Bethan Palmer Bethan is a Java developer and a Java Champion. She has spoken at conferences including JavaOne/Code One, DevFest and NetBeans days. She has a degree in English Literature.

How to read DICOM Image files in Java (Tutorial)

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DICOM icon

In this post, we will be showing you how to read DICOM image files in Java.

ImageIO does not support DICOM file types by default so you will need to use an ImageIO plugin or an external library. We will demonstrate using an Open source ImageIO plugin called TwelveMonkeys (which extends ImageIO to provide DICOM reading support), and using the JDeli Image Library.

How to read a DICOM image in Java with ImageIO

  1. Download dcm4che plugin and install it.
  2. Create a File handle, InputStream or URL pointing to the DICOM image.
  3. ImageIO will now be able to read a DICOM file into a BufferedImage.

and the Java code to read DICOM in ImageIO…

File file = new File("/path/to/outputFile.dcm"));
BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(file);

How to read a DICOM image in Java with JDeli

  1. Add JDeli to your class or module path. (download the trial jar).
  2. Create a File handle, InputStream pointing to the DICOM image. You can also use a byte[] containing the image data.
  3. Read the DICOM image into a BufferedImage

and the Java code to read DICOM with JDeli…



Are you a Java Developer working with Image files?

Why do developers choose JDeli over free alternatives?

  1. Works with newer image formats such as AVIF, HEIC, JPEG XL, WEBP
  2. Better support than alternatives for JPEG, PNG, TIFF.
  3. Prevent JVM crashes caused by native code in other image libraries
  4. Better performance than other popular Java image libraries
Bethan Palmer Bethan is a Java developer and a Java Champion. She has spoken at conferences including JavaOne/Code One, DevFest and NetBeans days. She has a degree in English Literature.

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