How to invert colors of image with PIL (Python-Imaging)?

Question:

I need to convert series of images drawn as white on black background letters to images where white and black are inverted (as negative). How can I achieve this using PIL?

Asked By: bialix

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Answers:

Try the following from the docs: https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/ImageOps.html

from PIL import Image
import PIL.ImageOps    

image = Image.open('your_image.png')

inverted_image = PIL.ImageOps.invert(image)

inverted_image.save('new_name.png')

Note: "The ImageOps module contains a number of ‘ready-made’ image processing operations. This module is somewhat experimental, and most operators only work on L and RGB images."

Answered By: Gary Kerr

If the image is RGBA transparent this will fail… This should work though:

from PIL import Image
import PIL.ImageOps    

image = Image.open('your_image.png')
if image.mode == 'RGBA':
    r,g,b,a = image.split()
    rgb_image = Image.merge('RGB', (r,g,b))

    inverted_image = PIL.ImageOps.invert(rgb_image)

    r2,g2,b2 = inverted_image.split()

    final_transparent_image = Image.merge('RGBA', (r2,g2,b2,a))

    final_transparent_image.save('new_file.png')

else:
    inverted_image = PIL.ImageOps.invert(image)
    inverted_image.save('new_name.png')
Answered By: Dave

For anyone working with an image in “1” mode (i.e., 1-bit pixels, black and white, stored with one pixel per byte — see docs), you need to convert it into “L” mode before calling PIL.ImageOps.invert.

Thus:

im = im.convert('L')
im = ImageOps.invert(im)
im = im.convert('1')
Answered By: Greg Sadetsky

In case someone is inverting a CMYK image, the current implementations of PIL and Pillow don’t seem to support this and throw an error. You can, however, easily circumvent this problem by inverting your image’s individual bands using this handy function (essentially an extension of Greg Sadetsky’s post above):

def CMYKInvert(img) :
    return Image.merge(img.mode, [ImageOps.invert(b.convert('L')) for b in img.split()])
Answered By: mxl
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("archive.extension") 

pixels = img.load()

for i in range(img.size[0]):
    for j in range(img.size[1]):
        x,y,z = pixels[i,j][0],pixels[i,j][1],pixels[i,j][2]
        x,y,z = abs(x-255), abs(y-255), abs(z-255)
        pixels[i,j] = (x,y,z)

img.show()

`

Answered By: zilgo

now ImageOps must be:

PIL.ImageChops.invert(PIL.Image.open(imagepath))

note that this works for me in python 3.8.5

Answered By: Ali

Of course ImageOps does its job well, but unfortunately it can’t work with some modes like ‘RGBA’. This code will solve this problem.

def invert(image: Image.Image) -> Image.Image:
    drawer = ImageDraw.Draw(image)
    pixels = image.load()
    for x in range(image.size[0]):
        for y in range(image.size[1]):
            data = pixels[x, y]
            if data != (0, 0, 0, 0) and isinstance(data, tuple):
                drawer.point((x, y), (255 - data[0], 255 - data[1], 255 - data[2], data[3]))

    return image
Answered By: Menlis Smith
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