Development Status
- 5 - Production/Stable
Intended Audience
- Science/Research
- Education
- Developers
Operating System
- MacOS :: MacOS X
- Microsoft :: Windows
- POSIX
Programming Language
- Python :: 3
- Python :: 3.10
- Python :: 3.11
- Python :: 3.12
- Python :: 3.13
- Python :: 3.14
# IMAGEIO
[](https://github.com/imageio/imageio/actions/workflows/ci.yml) [](https://github.com/imageio/imageio/actions/workflows/cd.yml) [](https://codecov.io/gh/imageio/imageio) [](https://imageio.readthedocs.io)
[](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/imageio/) [](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/imageio/)  [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1488561)
Website: <https://imageio.readthedocs.io/>
Imageio is a mature Python library that makes it easy to read and write image and video data. This includes animated images, video, volumetric data, and scientific formats. It is cross-platform, runs on Python 3.10+, and is easy to install.
Professional support is available via [Tidelift](https://tidelift.com/funding/github/pypi/imageio).
## Example
Here’s a minimal example of how to use imageio. See the docs for [more examples](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples.html).
`python import imageio.v3 as iio im = iio.imread('imageio:chelsea.png') # read a standard image im.shape # im is a NumPy array of shape (300, 451, 3) iio.imwrite('chelsea.jpg', im) # convert to jpg `
## API in a nutshell
You just have to remember a handful of functions:
`python imread() # for reading imwrite() # for writing imiter() # for iterating image series (animations/videos/OME-TIFF/...) improps() # for standardized metadata immeta() # for format-specific metadata imopen() # for advanced usage `
See the [API docs](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/index.html) for more information.
## Features
Simple interface via a concise set of functions
Easy to [install](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/getting_started/installation.html) using Conda or pip
Few core dependencies (only NumPy and Pillow)
Pure Python, runs on Python 3.10+, and PyPy
Cross platform, runs on Windows, Linux, macOS
More than 295 supported [formats](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/formats/index.html)
Read/Write support for various [resources](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/getting_started/requests.html) (files, URLs, bytes, FileLike objects, …)
High code quality and large test suite including functional, regression, and integration tests
## Dependencies
Minimal requirements:
Python 3.10+
NumPy
Pillow >= 8.3.2
Optional Python packages:
imageio-ffmpeg (for working with video files)
pyav (for working with video files)
tifffile (for working with TIFF files)
itk or SimpleITK (for ITK plugin)
astropy (for FITS plugin)
[imageio-flif](https://codeberg.org/monilophyta/imageio-flif) (for working with [FLIF](https://github.com/FLIF-hub/FLIF) image files)
## Security contact information
To report a security vulnerability, please use the [Tidelift security contact](https://tidelift.com/security). Tidelift will coordinate the fix and disclosure.
## ImageIO for enterprise
Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.
The maintainers of imageio and thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver commercial support and maintenance for the open source dependencies you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact dependencies you use. ([Learn more](https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/pypi-imageio?utm_source=pypi-imageio&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=readme))
## Details
The core of ImageIO is a set of user-facing APIs combined with a plugin manager. API calls choose sensible defaults and then call the plugin manager, which deduces the correct plugin/backend to use for the given resource and file format. The plugin manager adds sensible backend-specific defaults and then calls one of ImageIOs many backends to perform the actual loading. This allows ImageIO to take care of most of the gory details of loading images for you, while still allowing you to customize the behavior when and where you need to. You can find a more detailed explanation of this process in [our documentation](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/user_guide/overview.html).
## Contributing
We welcome contributions of any kind. Here are some suggestions on how you are able to contribute
add missing formats to the format list
suggest/implement support for new backends
report/fix any bugs you encounter while using ImageIO
To assist you in getting started with contributing code, take a look at the [development section](https://imageio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/development/index.html) of the docs. You will find instructions on setting up the dev environment as well as examples on how to contribute code.
](https://github.com/imageio/imageio/actions/workflows/ci.yml){kind=link}
](https://github.com/imageio/imageio/actions/workflows/cd.yml){kind=link}
](https://codecov.io/gh/imageio/imageio){kind=link}
](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/imageio/){kind=link}
](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/imageio/){kind=link}
](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1488561){kind=link}