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Convert image to byte array C# in a proper way

My problem is that I need to convert an image to a byte array to obtain its pixels.
My image size is 268x188 and when I use the property PixelsFormat it returns Format24bppRgb, so I understand that each pixel contains 3 bytes.
If this is true, the size of the pixels should be 268*188*3 = 151152 bytes, but the byte array that I am creating has a size of 4906 bytes, which is the size of the image file in my computer.
I don´t know if there is another way to obtain these pixels or you can only obtain image file size.

If you want to ignore the header and the compression of the file you can do the following.
var path = ...
using(var image = Image.FromFile(path))
using(var bitmap = new Bitmap(image))
{
var bitmapData = bitmap.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, bitmap.Width, bitmap.Height), ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, bitmap.PixelFormat);
var bytesPerPixel = 4; // bitmapData.PixelFormat (image.PixelFormat and bitmapData.PixelFormat can be different)
var ptr = bitmapData.Scan0;
var imageSize = bitmapData.Width * bitmapData.Height * bytesPerPixel;
var data = new byte[imageSize];
for (int x = 0; x < imageSize; x += bytesPerPixel)
{
for(var y = 0; y < bytesPerPixel; y++)
{
data[x + y] = Marshal.ReadByte(ptr);
ptr += 1;
}
}
bitmap.UnlockBits(bitmapData);
}

To get image pixel try this:
public static byte[] GetImageRaw(Bitmap image)
{
if (image == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(image));
}
if (image.PixelFormat != PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb)
{
throw new NotSupportedException("Invalid pixel format.");
}
const int PixelSize = 3;
var data = image.LockBits(
new Rectangle(Point.Empty, image.Size),
ImageLockMode.ReadWrite,
image.PixelFormat);
try
{
var bytes = new byte[data.Width * data.Height * PixelSize];
for (var y = 0; y < data.Height; ++y)
{
var source = (IntPtr)((long)data.Scan0 + y * data.Stride);
// copy row without padding
Marshal.Copy(source, bytes, y * data.Width * PixelSize, data.Width * PixelSize);
}
return bytes;
}
finally
{
image.UnlockBits(data);
}
}
Take a look at Bitmap.LockBits

I use this code in ASP.NET application. Very simple:
var imagePath = GetFilePathToYourImage();
using (var img = System.IO.File.OpenRead(imagePath))
{
var imageBytes = new byte[img.Length];
img.Read(imageBytes, 0, (int)img.Length);
}

Color to Monochrome conversion

See: Save a 32-bit Bitmap as 1-bit .bmp file in C#
Listing #1
public static Bitmap BitmapTo1Bpp(Bitmap source)
{
int Width = source.Width;
int Height = source.Height;
Bitmap dest = new Bitmap(Width, Height, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
BitmapData destBmpData = dest.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, Width, Height), ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
byte[] destBytes = new byte[(Width + 7) / 8];//19 bytes
for (int y = 0; y < Height; y++)
{
for (int x = 0; x < Width; x++)
{
Color c = source.GetPixel(x, y);
if (x % 8 == 0)
{
destBytes[x / 8] = 0;
}
if (c.GetBrightness() >= 0.5)
{
destBytes[x / 8] |= (byte)(0x80 >> (x % 8));
}
}
Marshal.Copy(destBytes, 0, (IntPtr)((long)destBmpData.Scan0 + destBmpData.Stride * y), destBytes.Length);
}
dest.UnlockBits(destBmpData);
return dest;
}
Listing #2
public static Bitmap BitmapTo1Bpp222(Bitmap source)
{
int Width = source.Width;
int Height = source.Height;
Bitmap dest = new Bitmap(Width, Height, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
BitmapData destBmpData = dest.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, Width, Height), ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
int destStride = destBmpData.Stride;
int destSize = Math.Abs(destStride) * Height;
byte[] destBytes = new byte[destSize];
for (int y = 0; y < Height; y++)
{
for (int x = 0; x < Width; x++)
{
Color c = source.GetPixel(x, y);
if (x % 8 == 0)
{
destBytes[x*y / 8] = 0;
}
if (c.GetBrightness() >= 0.5)
{
destBytes[x*y / 8] |= (byte)(0x80 >> (x % 8));
}
}
}
Marshal.Copy(destBytes, 0, destBmpData.Scan0, destBytes.Length);
dest.UnlockBits(destBmpData);
return dest;
}
See the position of Marshal.Copy().
Why does the Listing #1 work, but Listing #2 doesn't?
What modification can make the Listing #2 work?

