Image file formats¶

The Python Imaging Library supports a wide variety of raster file formats. Over 30 different file formats can be identified and read by the library. Write support is less extensive, but most common interchange and presentation formats are supported.

The open() function identifies files from their contents, not their names, but the save() method looks at the name to determine which format to use, unless the format is given explicitly.

When an image is opened from a file, only that instance of the image is considered to have the format. Copies of the image will contain data loaded from the file, but not the file itself, meaning that it can no longer be considered to be in the original format. So if copy() is called on an image, or another method internally creates a copy of the image, then any methods or attributes specific to the format will no longer be present. The fp (file pointer) attribute will no longer be present, and the format attribute will be None.

Fully supported formats¶

BLP¶

BLP is the Blizzard Mipmap Format, a texture format used in World of Warcraft. Pillow supports reading JPEG Compressed or raw BLP1 images, and all types of BLP2 images.

Saving¶

Pillow supports writing BLP images. The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

blp_version: If present and set to “BLP1”, images will be saved as BLP1. Otherwise, images will be saved as BLP2.

BMP¶

Pillow reads and writes Windows and OS/2 BMP files containing 1, L, P, or RGB data. 16-colour images are read as P images. Support for reading 8-bit run-length encoding was added in Pillow 9.1.0. Support for reading 4-bit run-length encoding was added in Pillow 9.3.0.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

compression: Set to 1 if the file is a 256-color run-length encoded image. Set to 2 if the file is a 16-color run-length encoded image.

DDS¶

DDS is a popular container texture format used in video games and natively supported by DirectX.

DXT1 and DXT5 pixel formats can be read, only in RGBA mode.

Added in version 3.4.0: DXT3 images can be read in RGB mode and DX10 images can be read in RGB and RGBA mode.

Added in version 6.0.0: Uncompressed RGBA images can be read.

Added in version 8.3.0: BC5S images can be opened in RGB mode, and uncompressed RGB images can be read. Uncompressed data can also be saved to image files.

Added in version 9.3.0: ATI1 images can be opened in L mode and ATI2 images can be opened in RGB mode.

Added in version 9.4.0: Uncompressed L (“luminance”) and LA images can be opened and saved.

Added in version 10.1.0: BC5U can be read in RGB mode, and 8-bit color indexed images can be read in P mode.

DIB¶

Pillow reads and writes DIB files. DIB files are similar to BMP files, so see above for more information.

Added in version 6.0.0.

EPS¶

Pillow identifies EPS files containing image data, and can read files that contain embedded raster images (ImageData descriptors). If Ghostscript is available, other EPS files can be read as well. The EPS driver can also write EPS images. The EPS driver can read EPS images in L, LAB, RGB and CMYK mode, but Ghostscript may convert the images to RGB mode rather than leaving them in the original color space. The EPS driver can write images in L, RGB and CMYK modes.

Loading¶

To use Ghostscript, Pillow searches for the “gs” executable. On Windows, it also searches for “gswin32c” and “gswin64c”. To customise this behaviour, EpsImagePlugin.gs_binary = "gswin64" will set the name of the executable to use. EpsImagePlugin.gs_binary = False will prevent Ghostscript use.

If Ghostscript is available, you can call the load() method with the following parameters to affect how Ghostscript renders the EPS.

scale

Affects the scale of the resultant rasterized image. If the EPS suggests that the image be rendered at 100px x 100px, setting this parameter to 2 will make the Ghostscript render a 200px x 200px image instead. The relative position of the bounding box is maintained:

im = Image.open(...)
im.size  # (100,100)
im.load(scale=2)
im.size  # (200,200)

transparency

If true, generates an RGBA image with a transparent background, instead of the default behaviour of an RGB image with a white background.

GIF¶

Pillow reads GIF87a and GIF89a versions of the GIF file format. The library writes files in GIF87a by default, unless GIF89a features are used or GIF89a is already in use. Files are written with LZW encoding.

GIF files are initially read as grayscale (L) or palette mode (P) images. Seeking to later frames in a P image will change the image to RGB (or RGBA if the first frame had transparency).

P mode images are changed to RGB because each frame of a GIF may contain its own individual palette of up to 256 colors. When a new frame is placed onto a previous frame, those colors may combine to exceed the P mode limit of 256 colors. Instead, the image is converted to RGB handle this.

If you would prefer the first P image frame to be RGB as well, so that every P frame is converted to RGB or RGBA mode, there is a setting available:

from PIL import GifImagePlugin
GifImagePlugin.LOADING_STRATEGY = GifImagePlugin.LoadingStrategy.RGB_ALWAYS

GIF frames do not always contain individual palettes however. If there is only a global palette, then all of the colors can fit within P mode. If you would prefer the frames to be kept as P in that case, there is also a setting available:

from PIL import GifImagePlugin
GifImagePlugin.LOADING_STRATEGY = GifImagePlugin.LoadingStrategy.RGB_AFTER_DIFFERENT_PALETTE_ONLY

To restore the default behavior, where P mode images are only converted to RGB or RGBA after the first frame:

from PIL import GifImagePlugin
GifImagePlugin.LOADING_STRATEGY = GifImagePlugin.LoadingStrategy.RGB_AFTER_FIRST

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

background: Default background color (a palette color index).
transparency: Transparency color index. This key is omitted if the image is not transparent.
version: Version (either GIF87a or GIF89a).
duration: May not be present. The time to display the current frame of the GIF, in milliseconds.
loop: May not be present. The number of times the GIF should loop. 0 means that it will loop forever.
comment: May not be present. A comment about the image. This is the last comment found before the current frame’s image.
extension: May not be present. Contains application specific information.

