Convert an Image (UIImage) to Grayscale
Posted on May 13, 2010 by John Muchow in Graphics
A trick you won’t need often, yet when the day arrives, you’ll have this up your sleeve – a quick method to convert a UIImage object to grayscale.
- (UIImage *)convertImageToGrayScale:(UIImage *)image { // Create image rectangle with current image width/height CGRect imageRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, image.size.width, image.size.height); // Grayscale color space CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceGray(); // Create bitmap content with current image size and grayscale colorspace CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil, image.size.width, image.size.height, 8, 0, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNone); // Draw image into current context, with specified rectangle // using previously defined context (with grayscale colorspace) CGContextDrawImage(context, imageRect, [image CGImage]); // Create bitmap image info from pixel data in current context CGImageRef imageRef = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context); // Create a new UIImage object UIImage *newImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef]; // Release colorspace, context and bitmap information CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace); CGContextRelease(context); CFRelease(imageRef); // Return the new grayscale image return newImage; }
Simple enough – here is an example of a converted image:
Related posts:
- Resize/Scale of an Image – Take 1 – Using an Objective-C Category
- Resize/Scale of an Image – Take 2 – Coding a Thread Safe Approach
- Save UIImage Object as a PNG or JPEG File
Fantastic! Short and sweet solutions to stuff I’ve been looking for for ages are all over your blog! Thank you!
[Reply]
Is there any way to preserve the background transparency of an image? I’ve tried playing around with kCGImageAlpha but no luck.
[Reply]
A little addition to allow it to handle alpha transparency from the original image and to preserve image scale and orientation from the original image (especially for retina displays):
- (UIImage *)convertImageToGrayScale:(UIImage *)image
{
// Create image rectangle with current image width/height
CGRect imageRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, image.size.width, image.size.height);
// Grayscale color space
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceGray();
// Create bitmap content with current image size and grayscale colorspace
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil, image.size.width, image.size.height, 8, 0, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNone);
// Draw image into current context, with specified rectangle
// using previously defined context (with grayscale colorspace)
CGContextDrawImage(context, imageRect, [image CGImage]);
/* changes start here */
// Create bitmap image info from pixel data in current context
CGImageRef grayImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
// release the colorspace and graphics context
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
CGContextRelease(context);
// make a new alpha-only graphics context
context = CGBitmapContextCreate(nil, image.size.width, image.size.height, 8, 0, nil, kCGImageAlphaOnly);
// draw image into context with no colorspace
CGContextDrawImage(context, imageRect, [image CGImage]);
// create alpha bitmap mask from current context
CGImageRef mask = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);
// release graphics context
CGContextRelease(context);
// make UIImage from grayscale image with alpha mask
UIImage *grayScaleImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:CGImageCreateWithMask(grayImage, mask) scale:image.scale orientation:image.imageOrientation];
// release the CG images
CGImageRelease(grayImage);
CGImageRelease(mask);
// return the new grayscale image
return grayScaleImage;
/* changes end here */
}
[Reply]