Question

What is an efficient and clear way to read 16-bit PGM images in Python with numpy?

I cannot use PIL to load 16-bit PGM images due to a PIL bug. I can read in the header with the following code:

dt = np.dtype([('type', 'a2'),
               ('space_0', 'a1', ),
               ('x', 'a3', ),
               ('space_1', 'a1', ),
               ('y', 'a3', ),
               ('space_2', 'a1', ),
               ('maxval', 'a5')])
header = np.fromfile( 'img.pgm', dtype=dt )
print header

This prints the correct data: ('P5', ' ', '640', ' ', '480', ' ', '65535') But I have a feeling that is not quite the best way. And beyond that, I’m having trouble how to figure out how to read in the following data of x by y (in this case 640×480) by 16-bit with the offset of size(header).

EDIT: IMAGE ADDED

MATLAB code to read and display the image is:

I = imread('foo.pgm'); 
imagesc(I);

And looks like this:

Answer 1

import re
import numpy

def read_pgm(filename, byteorder='>'):
    """Return image data from a raw PGM file as numpy array.

    Format specification: http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/pgm.html

    """
    with open(filename, 'rb') as f:
        buffer = f.read()
    try:
        header, width, height, maxval = re.search(
            b"(^P5\s(?:\s*#.*[\r\n])*"
            b"(\d+)\s(?:\s*#.*[\r\n])*"
            b"(\d+)\s(?:\s*#.*[\r\n])*"
            b"(\d+)\s(?:\s*#.*[\r\n]\s)*)", buffer).groups()
    except AttributeError:
        raise ValueError("Not a raw PGM file: '%s'" % filename)
    return numpy.frombuffer(buffer,
                            dtype='u1' if int(maxval) < 256 else byteorder+'u2',
                            count=int(width)*int(height),
                            offset=len(header)
                            ).reshape((int(height), int(width)))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    from matplotlib import pyplot
    image = read_pgm("foo.pgm", byteorder='<')
    pyplot.imshow(image, pyplot.cm.gray)
    pyplot.show()