Reading sequences¶

The GIF loader supports the seek() and tell() methods. You can combine these methods to seek to the next frame (im.seek(im.tell() + 1)).

im.seek() raises an EOFError if you try to seek after the last frame.

Saving¶

When calling save() to write a GIF file, the following options are available:

im.save(out, save_all=True, append_images=[im1, im2, ...])

save_all

If present and true, all frames of the image will be saved. If not, then only the first frame of a multiframe image will be saved.

append_images

A list of images to append as additional frames. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images. This is currently supported for GIF, PDF, PNG, TIFF, and WebP.

It is also supported for ICO and ICNS. If images are passed in of relevant sizes, they will be used instead of scaling down the main image.

include_color_table

Whether or not to include local color table.

interlace

Whether or not the image is interlaced. By default, it is, unless the image is less than 16 pixels in width or height.

disposal

Indicates the way in which the graphic is to be treated after being displayed.

0 - No disposal specified.
1 - Do not dispose.
2 - Restore to background color.
3 - Restore to previous content.

Pass a single integer for a constant disposal, or a list or tuple to set the disposal for each frame separately.

palette

Use the specified palette for the saved image. The palette should be a bytes or bytearray object containing the palette entries in RGBRGB… form. It should be no more than 768 bytes. Alternately, the palette can be passed in as an PIL.ImagePalette.ImagePalette object.

optimize

Whether to attempt to compress the palette by eliminating unused colors (this is only useful if the palette can be compressed to the next smaller power of 2 elements) and whether to mark all pixels that are not new in the next frame as transparent.

This is attempted by default, unless a palette is specified as an option or as part of the first image’s info dictionary.

Note that if the image you are saving comes from an existing GIF, it may have the following properties in its info dictionary. For these options, if you do not pass them in, they will default to their info values.

transparency: Transparency color index.
duration: The display duration of each frame of the multiframe gif, in milliseconds. Pass a single integer for a constant duration, or a list or tuple to set the duration for each frame separately.
loop: Integer number of times the GIF should loop. 0 means that it will loop forever. If omitted or None, the image will not loop.
comment: A comment about the image.

Reading local images¶

The GIF loader creates an image memory the same size as the GIF file’s logical screen size, and pastes the actual pixel data (the local image) into this image. If you only want the actual pixel rectangle, you can crop the image:

im = Image.open(...)

if im.tile[0][0] == "gif":
    # only read the first "local image" from this GIF file
    box = im.tile[0][1]
    im = im.crop(box)

ICNS¶

Pillow reads and writes macOS .icns files. By default, the largest available icon is read, though you can override this by setting the size property before calling load(). The open() method sets the following info property:

Note

Prior to version 8.3.0, Pillow could only write ICNS files on macOS.

sizes: A list of supported sizes found in this icon file; these are a 3-tuple, (width, height, scale), where scale is 2 for a retina icon and 1 for a standard icon. You are permitted to use this 3-tuple format for the size property if you set it before calling load(); after loading, the size will be reset to a 2-tuple containing pixel dimensions (so, e.g. if you ask for (512, 512, 2), the final value of size will be (1024, 1024)).

Saving¶

The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

append_images: A list of images to replace the scaled down versions of the image. The order of the images does not matter, as their use is determined by the size of each image.

Added in version 5.1.0.

ICO¶

ICO is used to store icons on Windows. The largest available icon is read.

Saving¶

The save() method supports the following options:

sizes: A list of sizes including in this ico file; these are a 2-tuple, (width, height); Default to [(16, 16), (24, 24), (32, 32), (48, 48), (64, 64), (128, 128), (256, 256)]. Any sizes bigger than the original size or 256 will be ignored.

The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

append_images: A list of images to replace the scaled down versions of the image. The order of the images does not matter, as their use is determined by the size of each image.

Added in version 8.1.0.
bitmap_format: By default, the image data will be saved in PNG format. With a bitmap format of “bmp”, image data will be saved in BMP format instead.

Added in version 8.3.0.

IM¶

IM is a format used by LabEye and other applications based on the IFUNC image processing library. The library reads and writes most uncompressed interchange versions of this format.

IM is the only format that can store all internal Pillow formats.

JPEG¶

Pillow reads JPEG, JFIF, and Adobe JPEG files containing L, RGB, or CMYK data. It writes standard and progressive JFIF files.

