Python is a very popular programming language among the data science community because it has many libraries and frameworks for working on different types of data. Sometimes we need to use machine learning algorithms on images rather than a textual dataset, for that you need to know how to read images using Python. So if you want to learn how to read an image using Python, this article is for you. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to read images using Python.
How to Read An Image using Python?
There are many tasks in data science where we need to use images instead of a textual dataset. To work on such tasks, you need to know how to read images using the Python programming language. To read an image using Python, you cannot use the same method that you use to read a text dataset. So, some of the libraries and frameworks that you can use to read an image using Python are:
- PIL
- Matplotlib
- Keras
In the section below, I’ll walk you through how to use these libraries to read images using Python depending on the task you’re working on.
Read Images using Python (Tutorial)
To read images using Python, you need to install the PIL, Matplotlib, and Keras libraries in Python. If these libraries are not installed in your system, you can easily install them using the pip commands:
- pip install Pillow
- pip install matplotlib
- pip install Keras
I hope you have installed these libraries if they were not already installed in your system. Now let’s go through a tutorial on them one by one to learn to read images using Python.
Reading Images using PIL:
PIL stands for Python Image Library, you can use it for reading images while working on the problems of computer vision. It can read images in any format. Below is how you can read an image using PIL in Python:
JPEG (663, 679)
Reading Images using Matplotlib:
You can use matplotlib for reading images while working on data visualization tasks. It only supports images in jpg format, so make sure that the images you want to read are available in the jpg format. Here is how you can read an image using matplotlib in Python:
uint8 (1440, 1440, 3)
Reading Images using Keras:
You can use Keras for reading images while working on the problems where you are using deep learning. Unlike matplotlib, it supports images in any format. Here is how you can read an image using Keras in Python:
Using TensorFlow backend. JPEG (663, 679)
Also, Read – Python Projects with Source Code.
Summary
There are many tasks in data science where we need to use images instead of a textual dataset. To read an image using Python, you can use PIL, Matplotlib, and Keras depending on the tasks you are working on. Hope you liked this article on how to read images using Python. Please feel free to ask your valuable questions in the comments section below.