Both of these are overly complicated. LockBits can convert data to 1bpp. Just open the source as 1bpp, copy its data into the new 1bpp image, and you're done.
I'm also quite baffled by the combination of GetPixel and LockBits. Usually, using LockBits means you realized that GetPixel is a horribly slow waste of time that performs a LockBits internally on every call.
public static Bitmap BitmapTo1Bpp(Bitmap source)
{
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0, 0, source.Width, source.Height);
Bitmap dest = new Bitmap(rect.Width, rect.Height, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
dest.SetResolution(source.HorizontalResolution, source.VerticalResolution);
BitmapData sourceData = source.LockBits(rect, ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
BitmapData targetData = dest.LockBits(rect, ImageLockMode.WriteOnly, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed);
Int32 actualDataWidth = (rect.Width + 7) / 8;
Int32 h = source.Height;
Int32 origStride = sourceData.Stride;
Int32 targetStride = targetData.Stride;
// buffer for one line of image data.
Byte[] imageData = new Byte[actualDataWidth];
Int64 sourcePos = sourceData.Scan0.ToInt64();
Int64 destPos = targetData.Scan0.ToInt64();
// Copy line by line, skipping by stride but copying actual data width
for (Int32 y = 0; y < h; y++)
{
Marshal.Copy(new IntPtr(sourcePos), imageData, 0, actualDataWidth);
Marshal.Copy(imageData, 0, new IntPtr(destPos), actualDataWidth);
sourcePos += origStride;
destPos += targetStride;
}
dest.UnlockBits(targetData);
source.UnlockBits(sourceData);
return dest;
}
Do note that conversion of data to indexed formats should be avoided in cases where your result is not 1bpp for pure black and white. Indexed formats are paletted, and doing it this way will not do any kind of reduction to an optimised palette approaching the image colours; it will just change the colours on the image to their closest match on the standard palette for this bit depth. For 1bpp this is just black and white, which is perfect, but for 4bpp and 8bpp it will give pretty bad results.
Also note that for some reason you can't convert from a higher to a lower indexed pixel format; it will throw an exception. Since you can convert a bitmap to 32-bit using the new Bitmap(Bitmap) constructor, this problem can easily be avoided by calling the code like this:
public static Bitmap ConvertTo1Bpp(Bitmap source)
{
PixelFormat sourcePf = source.PixelFormat;
if ((sourcePf & PixelFormat.Indexed) == 0 || Image.GetPixelFormatSize(sourcePf) == 1)
return BitmapTo1Bpp(source);
using (Bitmap bm32 = new Bitmap(source))
return BitmapTo1Bpp(bm32);
}

Render 16 bits image in picturebox

I have an array which consists in PixelData extracted from a Dicom Image.
Here's the code:
byte[] bytes = img.PixelData.GetFrame(0).Data; // img is the Dicom Image
int count = bytes.Length / 2;
ushort[] words = new ushort[count];
for (int i = 0, p = 0; i < count; i++, p += 2)
{
words[i] = BitConverter.ToUInt16(bytes, p);
}
pixels16 = words.ToList(); //pixels16 contains now the PixelData for the Grayscale image
Now, here's my question, how do I render that into a Picturebox??

