Encoding an image file with base64

Question

I want to encode an image into a string using the base64 module. I've ran into a problem though. How do I specify the image I want to be encoded? I tried using the directory to the image, but that simply leads to the directory being encoded. I want the actual image file to be encoded.

EDIT

I tried this snippet:

with open("C:\Python26\seriph1.BMP", "rb") as f:
    data12 = f.read()
    UU = data12.encode("base64")
    UUU = base64.b64decode(UU)

    print UUU

    self.image = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(UUU))

but I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 245, in run_nodebug
  File "C:\Python26\GUI1.2.9.py", line 473, in <module>
    app = simpleapp_tk(None)
  File "C:\Python26\GUI1.2.9.py", line 14, in __init__
    self.initialize()
  File "C:\Python26\GUI1.2.9.py", line 431, in initialize
    self.image = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(UUU))
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 1952, in open
    fp = __builtin__.open(fp, "rb")
TypeError: file() argument 1 must be encoded string without NULL bytes, not str

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The first answer will print a string with prefix b'. That means your string will be like this b'your_string' To solve this issue please add the following line of code.

encoded_string= base64.b64encode(img_file.read())
print(encoded_string.decode('utf-8'))

I have experienced this while converting Image to Base64 string. You can take a look at how I removed that from there also. Link is here Image to base64 string and fix 'b from prefix

Answer 2

import base64
from PIL import Image
from io import BytesIO

with open("image.jpg", "rb") as image_file:
    data = base64.b64encode(image_file.read())

im = Image.open(BytesIO(base64.b64decode(data)))
im.save('image1.png', 'PNG')

Answer 3

Borrowing from what Ivo van der Wijk and gnibbler have developed earlier, this is a dynamic solution

import cStringIO
import PIL.Image

image_data = None

def imagetopy(image, output_file):
    with open(image, 'rb') as fin:
        image_data = fin.read()

    with open(output_file, 'w') as fout:
        fout.write('image_data = '+ repr(image_data))

def pytoimage(pyfile):
    pymodule = __import__(pyfile)
    img = PIL.Image.open(cStringIO.StringIO(pymodule.image_data))
    img.show()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    imagetopy('spot.png', 'wishes.py')
    pytoimage('wishes')

You can then decide to compile the output image file with Cython to make it cool. With this method, you can bundle all your graphics into one module.

Answer 4

As I said in your previous question, there is no need to base64 encode the string, it will only make the program slower. Just use the repr

>>> with open("images/image.gif", "rb") as fin:
...  image_data=fin.read()
...
>>> with open("image.py","wb") as fout:
...  fout.write("image_data="+repr(image_data))
...

Now the image is stored as a variable called image_data in a file called image.py Start a fresh interpreter and import the image_data

>>> from image import image_data
>>>

Answer 5

Its work for me

import base64
import requests

# Getting image in bytes
response = requests.get("image_url") 

# image encoding
encoded_image = base64.b64encode(response.content)

# image decoding and without it's won't work due to some '\xff' error
decoded_image= base64.b64decode(encoded_image)