In this tutorial we will take a closer look at
PIL module and discover some of its powerful features. You will be able to understand some image manipulation methods with Python including basic editing options such as crop, save, resize etc. and some amazing filter options. Holy Python is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Used Where?
- Image manipulation
- Editing images
- Drawing objects on images
- Placing text on images
- Filtering images
- Opening / copying / saving images
- Converting images
- Pixelizing images…
Let’s start with importing the PIL library:
import PIL
NAME
PIL - Pillow (Fork of the Python Imaging Library)
DESCRIPTION
Pillow is the friendly PIL fork by Alex Clark and Contributors.
https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/ 
Estimated Time
25 mins
Skill Level
Upper Intermediate
Modules
Image, ImageFilter, ImageEnhance, ImageDraw
Libraries
PIL
TUTORIAL
help(PIL)
Image Manipulation with Python using PIL module
If we look at the Package Contents, you can see that there are tons of features. We will look closer at
Image and discover its capabilities. BdfFontFile
BlpImagePlugin
BmpImagePlugin BufrStubImagePlugin
ContainerIO CurImagePlugin
DcxImagePlugin
DdsImagePlugin
EpsImagePlugin ExifTags FitsStubImagePlugin
FliImagePlugin FontFile FpxImagePlugin
FtexImagePlugin
GbrImagePlugin GdImageFile GifImagePlugin
GimpGradientFile
GimpPaletteFile GribStubImagePlugin
Hdf5StubImagePlugin IcnsImagePlugin
IcoImagePlugin ImImagePlugin Image ImageChops ImageCms ImageColor ImageDraw ImageDraw2 ImageEnhance ImageFile ImageFilter ImageFont ImageGrab ImageMath ImageMode ImageMorph ImageOps ImagePalette ImagePath ImageQt ImageSequence ImageShow ImageStat ImageTk ImageTransform ImageWin ImtImagePlugin IptcImagePlugin
Jpeg2KImagePlugin
JpegImagePlugin JpegPresets McIdasImagePlugin
MicImagePlugin
MpegImagePlugin
MpoImagePlugin MspImagePlugin OleFileIO PSDraw PaletteFile PalmImagePlugin
PcdImagePlugin PcfFontFile PcxImagePlugin PdfImagePlugin PdfParser PixarImagePlugin
PngImagePlugin
PpmImagePlugin
PsdImagePlugin PyAccess SgiImagePlugin
SpiderImagePlugin
SunImagePlugin TarIO TgaImagePlugin
TiffImagePlugin TiffTags WalImageFile
WebPImagePlugin
WmfImagePlugin XVThumbImagePlugin
XbmImagePlugin
XpmImagePlugin
from PIL import Image
At this point you are ready to open an image file. All you need is to assign an image path and then open it with Image using:
Image.open(f)
where f is the path. f = r'c:/Users/t/Desktop/IMG_5510.jpg'
img = Image.open(f)
Now, img is your image. If you print it you will get a memory address similar to what happens when your print some builtin functions in Python such as: filter, map, range and zip.
print(img)
--PIL.JpegImagePlugin.JpegImageFile image mode=RGB size=1280x960 at 0x12E16610F60--
Now, img is your image. If you print it you will get a memory address similar to what happens when your print some builtin functions in Python such as: filter, map, range and zip.
To open the image all you have to do is use the
.show() method. img.show()
So now that you have an image in your program, what’s next?
A good idea is to discover all the options using
help() function. Also keep in mind that you can use powerful Python basics such as for loops or while loops to edit or create batches of image files. Let’s see what methods will show if we run help on PIL’s Image object.
help(Image)
Here is a summarized list of all the functions you can use with
Image object. alpha_composite
close(self)
convert
copy(self)
crop(self, box=None)
draft(self, mode, size)
effect_spread(self, distance)
filter(self, filter)
frombytes
fromstring(self, *args, **kw)
getbands(self)
getbbox(self)
getchannel(self, channel)
getcolors(self, maxcolors=256)
getdata(self, band=None)
getextrema(self)
getim(self)
getpalette(self)
getpixel(self, xy)
getprojection(self)
histogram
load(self)
offset
paste
point
putalpha
putdata
putpalette
putpixel
quantize
remap_palette
resize
rotate
save
seek(self, frame)
show
split(self)
tell(self)
thumbnail
tobitmap
tobytes
toqimage(self)
toqpixmap(self)
tostring
transform
transpose(self, method)
verify(self)
By using
help() function, you can explore all the possibilities you can do with your image (now named img) and with PIL module.
Here are some ideas: help(img.crop)
help(img.save)
help(img.convert)
help(img.copy)
help(img.histogram)
help(img.transpose)
help(img.close)
help(img.filter)
help(img.getpixel)
Image.ImageFilter
from PIL import ImageFilter
Now that we know some of the fundamentals of PIL, let’s try to do some tricks. Using ImageFilter you can apply some awesome filters to your images -with and within Python! But first of all, let’s explain something that can be quite confusing for a beginner.
When applying
Image.filter() we will use another object inside the parenthesis.
You can think about it this way. Image.filter() is the method to apply filters to images in PIL. And inside the parenthesis we will use ImageFilter library. This may seem a bit awkward but separating the filters and the method to apply them: .filter() can be helpful to understand it better. EMBOSS
img2 = img.filter(ImageFilter.EMBOSS)
img2.show()
CONTOUR
img2 = img.filter(ImageFilter.CONTOUR)
img2.show()
SHARPEN
img2 = img.filter(ImageFilter.SHARPEN)
img2.show()
MaxFilter
img2 = img.filter(ImageFilter.MaxFilter(size=3))
img2.save("img2.jpg")
img2.show()
- MaxFilter will make darker spots brighter in an image. What it does is, it takes a pixel and searches its neighboring pixels, it replaces the pixel with maximum pixels from the neighbor pixels.