Using the draft() method, you can speed things up by converting RGB images to L, and resize images to 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 of their original size while loading them.

By default Pillow doesn’t allow loading of truncated JPEG files, set ImageFile.LOAD_TRUNCATED_IMAGES to override this.

Opening¶

The open() method may set the following info properties if available:

jfif

JFIF application marker found. If the file is not a JFIF file, this key is not present.

jfif_version

A tuple representing the jfif version, (major version, minor version).

jfif_density

A tuple representing the pixel density of the image, in units specified by jfif_unit.

jfif_unit

Units for the jfif_density:

0 - No Units
1 - Pixels per Inch
2 - Pixels per Centimeter

dpi

A tuple representing the reported pixel density in pixels per inch, if the file is a jfif file and the units are in inches.

adobe

Adobe application marker found. If the file is not an Adobe JPEG file, this key is not present.

adobe_transform

Vendor Specific Tag.

progression

Indicates that this is a progressive JPEG file.

icc_profile

The ICC color profile for the image.

exif

Raw EXIF data from the image.

comment

A comment about the image.

Added in version 7.1.0.

Saving¶

The save() method supports the following options:

quality

The image quality, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 95 (best), or the string keep. The default is 75. Values above 95 should be avoided; 100 disables portions of the JPEG compression algorithm, and results in large files with hardly any gain in image quality. The value keep is only valid for JPEG files and will retain the original image quality level, subsampling, and qtables.

optimize

If present and true, indicates that the encoder should make an extra pass over the image in order to select optimal encoder settings.

progressive

If present and true, indicates that this image should be stored as a progressive JPEG file.

dpi

A tuple of integers representing the pixel density, (x,y).

icc_profile

If present and true, the image is stored with the provided ICC profile. If this parameter is not provided, the image will be saved with no profile attached. To preserve the existing profile:

im.save(filename, 'jpeg', icc_profile=im.info.get('icc_profile'))

exif

If present, the image will be stored with the provided raw EXIF data.

keep_rgb

By default, libjpeg converts images with an RGB color space to YCbCr. If this option is present and true, those images will be stored as RGB instead.

When this option is enabled, attempting to chroma-subsample RGB images with the subsampling option will raise an OSError.

Added in version 10.2.0.

subsampling

If present, sets the subsampling for the encoder.

keep: Only valid for JPEG files, will retain the original image setting.
4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0: Specific sampling values
0: equivalent to 4:4:4
1: equivalent to 4:2:2
2: equivalent to 4:2:0

If absent, the setting will be determined by libjpeg or libjpeg-turbo.

restart_marker_blocks

If present, emit a restart marker whenever the specified number of MCU blocks has been produced.

Added in version 10.2.0.

restart_marker_rows

If present, emit a restart marker whenever the specified number of MCU rows has been produced.

Added in version 10.2.0.

qtables

If present, sets the qtables for the encoder. This is listed as an advanced option for wizards in the JPEG documentation. Use with caution. qtables can be one of several types of values:

a string, naming a preset, e.g. keep, web_low, or web_high
a list, tuple, or dictionary (with integer keys = range(len(keys))) of lists of 64 integers. There must be between 2 and 4 tables.

Added in version 2.5.0.

streamtype

Allows storing images without quantization and Huffman tables, or with these tables but without image data. This is useful for container formats or network protocols that handle tables separately and share them between images.

0 (default): interchange datastream, with tables and image data
1: abbreviated table specification (tables-only) datastream

Added in version 10.2.0.
2: abbreviated image (image-only) datastream

comment

A comment about the image.

Added in version 9.4.0.

Note

To enable JPEG support, you need to build and install the IJG JPEG library before building the Python Imaging Library. See the distribution README for details.

JPEG 2000¶

Added in version 2.4.0.

Pillow reads and writes JPEG 2000 files containing L, LA, RGB, RGBA, or YCbCr data. When reading, YCbCr data is converted to RGB or RGBA depending on whether or not there is an alpha channel. Beginning with version 8.3.0, Pillow can read (but not write) RGB, RGBA, and YCbCr images with subsampled components. Pillow supports JPEG 2000 raw codestreams (.j2k files), as well as boxed JPEG 2000 files (.jp2 or .jpx files).

When loading, if you set the mode on the image prior to the load() method being invoked, you can ask Pillow to convert the image to either RGB or RGBA rather than choosing for itself. It is also possible to set reduce to the number of resolutions to discard (each one reduces the size of the resulting image by a factor of 2), and layers to specify the number of quality layers to load.

