image[x, y] = RGBA(0xFF0000FF)
image[x, y].alpha = 127
// Safe get for a pixel
if let pixel = image.pixelAt(x: x, y: y) {
    print(pixel.red)
    print(pixel.green)
    print(pixel.blue)
    print(pixel.alpha)

    print(pixel.gray) // (red + green + blue) / 3
    print(pixel) // formatted like "#FF0000FF"
} else {
    // `pixel` is safe: `nil` is returned when out of bounds
    print("Out of bounds")
}

Answer 5

Look for "histogram" in the Core Image documentation.

Answer 6

Using colorAtX with NSBitmapImageRep does not always lead to the exact correct color.

I managed to get the correct color with this simple code:

[yourImage lockFocus]; // yourImage is just your NSImage variable
NSColor *pixelColor = NSReadPixel(NSMakePoint(1, 1)); // Or another point
[yourImage unlockFocus];