How does Java handle different Images and ColorSpaces – Part 1

One of the attractions of Java is the way it abstracts and simplifies many programming constructs. In place of Tiffs, PNGs, JPEGs and other Image formats, you get a simple BufferedImage object. ImageIO and other third-party libraries such as our own JDeli image library provide methods to read and write a BufferedImage.

We have spent a lot of time working with different images formats in the process of writing the JDeli Image library as a replacement for  ImageIO and the aim of this series is to share that knowledge to a wider audience.

Java makes images simple to use. You can work with a BufferedImage and just load or save this to any supported image file format. A BufferedImage includes lots of functionality which allows you to render and process the image, with all the complexity and implementation hidden by Java. A BufferedImage can even be used as a Graphics2D canvas which can be drawn on. Here is some example code.

//load image with ImageIO or JDeli

BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(new File("image.png"));

BufferedImage image = JDeli.read(new File("image.png"));


//draw a red diagonal line on it

Graphics2D g2 = image.createGraphics();

g2.setColor(Color.red);

g2.drawLine(0, 0, image.getWidth(), image.getHeight());


//save image with ImageIO or JDeli

ImageIO.write(image, "PNG", new File("image.png"));

JDeli.write(image, "PNG", new File("image.png"));

See you next time when we will look at ColorSpaces.

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(dicomImageFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(heicImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "heic", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpegImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpeg", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpeg2000ImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpx", outputStreamOrFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "pdf", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(pngImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "png", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(tiffImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "tiff", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(webpImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "webp", outputStreamOrFile);