Saving¶

The save() method supports the following options:

offset: The image offset, as a tuple of integers, e.g. (16, 16)
tile_offset: The tile offset, again as a 2-tuple of integers.
tile_size: The tile size as a 2-tuple. If not specified, or if set to None, the image will be saved without tiling.
quality_mode: Either "rates" or "dB" depending on the units you want to use to specify image quality.
quality_layers: A sequence of numbers, each of which represents either an approximate size reduction (if quality mode is "rates") or a signal to noise ratio value in decibels. If not specified, defaults to a single layer of full quality.
num_resolutions: The number of different image resolutions to be stored (which corresponds to the number of Discrete Wavelet Transform decompositions plus one).
codeblock_size: The code-block size as a 2-tuple. Minimum size is 4 x 4, maximum is 1024 x 1024, with the additional restriction that no code-block may have more than 4096 coefficients (i.e. the product of the two numbers must be no greater than 4096).
precinct_size: The precinct size as a 2-tuple. Must be a power of two along both axes, and must be greater than the code-block size.
irreversible: If True, use the lossy discrete waveform transformation DWT 9-7. Defaults to False, which uses the lossless DWT 5-3.
mct: If 1 then enable multiple component transformation when encoding, otherwise use 0 for no component transformation (default). If MCT is enabled and irreversible is True then the Irreversible Color Transformation will be applied, otherwise encoding will use the Reversible Color Transformation. MCT works best with a mode of RGB and is only applicable when the image data has 3 components.

Added in version 9.1.0.
progression: Controls the progression order; must be one of "LRCP", "RLCP", "RPCL", "PCRL", "CPRL". The letters stand for Component, Position, Resolution and Layer respectively and control the order of encoding, the idea being that e.g. an image encoded using LRCP mode can have its quality layers decoded as they arrive at the decoder, while one encoded using RLCP mode will have increasing resolutions decoded as they arrive, and so on.
signed: If true, then tell the encoder to save the image as signed.

Added in version 9.4.0.
cinema_mode: Set the encoder to produce output compliant with the digital cinema specifications. The options here are "no" (the default), "cinema2k-24" for 24fps 2K, "cinema2k-48" for 48fps 2K, and "cinema4k-24" for 24fps 4K. Note that for compliant 2K files, at least one of your image dimensions must match 2048 x 1080, while for compliant 4K files, at least one of the dimensions must match 4096 x 2160.
no_jp2: If True then don’t wrap the raw codestream in the JP2 file format when saving, otherwise the extension of the filename will be used to determine the format (default).

Added in version 9.1.0.
comment: Adds a custom comment to the file, replacing the default “Created by OpenJPEG version” comment.

Added in version 9.5.0.
plt: If True and OpenJPEG 2.4.0 or later is available, then include a PLT (packet length, tile-part header) marker in the produced file. Defaults to False.

Added in version 9.5.0.

Note

To enable JPEG 2000 support, you need to build and install the OpenJPEG library, version 2.0.0 or higher, before building the Python Imaging Library.

Windows users can install the OpenJPEG binaries available on the OpenJPEG website, but must add them to their PATH in order to use Pillow (if you fail to do this, you will get errors about not being able to load the _imaging DLL).

MSP¶

Pillow identifies and reads MSP files from Windows 1 and 2. The library writes uncompressed (Windows 1) versions of this format.

PCX¶

Pillow reads and writes PCX files containing 1, L, P, or RGB data.

PFM¶

Added in version 10.3.0.

Pillow reads and writes grayscale (Pf format) Portable FloatMap (PFM) files containing F data.

Color (PF format) PFM files are not supported.

Opening¶

The open() function sets the following info properties:

scale: The absolute value of the number stored in the Scale Factor / Endianness line.

PNG¶

Pillow identifies, reads, and writes PNG files containing 1, L, LA, I, P, RGB or RGBA data. Interlaced files are supported as of v1.1.7.

As of Pillow 6.0, EXIF data can be read from PNG images. However, unlike other image formats, EXIF data is not guaranteed to be present in info until load() has been called.

By default Pillow doesn’t allow loading of truncated PNG files, set ImageFile.LOAD_TRUNCATED_IMAGES to override this.

Opening¶

The open() function sets the following info properties, when appropriate:

chromaticity

The chromaticity points, as an 8 tuple of floats. (White Point X, White Point Y, Red X, Red Y, Green X, Green Y, Blue X, Blue Y)

gamma

Gamma, given as a floating point number.

srgb

The sRGB rendering intent as an integer.

0 Perceptual

1 Relative Colorimetric

2 Saturation

3 Absolute Colorimetric

transparency

For P images: Either the palette index for full transparent pixels, or a byte string with alpha values for each palette entry.

For 1, L, I and RGB images, the color that represents full transparent pixels in this image.

This key is omitted if the image is not a transparent palette image.

open also sets Image.text to a dictionary of the values of the tEXt, zTXt, and iTXt chunks of the PNG image. Individual compressed chunks are limited to a decompressed size of PngImagePlugin.MAX_TEXT_CHUNK, by default 1MB, to prevent decompression bombs. Additionally, the total size of all of the text chunks is limited to PngImagePlugin.MAX_TEXT_MEMORY, defaulting to 64MB.

Saving¶

The save() method supports the following options:

optimize

If present and true, instructs the PNG writer to make the output file as small as possible. This includes extra processing in order to find optimal encoder settings.

transparency

For P, 1, L, I, and RGB images, this option controls what color from the image to mark as transparent.

