How to encode PNG to buffer using libpng?

Question

I'm currently using the following to write a PNG to a file:

#include <png.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>

/* Pixels in this bitmap structure are stored as BGR. */
typedef struct _RGBPixel {
    uint8_t blue;
    uint8_t green;
    uint8_t red;
} RGBPixel;

/* Structure for containing decompressed bitmaps. */
typedef struct _RGBBitmap {
    RGBPixel *pixels;
    size_t width;
    size_t height;
    size_t bytewidth;
    uint8_t bytes_per_pixel;
} RGBBitmap;

/* Returns pixel of bitmap at given point. */
#define RGBPixelAtPoint(image, x, y) \
    *(((image)->pixels) + (((image)->bytewidth * (y)) \
                        + ((x) * (image)->bytes_per_pixel)))

/* Attempts to save PNG to file; returns 0 on success, non-zero on error. */
int save_png_to_file(RGBBitmap *bitmap, const char *path)
{
    FILE *fp = fopen(path, "wb");
    png_structp png_ptr = NULL;
    png_infop info_ptr = NULL;
    size_t x, y;
    png_uint_32 bytes_per_row;
    png_byte **row_pointers = NULL;

    if (fp == NULL) return -1;

    /* Initialize the write struct. */
    png_ptr = png_create_write_struct(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, NULL, NULL, NULL);
    if (png_ptr == NULL) {
        fclose(fp);
        return -1;
    }

    /* Initialize the info struct. */
    info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
    if (info_ptr == NULL) {
        png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, NULL);
        fclose(fp);
        return -1;
    }

    /* Set up error handling. */
    if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr))) {
        png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
        fclose(fp);
        return -1;
    }

    /* Set image attributes. */
    png_set_IHDR(png_ptr,
                 info_ptr,
                 bitmap->width,
                 bitmap->height,
                 8,
                 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB,
                 PNG_INTERLACE_NONE,
                 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_DEFAULT,
                 PNG_FILTER_TYPE_DEFAULT);

    /* Initialize rows of PNG. */
    bytes_per_row = bitmap->width * bitmap->bytes_per_pixel;
    row_pointers = png_malloc(png_ptr, bitmap->height * sizeof(png_byte *));
    for (y = 0; y < bitmap->height; ++y) {
        uint8_t *row = png_malloc(png_ptr, sizeof(uint8_t) * bitmap->bytes_per_pixel);
        row_pointers[y] = (png_byte *)row;
        for (x = 0; x < bitmap->width; ++x) {
            RGBPixel color = RGBPixelAtPoint(bitmap, x, y);
            *row++ = color.red;
            *row++ = color.green;
            *row++ = color.blue;
        }
    }

    /* Actually write the image data. */
    png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
    png_set_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr, row_pointers);
    png_write_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY, NULL);

    /* Cleanup. */
    for (y = 0; y < bitmap->height; y++) {
        png_free(png_ptr, row_pointers[y]);
    }
    png_free(png_ptr, row_pointers);

    /* Finish writing. */
    png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
    fclose(fp);
    return 0;
}

How can I write a similar function (in C) to encode a PNG to an in-memory buffer?

The prototype would look something like this:

uint8_t *encode_png_to_buffer(RGBBitmap *source);

And it seems that I would probably need to make some use of png_set_write_fn().

But apart from that I'm not sure how to approach this. Are there any examples of this being done? Surely I'm not the first to need this functionality.

Answer 1

Yes, using png_set_write_fn something like this - untested:

Updated with edits from comment

/* structure to store PNG image bytes */
struct mem_encode
{
  char *buffer;
  size_t size;
}


void
my_png_write_data(png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep data, png_size_t length)
{
  /* with libpng15 next line causes pointer deference error; use libpng12 */
  struct mem_encode* p=(struct mem_encode*)png_get_io_ptr(png_ptr); /* was png_ptr->io_ptr */
  size_t nsize = p->size + length;

  /* allocate or grow buffer */
  if(p->buffer)
    p->buffer = realloc(p->buffer, nsize);
  else
    p->buffer = malloc(nsize);

  if(!p->buffer)
    png_error(png_ptr, "Write Error");

  /* copy new bytes to end of buffer */
  memcpy(p->buffer + p->size, data, length);
  p->size += length;
}

/* This is optional but included to show how png_set_write_fn() is called */
void
my_png_flush(png_structp png_ptr)
{
}



int save_png_to_file(RGBBitmap *bitmap, const char *path)
{
...
/* static */
struct mem_encode state;

/* initialise - put this before png_write_png() call */
state.buffer = NULL;
state.size = 0;

/* if my_png_flush() is not needed, change the arg to NULL */
png_set_write_fn(png_ptr, &state, my_png_write_data, my_png_flush);

... call png_write_png() ...

/* now state.buffer contains the PNG image of size s.size bytes */

/* cleanup */
if(state.buffer)
  free(state.buffer);