My code for converting Bitmaps from Format16bppGrayScale to Format8bppIndexed format. PictureBox can easy show this format. (If you want, you can use different palette).
public Bitmap Gray16To8bppIndexed(Bitmap BmpIn)
{
if (BmpIn.PixelFormat != PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale)
throw new BadImageFormatException();
byte[] ImageData = new byte[BmpIn.Width * BmpIn.Height * 2];
Rectangle Re = new Rectangle(0, 0, BmpIn.Width, BmpIn.Height);
BitmapData BmpData = BmpIn.LockBits(Re, ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, BmpIn.PixelFormat);
Marshal.Copy(BmpData.Scan0, ImageData, 0, ImageData.Length);
BmpIn.UnlockBits(BmpData);
byte[] ImageData2 = new byte[BmpIn.Width * BmpIn.Height];
for (long i = 0; i < ImageData2.LongLength; i++)
ImageData2[i] = ImageData[i * 2 + 1];
ImageData = null;
Bitmap BmpOut = new Bitmap(BmpIn.Width, BmpIn.Height, PixelFormat.Format8bppIndexed);
BmpData = BmpOut.LockBits(Re, ImageLockMode.WriteOnly, BmpOut.PixelFormat);
Marshal.Copy(ImageData2, 0, BmpData.Scan0, ImageData2.Length);
BmpOut.UnlockBits(BmpData);
ImageData2 = null;
BmpData = null;
ColorPalette GrayPalette = BmpOut.Palette;
Color[] GrayColors = GrayPalette.Entries;
for (int i = 0; i < GrayColors.Length; i++)
GrayColors[GrayColors.Length - 1 - i] = Color.FromArgb(i, i, i);
BmpOut.Palette = GrayPalette;
return BmpOut;
}

Well, I don't know the specifics, because it depends on how you really want to go about it (if performance is important, you need to create your own subclass of Bitmap, but otherwise, Bitmap.SetPixel would work fine).
But essentially, you need to shove those pixels into a Bitmap, then set the picture box's image to that bitmap, like:
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(width, height);
for(int y = 0;y < height;y++)
for(int x = 0;x < width;x++)
bitmap.SetPixel(x,y, Color.fromRGB(/* unpack your R,G,B channel of your pixel here */);
pictureBox.Image = bitmap;

You can utilize the AForge .NET Framework, which is a great .NET library for image processing. The built-in .NET Picturebox could not nativley display images with System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale, but the AForge library has its own Picturebox control, check this out. It expects a .NET Image.
You can include AForge to your project easily with NuGet:
Install-Package AForge.Controls
Install-Package AForge.Imaging
Or just
Install-Package AForge
Example code below:
//SOME BYTES
//Load here the DICOM image
int width=640, height=480;
int numberOfPixels = width*height;
byte[] source = new byte[2*numberOfPixels];
//With AFORGE
var image = AForge.Imaging.UnmanagedImage.Create(width, height, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale);
IntPtr ptrToImage = image.ImageData;
//Copies the bytes from source to the image
//System.Runtime.InteropServices
Marshal.Copy(source, 0, ptrToImage,numberOfPixels);
//WITH .NET
System.Drawing.Bitmap bitmapImage = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(width, height, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale);
var imageData = bitmapImage.LockBits(new System.Drawing.Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale);
Marshal.Copy(source, 0, imageData.Scan0, numberOfPixels);
bitmapImage.UnlockBits(imageData);

Got this idea from a friend. The inputImage.ImageSource property is a 2D array with grayscale pixel values.
Bitmap grayscaleImage = new Bitmap(inputImage.ImageSource);
for (int x = 0; x < grayscaleImage.Width; x++)
{
for (int y = 0; y < grayscaleImage.Height; y++)
{
byte[,] tempMatrix = inputImage.ImageGrayscale;
byte temp = tempMatrix[x, y];
Color tempColor = Color.FromArgb(255, temp, temp, temp);
grayscaleImage.SetPixel(x, y, tempColor);
}
}
picboxDisplay.Image = grayscaleImage;

How to split multipage Tiff using LibTiff.Net

In the LibTiff.Net documentation I've found that it is possible to get a specific page of the Tiff document.
But, if it is possible to split multipage Tiff (using LibTiff.Net) without knowing how many pages are there? How?
Using this example it returns only the first page.
Btw, the main problem is that Windows XP can't handle different tiff images, so I want to split it into jpeg ones.

