Structure of ImageData

The color image data structure is encapsulated in an ImageData Mathematica expression. ImageData is a graphics primitive that facilitates the easy manipulation and handling of single and multi-channel images. This reads in a small example image in RGB color format.

ImageData like other graphics primitives may be displayed using Show command.

Here is the input form of ImageData.

ImageData[{{{255, 0, 0}, {0, 255, 0}, {0, 0,
255}, {255, 255, 255}, {0, 0, 0}}, 
  {{255, 0, 0}, {0, 255,
0}, {0, 0, 255}, {255, 255, 255}, {0, 0, 0}}, 
  {{196, 225,
242}, {96, 204, 248}, {106, 122, 211}, {219, 112, 131},

   {144, 42, 55}}, {{202, 172, 172}, {111, 229, 152},
{227, 140, 232}, 
   {175, 149, 115}, {249, 229, 3}},
{{2, 168, 101}, {176, 116, 98}, {206, 37, 113},

   {185, 107, 237}, {76, 76, 45}}}, PixelInterleave
-> True, 
 ColorFunction -> RGBColor]

The default ... This converts the image to a planar format.

ImageData[{{{255, 0, 0, 255, 0}, {255, 0, 0,
255, 0}, {196, 96, 106, 219, 144}, 
   {202, 111, 227,
175, 249}, {2, 176, 206, 185, 76}}, 
  {{0, 255, 0, 255, 0},
{0, 255, 0, 255, 0}, {225, 204, 122, 112, 42}, 
   {172,
229, 140, 149, 229}, {168, 116, 37, 107, 76}}, 
  {{0, 0,
255, 255, 0}, {0, 0, 255, 255, 0}, {242, 248, 211, 131, 55},

   {172, 152, 232, 115, 3}, {101, 98, 113, 237, 45}}},
PixelInterleave -> False, 
 ColorFunction -> {RGBColor[#1, 0, 0]
& , RGBColor[0, #1, 0] & , 
   RGBColor[0, 0,
#1] & }]

This returns a monochrome (i.e. single channel) image.

ImageData[{{85., 85., 85., 255., 0}, {85.,
85., 85., 255., 0}, 
  {221., 182.66666666666666,
146.33333333333331, 154., 80.33333333333333}, 
  {182., 164.,
199.66666666666666, 146.33333333333331, 160.33333333333331},

  {90.33333333333333, 130., 118.66666666666666,
176.33333333333331, 
   65.66666666666666}},
PixelInterleave -> None, ColorFunction -> GrayLevel]

This converts from the default RGB format to HSV.

ImageData[{{{0., 1., 1.},
{0.33333333333333337, 1., 1.}, 
   {0.6666666666666666,
1., 1.}, {0, 0, 1.}, {0, 0, 0}}, 
  {{0., 1., 1.},
{0.33333333333333337, 1., 1.}, {0.6666666666666666, 1., 1.},

   {0, 0, 1.}, {0, 0, 0}}, {{0.5595413379513471,
0.1900826446280991, 
    0.9490196078431372},
{0.5453797791150686, 0.6129032258064515,

    0.9725490196078431}, {0.6440842331116621,
0.49763033175355453, 
    0.8274509803921568},
{0.973391114828529, 0.4885844748858448,

    0.8588235294117647}, {0.9813236988642904,
0.7083333333333334, 
    0.5647058823529412}},
{{2.371593461809983*^-9, 0.14851485148514842,

    0.792156862745098}, {0.3889176340426471,
0.5152838427947598, 
    0.8980392156862745},
{0.8256392086959877, 0.39655172413793094,

    0.9098039215686274}, {0.09556097125631627,
0.34285714285714286, 
    0.6862745098039216},
{0.1550068744474194, 0.9879518072289156,

    0.9764705882352941}}, {{0.4343074457102995,
0.9880952380952381, 
    0.6588235294117647},
{0.035362577189995255, 0.44318181818181823,

    0.6901960784313725}, {0.9258994821488294,
0.8203883495145632, 
    0.807843137254902},
{0.7682965987600818, 0.5485232067510548,

    0.9294117647058824}, {0.16666666666666666,
0.4078947368421053, 
    0.2980392156862745}}},
PixelInterleave -> True, ColorFunction -> Hue]

Further reading

User's Guide: Section 2.4.

Function Index: ImageRead, ToGrayLevel, ToHSVColor, PlanarImageData.