Introduction to imshow grayscale - Python

Overview

In this tutorial, we will learn about how to display grayscale images using the imshow function in Python. Grayscale images represent the intensity of each pixel in shades of gray.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of Python programming language and some familiarity with image processing concepts.

Steps

1. Import the necessary libraries:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

2. Load the grayscale image:

image = plt.imread('path_to_grayscale_image.png')

3. Display the grayscale image using imshow:

plt.imshow(image, cmap='gray')
plt.axis('off')
plt.show()

4. Explain the code snippet:

• imshow function is used to display the image.
• cmap='gray' sets the colormap to grayscale, ensuring that the image is displayed in shades of gray.
• axis('off') removes the coordinate axis from the plot.
• show displays the image on the screen.

Example

Let's consider an example to better understand how to use imshow for grayscale images:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Load the grayscale image
image = plt.imread('example_image.png')

# Display the grayscale image
plt.imshow(image, cmap='gray')
plt.axis('off')
plt.show()

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to display grayscale images using the imshow function in Python. By setting the colormap to grayscale, we can visualize the intensity of each pixel in shades of gray. This is a fundamental technique in image processing.