For P images, this can be a either the palette index, or a byte string with alpha values for each palette entry.

dpi

A tuple of two numbers corresponding to the desired dpi in each direction.

pnginfo

A PIL.PngImagePlugin.PngInfo instance containing chunks.

compress_level

ZLIB compression level, a number between 0 and 9: 1 gives best speed, 9 gives best compression, 0 gives no compression at all. Default is 6. When optimize option is True compress_level has no effect (it is set to 9 regardless of a value passed).

icc_profile

The ICC Profile to include in the saved file.

exif

The exif data to include in the saved file.

Added in version 6.0.0.

bits (experimental)

For P images, this option controls how many bits to store. If omitted, the PNG writer uses 8 bits (256 colors).

dictionary (experimental)

Set the ZLIB encoder dictionary.

Note

To enable PNG support, you need to build and install the ZLIB compression library before building the Python Imaging Library. See the installation documentation for details.

APNG sequences¶

The PNG loader includes limited support for reading and writing Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) files. When an APNG file is loaded, get_format_mimetype() will return "image/apng". The value of the is_animated property will be True when the n_frames property is greater than 1. For APNG files, the n_frames property depends on both the animation frame count as well as the presence or absence of a default image. See the default_image property documentation below for more details. The seek() and tell() methods are supported.

im.seek() raises an EOFError if you try to seek after the last frame.

These info properties will be set for APNG frames, where applicable:

default_image

Specifies whether or not this APNG file contains a separate default image, which is not a part of the actual APNG animation.

When an APNG file contains a default image, the initially loaded image (i.e. the result of seek(0)) will be the default image. To account for the presence of the default image, the n_frames property will be set to frame_count + 1, where frame_count is the actual APNG animation frame count. To load the first APNG animation frame, seek(1) must be called.

True - The APNG contains default image, which is not an animation frame.
False - The APNG does not contain a default image. The n_frames property will be set to the actual APNG animation frame count. The initially loaded image (i.e. seek(0)) will be the first APNG animation frame.

loop

The number of times to loop this APNG, 0 indicates infinite looping.

duration

The time to display this APNG frame (in milliseconds).

Note

The APNG loader returns images the same size as the APNG file’s logical screen size. The returned image contains the pixel data for a given frame, after applying any APNG frame disposal and frame blend operations (i.e. it contains what a web browser would render for this frame - the composite of all previous frames and this frame).

Any APNG file containing sequence errors is treated as an invalid image. The APNG loader will not attempt to repair and reorder files containing sequence errors.

Saving¶

When calling save(), by default only a single frame PNG file will be saved. To save an APNG file (including a single frame APNG), the save_all parameter must be set to True. The following parameters can also be set:

default_image

Boolean value, specifying whether or not the base image is a default image. If True, the base image will be used as the default image, and the first image from the append_images sequence will be the first APNG animation frame. If False, the base image will be used as the first APNG animation frame. Defaults to False.

append_images

A list or tuple of images to append as additional frames. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images. The size of each frame should match the size of the base image. Also note that if a frame’s mode does not match that of the base image, the frame will be converted to the base image mode.

loop

Integer number of times to loop this APNG, 0 indicates infinite looping. Defaults to 0.

duration

Integer (or list or tuple of integers) length of time to display this APNG frame (in milliseconds). Defaults to 0.

disposal

An integer (or list or tuple of integers) specifying the APNG disposal operation to be used for this frame before rendering the next frame. Defaults to 0.

0 (OP_NONE, default) - No disposal is done on this frame before rendering the next frame.
1 (PIL.PngImagePlugin.Disposal.OP_BACKGROUND) - This frame’s modified region is cleared to fully transparent black before rendering the next frame.
2 (OP_PREVIOUS) - This frame’s modified region is reverted to the previous frame’s contents before rendering the next frame.

blend

An integer (or list or tuple of integers) specifying the APNG blend operation to be used for this frame before rendering the next frame. Defaults to 0.

0 (OP_SOURCE) - All color components of this frame, including alpha, overwrite the previous output image contents.
1 (OP_OVER) - This frame should be alpha composited with the previous output image contents.

Note

The duration, disposal and blend parameters can be set to lists or tuples to specify values for each individual frame in the animation. The length of the list or tuple must be identical to the total number of actual frames in the APNG animation. If the APNG contains a default image (i.e. default_image is set to True), these list or tuple parameters should not include an entry for the default image.

PPM¶

Pillow reads and writes PBM, PGM, PPM and PNM files containing 1, L, I or RGB data.

“Raw” (P4 to P6) formats can be read, and are used when writing.

Since Pillow 9.2.0, “plain” (P1 to P3) formats can be read as well.

SGI¶

Pillow reads and writes uncompressed L, RGB, and RGBA files.

SPIDER¶

Pillow reads and writes SPIDER image files of 32-bit floating point data (“F;32F”).

Pillow also reads SPIDER stack files containing sequences of SPIDER images. The seek() and tell() methods are supported, and random access is allowed.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following attributes:

format: Set to SPIDER
istack: Set to 1 if the file is an image stack, else 0.
n_frames: Set to the number of images in the stack.

