Pillow Tutorial: Image Manipulation in Python

Pillow is a powerful image processing library in Python that provides an easy-to-use interface for performing various image manipulation operations. In this tutorial, you will learn how to utilize Pillow to perform basic image manipulation tasks.

Installing Pillow:

First, you need to install Pillow. You can do this using pip by running the following command:

pip install pillow

Loading and Displaying Images:

Let’s start by loading an image using Pillow and displaying it.

from PIL import Image
# Load an image 
image = Image.open('image.jpg') 
# Display the image 
image.show()

Basic Image Manipulation:

Now, let’s explore some basic image manipulation techniques using Pillow.

Resizing Images:

You can resize images using the resize() method.

# Resize the image 
resized_image = image.resize((width, height))

Rotating Images:

Rotate an image using the rotate() method.

# Rotate the image by 90 degrees 
rotated_image = image.rotate(90)

Converting Image Modes:

Convert between different color modes using the convert() method.

# Convert the image to grayscale 
grayscale_image = image.convert('L')

Applying Filters:

Pillow provides various filters for image enhancement. Let’s apply some filters to our image.

from PIL import ImageFilter 
# Apply a blur filter 
blurred_image = image.filter(ImageFilter.BLUR) 
# Apply a sharpen filter 
sharpened_image = image.filter(ImageFilter.SHARPEN)

Example and Real-world Case: Enhancing Images for OCR (Optical Character Recognition):

Case Description: Imagine you’re working on an OCR project and need to enhance image quality before processing with OCR algorithm. You’ll use Pillow to improve image quality.

from PIL import ImageEnhance 
# Load a low-quality image 
low_quality_image = Image.open('low_quality_image.jpg') 
# Enhance image sharpness 
enhancer = ImageEnhance.Sharpness(low_quality_image) 
high_sharpness_image = enhancer.enhance(2.0) 
# Save the enhanced image 
high_sharpness_image.save('high_sharpness_image.jpg')

Conclusion:

In this tutorial, you’ve learned the basics of image manipulation using Pillow in Python. Pillow offers a wide range of functions for manipulating images, making it a valuable tool for various projects. Experiment with different techniques and explore Pillow’s documentation for more advanced features.