- What that means is it will take a pixels and replace it with the brighter pixels surrounding it. This will create an effect that lessens the dark spots. Brilliant isn’t it?
MinFilter
img3 = img.filter(ImageFilter.MinFilter(size=3))
img3.save("img3.jpg")
img3.show()
MinFilter is the opposite of MaxFilter. What it will do is take a pixel and search its neighbor pixels and replace it with the minimum value (darker pixel).
This will create an effect that multiplies the dark spots. 
So, it’s rather simple to apply these
ImageFilter filters but where do they come from? How to know which builtin filters we can apply?
Also simple, if you run the help function on ImageFilter you can see all the details about this object. Here is a summary: help(ImageFilter)
Built-in Filters
BLUR
CONTOUR
DETAIL
EDGE_ENHANCE
EDGE_ENHANCE_MORE
EMBOSS
FIND_EDGES
Kernel
SHARPEN
SMOOTH
SMOOTH_MORE
Multiband Filters
BoxBlur
Color3DLUT
GaussianBlur
UnsharpMask
Rank Filters
MaxFilter
MedianFilter
MinFilter
Image.ImageEnhance
from PIL import ImageEnhance
ImageEnhance module has great image enhancing features as well. You have to first create an enhancer object and then apply .enhance() method to it. Built-in Objects
Brightness
Contrast
Sharpness
Color
f = r'c:/Users/ABC/Desktop/IMG_5510.jpg'
img = Image.open(f)
Brightness
An
.enhance() value of 1 will apply original brightness. applier = ImageEnhance.Brightness(img)
applier.enhance(5).show()
Contrast
An
.enhance() value of 1 will apply original contrast. A contrast value of 2 usually enhances an image in a nice way. applier = ImageEnhance.Contrast(img)
applier.enhance(2).show()
Sharpness
An
.enhance() value of 1 will apply original sharpness. applier = ImageEnhance.Sharpness(img)
applier.enhance(10).show()
Color
An
.enhance() value of 1 will apply original colors, 0 will give black&white, 100 will blow out the colors and 0.5 will be half way into a black&white image. applier = ImageEnhance.Color(img)
applier.enhance(0.5).show()
Previous
Next
If you’d like to save an image just apply
.save() method instead of .show(). Inside the parenthesis you can write the full path but if you just type a name, it will still save to a default folder, typically your c://Users/Name folder. applier.enhance(2).save("some_name.jpg")
Image.ImageDraw
ImageDraw in PIL (pillow) works similar to
ImageFilter and ImageEnhance. First you create a drawing object with the image you’d like to work on and then apply it. Look below: Drawing a rectangle
import PIL
from PIL import ImageDraw
f = r"c://Users/ABC/0559.jpg"
img = Image.open(f)
Drawer = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
Drawer.rectangle((x1, y1, x2, y2))
Basically, those last two lines are all you need to start drawing on your image.
Let’s explain how the coordinates work in Drawer.rectangle which can be a bit confusing sometimes. And let’s also look at some of the parameters that can make your drawing object more defined such as color and thickness.
- x1 is how far you’d like to start from the left side
- y1 is how far you’d like to start from the top
- x2 is how far you’d like to go to the right
- y2 is how far you’d like to go to the bottom
- coordinates are written in that order: (x1,y1,x2,y2)
This is similar to drawing a rectangle in Paint or many other image editors. If you remember you start drawing from the top left (x1, y1) and you finish at the bottom right (x2, y2).
Here are the codes used to create this rectangle on this image:
f = r"c://Users/ABC/0559.jpg"
img = Image.open(f)
Drawer = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
Drawer.rectangle((1200,400,1700,1000), fill=None, outline="red", width=3)
Drawing an ellipse
Here are the codes used to create this rectangle on this image:
f = r"c://Users/ABC/0559.jpg"
img = Image.open(f)
Drawer = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
Drawer.ellipse((1200,400,1700,1000), fill=None, outline="blue", width=4)
SUMMARY
You need very few lines to open and show an image the rest is an endless sea of image manipulation options.
import PIL
from PIL import Image
f = r"c://Users/ABC/Desktop"
img = Image.open(f)
img.show()
You can save the image with below code:
f = r"c://Users/ABC/Desktop"
img.save(f)
Image module has tons of useful features but also:
- ImageEnhance to enhance some image features.
- ImageFilter to apply filters.
- ImageDraw to draw objects on the image.
It’s useful to first create an object while using all of these above:
Filter_1= ImageFilter.EMBOSS
img.filter(Filter_1)
Enhancer = ImageEnhance.Color(img)
Enhancer.enhance(5)
Drawer = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
Drawer.rectangle((x1,y1,x2,y2))
- We suggest you to use a proper IDE such as Spyder or PyCharm for this tutorial so you can take advantage of smart completion features of the parameters and arguments. Also showing the image will be more convenient since you won’t need to take any additional steps. In Jupyter you will need to import image displaying libraries from IPython to do this.
- Closing, we hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Image manipulation can be a lot of fun and offers great power. Using Python and PIL library it’s also more straightforward than ever.
