QImage - Retrieve data from an 8 bit bitmap image

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Hi,

I have an 8 bit bitmap image that I need to read, retrieve the data and use that information as the alpha channel for another image. How do I go about doing that? I have tried the below code, but doesn't seem to work.

@ QImage alpha("C:/images/alpha.bmp");//8 bit bmp

// This detects and shows 3, which is QImage::Format_Indexed8. Fine so far.
qDebug()<<"alpha image format " <<alpha.format();

QColor cola = QColor::fromRgba(alpha.pixel(j,y));
img2.setPixel(j,y,qRgba(red,gren,blue,cola.alpha()));@

Any suggestions on how to retrieve the 8 bit info from the bitmap?

Thanks,

andre

Doesn't QImage::constBits() or QImage::constScanLine() help you? Sound like you just need raw data, right?

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The alpha QImage is a regular image, the alpha value of any pixel is always 0xff. You have to reconstruct the value from the RGB values.

dangelog

[quote author="karthiksrini" date="1294747392"]
@
// This detects and shows 3, which is QImage::Format_Indexed8. Fine so far.
qDebug()<<"alpha image format " <<alpha.format();
@
[/quote]

Watch out, you don't have a 8bpp image, you have a 8bpp INDEXED image, so the color of each pixel is stored in the colortable (which is indexed by the value of each pixel, and stores 32bit colors).

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Thanks for your replies!
I have tried the below code based on Volker's and peppe's replies (and based on what the documentaion says - In case of a 8-bit and monchrome images, the pixel value is only an index from the image's color table) I seem to get what I want. If you have any comments on what I am doing, i.e if I am doing the right/wrong thing, let me know.

@QImage alpha("C:/images/alpha.bmp");//8 bit bmp

// This detects and shows 3, which is QImage::Format_Indexed8. Fine so far.
qDebug()<<"alpha image format " <<alpha.format();

QVector<QRgb> vect = alpha.colorTable();
QColor cola = QColor::fromRgba(alpha.pixel(j,y));
img2.setPixel(j,y,qRgba(red,gren,blue,vect.at(alpha.pixel(j,y) & 0xff)));@

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Only repeating a warning from the API docs on "QImage::pixel() ":http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7-snapshot/qimage.html#pixel:

bq. Warning: This function is expensive when used for massive pixel manipulations.

It may slow down your application if you work on big images.

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[quote author="Volker" date="1294922411"]Only repeating a warning from the API docs on "QImage::pixel() ":http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7-snapshot/qimage.html#pixel:

bq. Warning: This function is expensive when used for massive pixel manipulations.

It may slow down your application if you work on big images.[/quote]

So what's a better alternative? QIMage::scanLine? Or reading from bits?

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scanLine() can work, but be aware that you must handle the alignment of the data and all that manually.

If you have big images/and or do this often, you might consider including an external image library like "GraphicsMagick":http://www.graphicsmagick.org/ for the pixel manipulation. It also has a C++ interface.