Convert image to grayscale

Question

I am trying to convert an image into grayscale in the following way:

#define bytesPerPixel 4
#define bitsPerComponent 8

-(unsigned char*) getBytesForImage: (UIImage*)pImage
{
    CGImageRef image = [pImage CGImage];
    NSUInteger width = CGImageGetWidth(image);
    NSUInteger height = CGImageGetHeight(image);

    NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width;

    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    unsigned char *rawData = malloc(height * width * 4);
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rawData, width, height, bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

    CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), image);
    CGContextRelease(context);

    return rawData;
}

-(UIImage*) processImage: (UIImage*)pImage
{   
    DebugLog(@"processing image");
    unsigned char *rawData = [self getBytesForImage: pImage];

    NSUInteger width = pImage.size.width;
    NSUInteger height = pImage.size.height;

    DebugLog(@"width: %d", width);
    DebugLog(@"height: %d", height);

    NSUInteger bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * width;

    for (int xCoordinate = 0; xCoordinate < width; xCoordinate++)
    {
        for (int yCoordinate = 0; yCoordinate < height; yCoordinate++)
        {
            int byteIndex = (bytesPerRow * yCoordinate) + xCoordinate * bytesPerPixel;

            //Getting original colors
            float red = ( rawData[byteIndex] / 255.f );
            float green = ( rawData[byteIndex + 1] / 255.f );
            float blue = ( rawData[byteIndex + 2] / 255.f );

            //Processing pixel data
            float averageColor = (red + green + blue) / 3.0f;

            red = averageColor;
            green = averageColor;
            blue = averageColor;

            //Assigning new color components
            rawData[byteIndex] = (unsigned char) red * 255;
            rawData[byteIndex + 1] = (unsigned char) green * 255;
            rawData[byteIndex + 2] = (unsigned char) blue * 255;


        }
    }

    NSData* newPixelData = [NSData dataWithBytes: rawData length: height * width * 4];
    UIImage* newImage = [UIImage imageWithData: newPixelData];

    free(rawData);

    DebugLog(@"image processed");

    return newImage;

}

So when I want to convert an image I just call processImage:

imageToDisplay.image = [self processImage: image];

But imageToDisplay doesn't display. What may be the problem?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I needed a version that preserved the alpha channel, so I modified the code posted by Dutchie432:

@implementation UIImage (grayscale)

typedef enum {
    ALPHA = 0,
    BLUE = 1,
    GREEN = 2,
    RED = 3
} PIXELS;

- (UIImage *)convertToGrayscale {
    CGSize size = [self size];
    int width = size.width;
    int height = size.height;

    // the pixels will be painted to this array
    uint32_t *pixels = (uint32_t *) malloc(width * height * sizeof(uint32_t));

    // clear the pixels so any transparency is preserved
    memset(pixels, 0, width * height * sizeof(uint32_t));

    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();

    // create a context with RGBA pixels
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(pixels, width, height, 8, width * sizeof(uint32_t), colorSpace, 
                                                 kCGBitmapByteOrder32Little | kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast);

    // paint the bitmap to our context which will fill in the pixels array
    CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), [self CGImage]);

    for(int y = 0; y < height; y++) {
        for(int x = 0; x < width; x++) {
            uint8_t *rgbaPixel = (uint8_t *) &pixels[y * width + x];

            // convert to grayscale using recommended method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale#Converting_color_to_grayscale
            uint32_t gray = 0.3 * rgbaPixel[RED] + 0.59 * rgbaPixel[GREEN] + 0.11 * rgbaPixel[BLUE];

            // set the pixels to gray
            rgbaPixel[RED] = gray;
            rgbaPixel[GREEN] = gray;
            rgbaPixel[BLUE] = gray;
        }
    }

    // create a new CGImageRef from our context with the modified pixels
    CGImageRef image = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);

    // we're done with the context, color space, and pixels
    CGContextRelease(context);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
    free(pixels);

    // make a new UIImage to return
    UIImage *resultUIImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:image];

    // we're done with image now too
    CGImageRelease(image);

    return resultUIImage;
}

@end