A convenience method, convert2byte(), is provided for converting floating point data to byte data (mode L):

im = Image.open("image001.spi").convert2byte()

Saving¶

The extension of SPIDER files may be any 3 alphanumeric characters. Therefore the output format must be specified explicitly:

im.save('newimage.spi', format='SPIDER')

For more information about the SPIDER image processing package, see https://github.com/spider-em/SPIDER

TGA¶

Pillow reads and writes TGA images containing L, LA, P, RGB, and RGBA data. Pillow can read and write both uncompressed and run-length encoded TGAs.

Saving¶

The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

compression: If set to “tga_rle”, the file will be run-length encoded.

Added in version 5.3.0.
id_section: The identification field.

Added in version 5.3.0.
orientation: If present and a positive number, the first pixel is for the top left corner, rather than the bottom left corner.

Added in version 5.3.0.

TIFF¶

Pillow reads and writes TIFF files. It can read both striped and tiled images, pixel and plane interleaved multi-band images. If you have libtiff and its headers installed, Pillow can read and write many kinds of compressed TIFF files. If not, Pillow will only read and write uncompressed files.

Note

Beginning in version 5.0.0, Pillow requires libtiff to read or write compressed files. Prior to that release, Pillow had buggy support for reading Packbits, LZW and JPEG compressed TIFFs without using libtiff.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

compression: Compression mode.

Added in version 2.0.0.
dpi: Image resolution as an (xdpi, ydpi) tuple, where applicable. You can use the tag attribute to get more detailed information about the image resolution.

Added in version 1.1.5.
resolution: Image resolution as an (xres, yres) tuple, where applicable. This is a measurement in whichever unit is specified by the file.

Added in version 1.1.5.

The tag_v2 attribute contains a dictionary of TIFF metadata. The keys are numerical indexes from TiffTags.TAGS_V2. Values are strings or numbers for single items, multiple values are returned in a tuple of values. Rational numbers are returned as a IFDRational object.

Added in version 3.0.0.

For compatibility with legacy code, the tag attribute contains a dictionary of decoded TIFF fields as returned prior to version 3.0.0. Values are returned as either strings or tuples of numeric values. Rational numbers are returned as a tuple of (numerator, denominator).

Deprecated since version 3.0.0.

Reading Multi-frame TIFF Images¶

The TIFF loader supports the seek() and tell() methods, taking and returning frame numbers within the image file. You can combine these methods to seek to the next frame (im.seek(im.tell() + 1)). Frames are numbered from 0 to im.n_frames - 1, and can be accessed in any order.

im.seek() raises an EOFError if you try to seek after the last frame.

Saving¶

The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

save_all

If true, Pillow will save all frames of the image to a multiframe tiff document.

Added in version 3.4.0.

append_images

A list of images to append as additional frames. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images. Note however, that for correct results, all the appended images should have the same encoderinfo and encoderconfig properties.

Added in version 4.2.0.

tiffinfo

A ImageFileDirectory_v2 object or dict object containing tiff tags and values. The TIFF field type is autodetected for Numeric and string values, any other types require using an ImageFileDirectory_v2 object and setting the type in tagtype with the appropriate numerical value from TiffTags.TYPES.

Added in version 2.3.0.

Metadata values that are of the rational type should be passed in using a IFDRational object.

Added in version 3.1.0.

For compatibility with legacy code, a ImageFileDirectory_v1 object may be passed in this field. However, this is deprecated.

Added in version 5.4.0.

Previous versions only supported some tags when writing using libtiff. The supported list is found in TiffTags.LIBTIFF_CORE.

Added in version 6.1.0.

Added support for signed types (e.g. TIFF_SIGNED_LONG) and multiple values. Multiple values for a single tag must be to ImageFileDirectory_v2 as a tuple and require a matching type in tagtype tagtype.

exif

Alternate keyword to “tiffinfo”, for consistency with other formats.

Added in version 8.4.0.

compression

A string containing the desired compression method for the file. (valid only with libtiff installed) Valid compression methods are: None, "group3", "group4", "jpeg", "lzma", "packbits", "tiff_adobe_deflate", "tiff_ccitt", "tiff_lzw", "tiff_raw_16", "tiff_sgilog", "tiff_sgilog24", "tiff_thunderscan", "webp", "zstd"

quality

The image quality for JPEG compression, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The default is 75.

Added in version 6.1.0.

These arguments to set the tiff header fields are an alternative to using the general tags available through tiffinfo.

description

software

date_time

artist

copyright: Strings
icc_profile: The ICC Profile to include in the saved file.
resolution_unit: An integer. 1 for no unit, 2 for inches and 3 for centimeters.
resolution: Either an integer or a float, used for both the x and y resolution.
x_resolution: Either an integer or a float.
y_resolution: Either an integer or a float.
dpi: A tuple of (x_resolution, y_resolution), with inches as the resolution unit. For consistency with other image formats, the x and y resolutions of the dpi will be rounded to the nearest integer.

