ImageWriter

Description¶

A generic function WriteImage() is provided that selects what image writer to use based on the file extenstion and then writes the render window to the file. The following formats are supported: BMP, JPEG, PNM, PNG, PostScript, TIFF.

If no file extension is specified, PNG is assumed.

Other Languages

See (Python)

Code¶

ImageWriter.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>

#include <vtkBMPWriter.h>
#include <vtkImageWriter.h>
#include <vtkJPEGWriter.h>
#include <vtkPNGWriter.h>
#include <vtkPNMWriter.h>
#include <vtkPostScriptWriter.h>
#include <vtkTIFFWriter.h>
#include <vtkWindowToImageFilter.h>

#include <array>
#include <locale>
#include <string>

namespace
{

/**
*  Write the render window view to an image file.
*
*  Image types supported are:
*    BMP, JPEG, PNM, PNG, PostScript, TIFF.
*  The default parameters are used for all writers, change as needed.
*
*  @param fileName The file name, if no extension then PNG is assumed.
*  @param renWin The render window.
*  @param rgba Used to set the buffer type.
*
*/
void WriteImage(std::string const& fileName, vtkRenderWindow* renWin,
                bool rgba = true);
}

int main(int, char* [])
{

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkNamedColors> colors =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkNamedColors>::New();

  // Set the background color.
  std::array<unsigned char , 4> bkg{{26, 51, 102, 255}};
    colors->SetColor("BkgColor", bkg.data());

  // Create the rendering window, renderer, and interactive renderer.
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> ren = vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renWin =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renWin->AddRenderer(ren);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> iren =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  iren->SetRenderWindow(renWin);

  // Create the source.
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> source =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();
  source->SetCenter(0, 0, 0);
  source->SetRadius(5.0);

  // mapper
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(source->GetOutputPort());

  // actor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor = vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  // color the actor
  actor->GetProperty()->SetColor(colors->GetColor3d("Yellow").GetData());

  // assign actor to the renderer
  ren->AddActor(actor);
  ren->SetBackground(colors->GetColor3d("BkgColor").GetData());

  renWin->Render();

  std::vector<std::string> ext = {{""},      {".png"}, {".jpg"}, {".ps"},
                                  {".tiff"}, {".bmp"}, {".pnm"}};
  std::vector<std::string> filenames;
  for (auto e : ext)
  {
    filenames.push_back("ImageWriter" + e);
  }
  filenames[0] = filenames[0] + '1';
  for (auto f : filenames)
  {
    WriteImage(f, renWin, false);
  }

  iren->Initialize();
  iren->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

namespace
{

void WriteImage(std::string const& fileName, vtkRenderWindow* renWin, bool rgba)
{
  if (!fileName.empty())
  {
    std::string fn = fileName;
    std::string path;
    std::string ext;
    std::size_t found = fn.find_last_of(".");
    if (found == std::string::npos)
    {
      path = fn;
      ext = ".png";
      fn += ext;
    }
    else
    {
      path = fileName.substr(0, found);
      ext = fileName.substr(found, fileName.size());
    }
    std::locale loc;
    std::transform(ext.begin(), ext.end(), ext.begin(),
                   [=](char const& c) { return std::tolower(c, loc); });
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkImageWriter> writer =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkImageWriter>::New();
    if (ext == ".bmp")
    {
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkBMPWriter>::New();
    }
    else if (ext == ".jpg")
    {
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkJPEGWriter>::New();
    }
    else if (ext == ".pnm")
    {
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkPNMWriter>::New();
    }
    else if (ext == ".ps")
    {
      if (rgba)
      {
        rgba = false;
      }
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkPostScriptWriter>::New();
    }
    else if (ext == ".tiff")
    {
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkTIFFWriter>::New();
    }
    else
    {
      writer = vtkSmartPointer<vtkPNGWriter>::New();
    }
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter> window_to_image_filter =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkWindowToImageFilter>::New();
    window_to_image_filter->SetInput(renWin);
    window_to_image_filter->SetScale(1); // image quality
    if (rgba)
    {
      window_to_image_filter->SetInputBufferTypeToRGBA();
    }
    else
    {
      window_to_image_filter->SetInputBufferTypeToRGB();
    }
    // Read from the front buffer.
    window_to_image_filter->ReadFrontBufferOff();
    window_to_image_filter->Update();

    writer->SetFileName(fn.c_str());
    writer->SetInputConnection(window_to_image_filter->GetOutputPort());
    writer->Write();
  }
  else
  {
    std::cerr << "No filename provided." << std::endl;
  }

  return;
}
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(ImageWriter)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  vtkCommonColor
  vtkCommonCore
  vtkFiltersSources
  vtkIOImage
  vtkInteractionStyle
  vtkRenderingCore
  vtkRenderingFreeType
  vtkRenderingOpenGL2 QUIET)
if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message("Skipping ImageWriter: ${VTK_NOT_FOUND_MESSAGE}")
  return ()
endif()
message (STATUS "VTK_VERSION: ${VTK_VERSION}")
if (VTK_VERSION VERSION_LESS "8.90.0")
  # old system
  include(${VTK_USE_FILE})
  add_executable(ImageWriter MACOSX_BUNDLE ImageWriter.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(ImageWriter PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else ()
  # include all components
  add_executable(ImageWriter MACOSX_BUNDLE ImageWriter.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(ImageWriter PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
  # vtk_module_autoinit is needed
  vtk_module_autoinit(
    TARGETS ImageWriter
    MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
    )
endif ()

Download and Build ImageWriter¶

Click here to download ImageWriter and its CMakeLists.txt file. Once the tarball ImageWriter.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd ImageWriter/build

If VTK is installed:

cmake ..

If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

make

and run it:

./ImageWriter

WINDOWS USERS

Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.