Encodes an image into a memory buffer

buf = cv.imencode(ext, img)
buf = cv.imencode(ext, img, 'OptionName', optionValue, ...)
[buf, success] = cv.imencode(...)

Input

• ext File extension that defines the output format. For example: '.bmp', '.jpg', '.png', '.tif', etc.
• img Image to be encoded.

Output

• buf Output buffer of the compressed image. A row vector of type uint8 that contains encoded image as an array of bytes. If the image cannot be encoded, the function throws an error.
• success optional output flag, true on success, false otherwise. If not requested, the function throws an error on fail.

Options

• FlipChannels in case the input is color image, flips the color order from MATLAB's RGB/RGBA to OpenCV's BGR/BGRA order. default true

The following format-specific save parameters are currently supported:

• JpegQuality For JPEG, it can be a quality from 0 to 100 (the higher is the better). Default value is 95.
• JpegProgressive Enable JPEG features, 0 or 1, default is false.
• JpegOptimize Enable JPEG features, 0 or 1, default is false.
• JpegResetInterval JPEG restart interval, 0 - 65535, default is 0 (no restart).
• JpegLumaQuality Separate luma quality level, 0 - 100, default is 0 (don't use).
• JpegChromaQuality Separate chroma quality level, 0 - 100, default is 0 (don't use).
• PngCompression For PNG, it can be the compression level from 0 to 9. A higher value means a smaller size and longer compression time. Default value is 3.
• PngStrategy For PNG; used to tune the compression algorithm. These flags will be modify the way of PNG image compression and will be passed to the underlying zlib processing stage. The strategy parameter only affects the compression ratio but not the correctness of the compressed output even if it is not set appropriately. One of:
  • Default (default) Use this value for normal data.
  • Filtered Use this value for data produced by a filter (or predictor). Filtered data consists mostly of small values with a somewhat random distribution. In this case, the compression algorithm is tuned to compress them better. The effect of Filtered is to force more Huffman coding and less string matching; it is somewhat intermediate between Default and HuffmanOnly.
  • HuffmanOnly Use this value to force Huffman encoding only (no string match).
  • RLE Use this value to limit match distances to one (run-length encoding). RLE is designed to be almost as fast as HuffmanOnly, but give better compression for PNG image data.
  • Fixed Using this value prevents the use of dynamic Huffman codes, allowing for a simpler decoder for special applications.
• PngBilevel Binary level PNG, 0 or 1, controls packing of pixels per bytes. If false, PNG files pack pixels of bit-depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as possible. default is false.
• PxmBinary For PPM, PGM, or PBM, it can be a binary format flag, 0 or 1, to specify ASCII or binary encoding. default is true.
• ExrType override EXR storage type. Note that the EXR encoder only accepts single images. One of:
  • Half store as half precision (FP16), see cv.convertFp16
  • Float store as single precision (FP32), this is the default.
• WebpQuality For WEBP, it can be a quality from 1 to 100 (the higher is the better). By default (without any parameter) and for quality above 100 the lossless compression is used.
• PamTupleType For PAM, sets the TUPLETYPE field to the corresponding string value that is defined for the format. One of:
  • Null
  • BlackWhite
  • Grayscale
  • GrayscaleAlpha
  • RGB
  • RGBA

For advanced uses, you can directly pass a vector of parameters:

• Params Format-specific save parameters encoded as pairs: [paramId_1, paramValue_1, paramId_2, paramValue_2, ...].

The function compresses the image and stores it in the memory buffer. See cv.imwrite for the list of supported formats and flags description.