matplotlib.pyplot.imread

matplotlib.pyplot.imread(fname, format=None)[source]

Read an image from a file into an array.

Note

This function exists for historical reasons. It is recommended to use PIL.Image.open instead for loading images.

Parameters
fnamestr or file-like

The image file to read: a filename, a URL or a file-like object opened in read-binary mode.

Passing a URL is deprecated. Please open the URL for reading and pass the result to Pillow, e.g. with np.array(PIL.Image.open(urllib.request.urlopen(url))).

formatstr, optional

The image file format assumed for reading the data. The image is loaded as a PNG file if format is set to "png", if fname is a path or opened file with a ".png" extension, or if it is an URL. In all other cases, format is ignored and the format is auto-detected by PIL.Image.open.

Returns
numpy.array

The image data. The returned array has shape

  • (M, N) for grayscale images.

  • (M, N, 3) for RGB images.

  • (M, N, 4) for RGBA images.

PNG images are returned as float arrays (0-1). All other formats are returned as int arrays, with a bit depth determined by the file's contents.

Examples using matplotlib.pyplot.imread