WebP¶

Pillow reads and writes WebP files. The specifics of Pillow’s capabilities with this format are currently undocumented.

Saving¶

The save() method supports the following options:

lossless: If present and true, instructs the WebP writer to use lossless compression.
quality: Integer, 0-100, defaults to 80. For lossy, 0 gives the smallest size and 100 the largest. For lossless, this parameter is the amount of effort put into the compression: 0 is the fastest, but gives larger files compared to the slowest, but best, 100.
alpha_quality: Integer, 0-100, defaults to 100. For lossy compression only. 0 gives the smallest size and 100 is lossless.
method: Quality/speed trade-off (0=fast, 6=slower-better). Defaults to 4.
exact: If true, preserve the transparent RGB values. Otherwise, discard invisible RGB values for better compression. Defaults to false. Requires libwebp 0.5.0 or later.
icc_profile: The ICC Profile to include in the saved file. Only supported if the system WebP library was built with webpmux support.
exif: The exif data to include in the saved file. Only supported if the system WebP library was built with webpmux support.
xmp: The XMP data to include in the saved file. Only supported if the system WebP library was built with webpmux support.

Saving sequences¶

Note

Support for animated WebP files will only be enabled if the system WebP library is v0.5.0 or later. You can check webp animation support at runtime by calling features.check("webp_anim").

When calling save() to write a WebP file, by default only the first frame of a multiframe image will be saved. If the save_all argument is present and true, then all frames will be saved, and the following options will also be available.

append_images: A list of images to append as additional frames. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images.
duration: The display duration of each frame, in milliseconds. Pass a single integer for a constant duration, or a list or tuple to set the duration for each frame separately.
loop: Number of times to repeat the animation. Defaults to [0 = infinite].
background: Background color of the canvas, as an RGBA tuple with values in the range of (0-255).
minimize_size: If true, minimize the output size (slow). Implicitly disables key-frame insertion.
kmin, kmax: Minimum and maximum distance between consecutive key frames in the output. The library may insert some key frames as needed to satisfy this criteria. Note that these conditions should hold: kmax > kmin and kmin >= kmax / 2 + 1. Also, if kmax <= 0, then key-frame insertion is disabled; and if kmax == 1, then all frames will be key-frames (kmin value does not matter for these special cases).
allow_mixed: If true, use mixed compression mode; the encoder heuristically chooses between lossy and lossless for each frame.

XBM¶

Pillow reads and writes X bitmap files (mode 1).

Read-only formats¶

CUR¶

CUR is used to store cursors on Windows. The CUR decoder reads the largest available cursor. Animated cursors are not supported.

DCX¶

DCX is a container file format for PCX files, defined by Intel. The DCX format is commonly used in fax applications. The DCX decoder can read files containing 1, L, P, or RGB data.

When the file is opened, only the first image is read. You can use seek() or ImageSequence to read other images.

FITS¶

Added in version 9.1.0.

Pillow identifies and reads FITS files, commonly used for astronomy. Uncompressed and GZIP_1 compressed images can be read.

FLI, FLC¶

Pillow reads Autodesk FLI and FLC animations.

The open() method sets the following info properties:

duration: The delay (in milliseconds) between each frame.

FPX¶

Pillow reads Kodak FlashPix files. Only the highest resolution image is read from the file, and the viewing transform is not taken into account.

To enable FPX support, you must install olefile.

Note

To enable full FlashPix support, you need to build and install the IJG JPEG library before building the Python Imaging Library. See the distribution README for details.

FTEX¶

Added in version 3.2.0.

The FTEX decoder reads textures used for 3D objects in Independence War 2: Edge Of Chaos. The plugin reads a single texture per file, in the compressed and uncompressed formats.

GBR¶

The GBR decoder reads GIMP brush files, version 1 and 2.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

comment: The brush name.
spacing: The spacing between the brushes, in pixels. Version 2 only.

GD¶

Pillow reads uncompressed GD2 files. Note that you must use PIL.GdImageFile.open() to read such a file.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

transparency: Transparency color index. This key is omitted if the image is not transparent.

IMT¶

Pillow reads Image Tools images containing L data.

IPTC/NAA¶

Pillow provides limited read support for IPTC/NAA newsphoto files.

MCIDAS¶

Pillow identifies and reads 8-bit McIdas area files.

MIC¶

Pillow identifies and reads Microsoft Image Composer (MIC) files. When opened, the first sprite in the file is loaded. You can use seek() and tell() to read other sprites from the file.

Note that there may be an embedded gamma of 2.2 in MIC files.

To enable MIC support, you must install olefile.

MPO¶

Pillow identifies and reads Multi Picture Object (MPO) files, loading the primary image when first opened. The seek() and tell() methods may be used to read other pictures from the file. The pictures are zero-indexed and random access is supported.

Saving¶

When calling save() to write an MPO file, by default only the first frame of a multiframe image will be saved. If the save_all argument is present and true, then all frames will be saved, and the following option will also be available.

append_images: A list of images to append as additional pictures. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images.

