Reading an image file in C/C++

Question

I need to read an image file in C/C++. It would be very great, if some one can post the code for me.

I work on gray scale images and the images are JPEG. I would like to read the images into a 2D array which will make my work easy.

Answer 1

If you decide to go for a minimal approach, without libpng/libjpeg dependencies, I suggest using stb_image and stb_image_write, found here.

It's as simple as it gets, you just need to place the header files stb_image.h and stb_image_write.h in your folder.

Here's the code that you need to read images:

#include <stdint.h>

#define STB_IMAGE_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "stb_image.h"

int main() {
    int width, height, bpp;

    uint8_t* rgb_image = stbi_load("image.png", &width, &height, &bpp, 3);

    stbi_image_free(rgb_image);

    return 0;
}

And here's the code to write an image:

#include <stdint.h>

#define STB_IMAGE_WRITE_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "stb_image_write.h"

#define CHANNEL_NUM 3

int main() {
    int width = 800; 
    int height = 800;

    uint8_t* rgb_image;
    rgb_image = malloc(width*height*CHANNEL_NUM);

    // Write your code to populate rgb_image here

    stbi_write_png("image.png", width, height, CHANNEL_NUM, rgb_image, width*CHANNEL_NUM);

    return 0;
}

You can compile without flags or dependencies:

g++ main.cpp

Other lightweight alternatives include:

• lodepng to read and write png files
• jpeg-compressor to read and write jpeg files