ImageType
Background & Context
- ImageType gives a label representing the number type used internally to represent each pixel of an image. The Wolfram Language supports images encoded by 1-bit integers (i.e. two-level binary), 8-bit unsigned integers, 16-bit unsigned integers, and 32- and 64-bit real numbers. These different bit depths allow a variety of image encodings, with smaller bit depths used for compact (i.e. lower memory) representation of images and larger bit depths providing higher resolution.
- Many image processing functions automatically convert integer-type images to a real type for higher accuracy prior to computation.
- The function Image can be used to convert between image types, and ImageAdjust can be used to bring all values of a real-valued image into the range 0 to 1. Another important property of an image is the number of channels the image contains, which may be obtained using the function ImageChannels .
Examples
Basic Examples (5)
Byte image:
A 16-bit grayscale image:
A real-valued RGB image:
A binary image:
A 3D image:
Tech Notes
Related Guides
History
Introduced in 2008 (7.0) | Updated in 2010 (8.0) ▪ 2019 (12.0)
Text
Wolfram Research (2008), ImageType, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.html (updated 2019).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2008. "ImageType." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2019. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2008). ImageType. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_imagetype, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ImageType}", year="2019", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.html}", note=[Accessed: 17-November-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_imagetype, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ImageType}, year={2019}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.html}, note=[Accessed: 17-November-2025]}