Added in version 9.3.0.

PCD¶

Pillow reads PhotoCD files containing RGB data. This only reads the 768x512 resolution image from the file. Higher resolutions are encoded in a proprietary encoding.

PIXAR¶

Pillow provides limited support for PIXAR raster files. The library can identify and read “dumped” RGB files.

The format code is PIXAR.

PSD¶

Pillow identifies and reads PSD files written by Adobe Photoshop 2.5 and 3.0.

QOI¶

Added in version 9.5.0.

Pillow reads images in Quite OK Image format using a Python decoder. If you wish to write code specifically for this format, qoi is an alternative library that uses C to decode the image and interfaces with NumPy.

SUN¶

Pillow identifies and reads Sun raster files.

WAL¶

Added in version 1.1.4.

Pillow reads Quake2 WAL texture files.

Note that this file format cannot be automatically identified, so you must use the open function in the WalImageFile module to read files in this format.

By default, a Quake2 standard palette is attached to the texture. To override the palette, use the PIL.Image.Image.putpalette() method.

WMF, EMF¶

Pillow can identify WMF and EMF files.

On Windows, it can read WMF and EMF files. By default, it will load the image at 72 dpi. To load it at another resolution:

from PIL import Image

with Image.open("drawing.wmf") as im:
    im.load(dpi=144)

To add other read or write support, use PIL.WmfImagePlugin.register_handler() to register a WMF and EMF handler.

from PIL import Image
from PIL import WmfImagePlugin


class WmfHandler:
    def open(self, im):
        ...

    def load(self, im):
        ...
        return image

    def save(self, im, fp, filename):
        ...


wmf_handler = WmfHandler()

WmfImagePlugin.register_handler(wmf_handler)

im = Image.open("sample.wmf")

XPM¶

Pillow reads X pixmap files (mode P) with 256 colors or less.

Opening¶

The open() method sets the following info properties:

transparency: Transparency color index. This key is omitted if the image is not transparent.

Write-only formats¶

PALM¶

Pillow provides write-only support for PALM pixmap files.

The format code is Palm, the extension is .palm.

PDF¶

Pillow can write PDF (Acrobat) images. Such images are written as binary PDF 1.4 files. Different encoding methods are used, depending on the image mode.

1 mode images are saved using TIFF encoding, or JPEG encoding if libtiff support is unavailable
L, RGB and CMYK mode images use JPEG encoding
P mode images use HEX encoding
LA and RGBA mode images use JPEG2000 encoding

Saving¶

The save() method can take the following keyword arguments:

save_all: If a multiframe image is used, by default, only the first image will be saved. To save all frames, each frame to a separate page of the PDF, the save_all parameter must be present and set to True.

Added in version 3.0.0.
append_images: A list of PIL.Image.Image objects to append as additional pages. Each of the images in the list can be single or multiframe images. The save_all parameter must be present and set to True in conjunction with append_images.

Added in version 4.2.0.
append: Set to True to append pages to an existing PDF file. If the file doesn’t exist, an OSError will be raised.

Added in version 5.1.0.
resolution: Image resolution in DPI. This, together with the number of pixels in the image, will determine the physical dimensions of the page that will be saved in the PDF.
dpi: A tuple of (x_resolution, y_resolution), with inches as the resolution unit. If both the resolution parameter and the dpi parameter are present, resolution will be ignored.
title: The document’s title. If not appending to an existing PDF file, this will default to the filename.

Added in version 5.1.0.
author: The name of the person who created the document.

Added in version 5.1.0.
subject: The subject of the document.

Added in version 5.1.0.
keywords: Keywords associated with the document.

Added in version 5.1.0.
creator: If the document was converted to PDF from another format, the name of the conforming product that created the original document from which it was converted.

Added in version 5.1.0.
producer: If the document was converted to PDF from another format, the name of the conforming product that converted it to PDF.

Added in version 5.1.0.
creationDate: The creation date of the document. If not appending to an existing PDF file, this will default to the current time.

Added in version 5.3.0.
modDate: The modification date of the document. If not appending to an existing PDF file, this will default to the current time.

Added in version 5.3.0.

XV Thumbnails¶

Pillow can read XV thumbnail files.

Identify-only formats¶

BUFR¶

Added in version 1.1.3.

Pillow provides a stub driver for BUFR files.

To add read or write support to your application, use PIL.BufrStubImagePlugin.register_handler().

GRIB¶

Added in version 1.1.5.

Pillow provides a stub driver for GRIB files.

The driver requires the file to start with a GRIB header. If you have files with embedded GRIB data, or files with multiple GRIB fields, your application has to seek to the header before passing the file handle to Pillow.

To add read or write support to your application, use PIL.GribStubImagePlugin.register_handler().

HDF5¶

Added in version 1.1.5.

Pillow provides a stub driver for HDF5 files.

To add read or write support to your application, use PIL.Hdf5StubImagePlugin.register_handler().

MPEG¶

Pillow identifies MPEG files.