//open tif file
var tif = Tiff.Open(#"file", "r");
//get number of pages
var num = tif.NumberOfDirectories();
for (short i = 0; i < num; i++)
{
//set current page
tif.SetDirectory(i);
Bitmap bmp = GetBitmapFormTiff(tif);
bmp.Save(string.Format(#"newfile{0}.bmp", i));
}
The code of GetBitmapFormTiff is from example:
private static Bitmap GetBitmapFormTiff(Tiff tif)
{
FieldValue[] value = tif.GetField(TiffTag.IMAGEWIDTH);
int width = value[0].ToInt();
value = tif.GetField(TiffTag.IMAGELENGTH);
int height = value[0].ToInt();
//Read the image into the memory buffer
var raster = new int[height * width];
if (!tif.ReadRGBAImage(width, height, raster))
{
return null;
}
var bmp = new Bitmap(width, height, PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb);
var rect = new Rectangle(0, 0, bmp.Width, bmp.Height);
BitmapData bmpdata = bmp.LockBits(rect, ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb);
var bits = new byte[bmpdata.Stride * bmpdata.Height];
for (int y = 0; y < bmp.Height; y++)
{
int rasterOffset = y * bmp.Width;
int bitsOffset = (bmp.Height - y - 1) * bmpdata.Stride;
for (int x = 0; x < bmp.Width; x++)
{
int rgba = raster[rasterOffset++];
bits[bitsOffset++] = (byte)((rgba >> 16) & 0xff);
bits[bitsOffset++] = (byte)((rgba >> 8) & 0xff);
bits[bitsOffset++] = (byte)(rgba & 0xff);
bits[bitsOffset++] = (byte)((rgba >> 24) & 0xff);
}
}
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(bits, 0, bmpdata.Scan0, bits.Length);
bmp.UnlockBits(bmpdata);
return bmp;
}

Improving Image compositing Algorithm c# .NET

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on improvements I can do in making this compositing algorithm faster. What is does is takes 3 images splits them up to get the 1st Images Red Channel, 2nd Images Green channel and the 3rd Images Blue channel and composites them together into 1 new image. Now it works but at an excruciatingly slow pace. The reason i think down to the pixel by pixel processing it has to do on all image components.
The process is to :
For all images:
Extract respective R G and B values -> composite into 1 image -> Save new Image.
foreach (Image[] QRE2ImgComp in QRE2IMGArray)
{
Globals.updProgress = "Processing frames: " + k + " of " + QRE2IMGArray.Count + " frames done.";
QRMProgressUpd(EventArgs.Empty);
Image RedLayer = GetRedImage(QRE2ImgComp[0]);
QRE2ImgComp[0] = RedLayer;
Image GreenLayer = GetGreenImage(QRE2ImgComp[1]);
QRE2ImgComp[1] = GreenLayer;
Image BlueLayer = GetBlueImage(QRE2ImgComp[2]);
QRE2ImgComp[2] = BlueLayer;
Bitmap composite = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[0].Height, QRE2ImgComp[0].Width);
Color Rlayer,Glayer,Blayer;
byte R, G, B;
for (int y = 0; y < composite.Height; y++)
{
for (int x = 0; x < composite.Width; x++)
{
//pixelColorAlpha = composite.GetPixel(x, y);
Bitmap Rcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[0]);
Bitmap Gcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[1]);
Bitmap Bcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[2]);
Rlayer = Rcomp.GetPixel(x, y);
Glayer = Gcomp.GetPixel(x, y);
Blayer = Bcomp.GetPixel(x, y);
R = (byte)(Rlayer.R);
G = (byte)(Glayer.G);
B = (byte)(Blayer.B);
composite.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb((int)R, (int)G, (int)B));
}
}
Globals.updProgress = "Saving frame...";
QRMProgressUpd(EventArgs.Empty);
Image tosave = composite;
Globals.QRFrame = tosave;
tosave.Save("C:\\QRItest\\E" + k + ".png", ImageFormat.Png);
k++;
}
For reference here is the red channel filter method relatively the same for blue and green:
public Image GetRedImage(Image sourceImage)
{
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(sourceImage);
Bitmap redBmp = new Bitmap(sourceImage.Width, sourceImage.Height);
for (int x = 0; x < bmp.Width; x++)
{
for (int y = 0; y < bmp.Height; y++)
{
Color pxl = bmp.GetPixel(x, y);
Color redPxl = Color.FromArgb((int)pxl.R, 0, 0);
redBmp.SetPixel(x, y, redPxl);
}
}
Image tout = (Image)redBmp;
return tout;
}

