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I am looking to create base64 inline encoded data of images for display in a table using canvases. Python generates and creates the web page dynamically. As it stands python uses the Image module to create thumbnails. After all of the thumbnails are created Python then generates base64 data of each thumbnail and puts the b64 data into hidden spans on the user's webpage. A user then clicks check marks by each thumbnail relative to their interest. They then create a pdf file containing their selected images by clicking a generate pdf button. The JavaScript using jsPDF generates the hidden span b64 data to create the image files in the pdf file and then ultimately the pdf file.

I am looking to hopefully shave down Python script execution time and minimize some disk I/O operations by generating the base64 thumbnail data in memory while the script executes.

Here is an example of what I would like to accomplish.

import os, sys import Image size = 128, 128 im = Image.open("/original/image/1.jpeg") im.thumbnail(size) thumb = base64.b64encode(im)

This doesn't work sadly, get a TypeErorr -

TypeError: must be string or buffer, not instance

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this?

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4 Answers 4

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You first need to save the image again in JPEG format; using the im.tostring() method would otherwise return raw image data that no browser would recognize:

from io import BytesIO output = BytesIO() im.save(output, format='JPEG') im_data = output.getvalue()

This you can then encode to base64:

image_data = base64.b64encode(im_data) if not isinstance(image_data, str): # Python 3, decode from bytes to string image_data = image_data.decode() data_url = 'data:image/jpg;base64,' + image_data

Here is one I made with this method:

data:image/jpg;base64,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

Unfortunately the Markdown parser doesn't let me use this as an actual image, but you can see it in action in a snippet instead:

<img src="data:image/jpg;base64,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"/>

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1 Comment

Both of the answers provided work for what I want to do, but this one was more in line and fluid with my program :) So I will go with you on this! I wish I could accept both as answers as I will be borrowing from both, but StringIO seems to work real well for me! Thanks everyone!
5

In Python 3, you may need to use BytesIO:

from io import BytesIO ... outputBuffer = BytesIO() bg.save(outputBuffer, format='JPEG') bgBase64Data = outputBuffer.getvalue() # http://stackoverflow.com/q/16748083/2603230 return 'data:image/jpeg;base64,' + base64.b64encode(bgBase64Data).decode()
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2 
 thumb = base64.b64encode(im.tostring())

I think would work

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5 Comments

Nope, that won't work, as im.tostring() returns the raw image matrix, not JPEG encoded data.
but it should work for Image.fromtext(b64decode(my_encoded_raw))? or is that a lie(I didnt try it)? ...
Actually; my reading comprehension could do with polishing as well; looks like the OP indeed wants to roundtrip, not display these as data URLs. Oops. Still; I'd.think jsPDF or the canvas might want to use JPEGs.
yeah tbh i didnt know you could just use a url like that (neat trick)
Thanks for the tips guys, I did try out the tostring() method in some testing and had some interesting results. in my various testings. I can't seem to get the b64 encoded data to work in jsPDF too well, I am going to tinker some more, i've noticed different libraries are picky with how b64 data is presented to it!
2

I use PNG when I save to the buffer. With JPEG the numpy arrays are a bit different.

import base64 import io import numpy as np from PIL import Image image_path = 'dog.jpg' img2 = np.array(Image.open(image_path)) # Numpy -> b64 buffered = io.BytesIO() Image.fromarray(img2).save(buffered, format="PNG") b64image = base64.b64encode(buffered.getvalue()) # b64 -> Numpy img = np.array(Image.open(io.BytesIO(base64.b64decode(b64image)))) print(img.shape) np.testing.assert_almost_equal(img, img2)

Note that it will be slower.

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