Move these
Bitmap Rcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[0]);
Bitmap Gcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[1]);
Bitmap Bcomp = new Bitmap(QRE2ImgComp[2]);
outside the for-loops!
Other very important points:
avoid using GetPixel - it is VERY SLOW!
Checkout LockBits etc. - this is how pixel-level access is usually done in .NET
Consider using a 3rd-party library (free or commercial)... several have some optimized method built-in to do what you are trying to achieve...

I totally agree with the points Yahia listed in his answer to improve performance. I'd like to add one more point regarding performance. You could use the Parallel class of the .Net Framework to parallelize the execution of your for loops. The following example makes use of the LockBits method and the Parallel class to improve performance (assuming 32 bits per pixel (PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb)):
public unsafe static Bitmap GetBlueImagePerf(Image sourceImage)
{
int width = sourceImage.Width;
int height = sourceImage.Height;
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(sourceImage);
Bitmap redBmp = new Bitmap(width, height, bmp.PixelFormat);
BitmapData bd = bmp.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb);
BitmapData bd2 = redBmp.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), ImageLockMode.WriteOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb);
byte* source = (byte*)bd.Scan0.ToPointer();
byte* target = (byte*)bd2.Scan0.ToPointer();
int stride = bd.Stride;
Parallel.For(0, height, (y1) =>
{
byte* s = source + (y1 * stride);
byte* t = target + (y1 * stride);
for (int x = 0; x < width; x++)
{
// use t[1], s[1] to access green channel
// use t[2], s[2] to access red channel
t[0] = s[0];
t += 4; // Add bytes per pixel to current position.
s += 4; // For other pixel formats this value is different.
}
});
bmp.UnlockBits(bd);
redBmp.UnlockBits(bd2);
return redBmp;
}
public unsafe static void DoImageConversion()
{
Bitmap RedLayer = GetRedImagePerf(Image.FromFile("image_path1"));
Bitmap GreenLayer = GetGreenImagePerf(Image.FromFile("image_path2"));
Bitmap BlueLayer = GetBlueImagePerf(Image.FromFile("image_path3"));
Bitmap composite =
new Bitmap(RedLayer.Width, RedLayer.Height, RedLayer.PixelFormat);
BitmapData bd = composite.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, RedLayer.Width, RedLayer.Height), ImageLockMode.WriteOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
byte* comp = (byte*)bd.Scan0.ToPointer();
BitmapData bdRed = RedLayer.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, RedLayer.Width, RedLayer.Height), ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
BitmapData bdGreen = GreenLayer.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, RedLayer.Width, RedLayer.Height), ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
BitmapData bdBlue = BlueLayer.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, RedLayer.Width, RedLayer.Height), ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
byte* red = (byte*)bdRed.Scan0.ToPointer();
byte* green = (byte*)bdGreen.Scan0.ToPointer();
byte* blue = (byte*)bdBlue.Scan0.ToPointer();
int stride = bdRed.Stride;
Parallel.For(0, bdRed.Height, (y1) =>
{
byte* r = red + (y1 * stride);
byte* g = green + (y1 * stride);
byte* b = blue + (y1 * stride);
byte* c = comp + (y1 * stride);
for (int x = 0; x < bdRed.Width; x++)
{
c[0] = b[0];
c[1] = g[1];
c[2] = r[2];
r += 4; // Add bytes per pixel to current position.
g += 4; // For other pixel formats this value is different.
b += 4; // Use Image.GetPixelFormatSize to get number of bits per pixel
c += 4;
}
});
composite.Save("save_image_path", ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
Hope, this answer gives you a starting point for improving your code.