I need to be able to convert 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale pixel data into a file format that the .NET framework can support.
The data I have available is the width, height, orientation (bottom-left) and the pixel format as 4096 shades of gray (12-bit resolution) packed in 2 bytes per pixel.
So for example each pixel ranges from 0 to 4096, and each pixel is 2 bytes.
I have already tried using PixelFormat.Format16bppGrayScale with the Bitmap constructor, and it throws a GDI+ exception. Everything I have read says that this format is not supported and that MSDN is wrong.
I want to convert this pixel buffer into a .NET Bitmap format (such as Format32bppArgb) with as little image quality loss as possible.
Anyone know how?
See the example below, which precomputes a lookup table (LUT) and uses that to convert each pixel. This version covers your 12-bit case; for 8-bit the code is very similar, but it is difficult to generalize across pixel formats.
A conversion from 12-bit GS to effectively 8-bit GS will lose data. However, you can adjust the LUT table to focus on a smaller range of input values with better contrast (ex. DICOM Window Center/Window Width).
class Program
{
static void Main( string[] args )
{
// Test driver - create a Wedge, convert to Bitmap, save to file
//
int width = 4095;
int height = 1200;
int bits = 12;
byte[] wedge = Wedge( width, height, bits );
Bitmap bmp = Convert( wedge, width, height, bits );
string file = "wedge.png";
bmp.Save( file );
Process.Start( file );
}
static Bitmap Convert( byte[] input, int width, int height, int bits )
{
// Convert byte buffer (2 bytes per pixel) to 32-bit ARGB bitmap
var bitmap = new Bitmap( width, height, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb );
var rect = new Rectangle( 0, 0, width, height );
var lut = CreateLut( bits );
var bitmap_data = bitmap.LockBits( rect, ImageLockMode.WriteOnly, bitmap.PixelFormat );
ConvertCore( width, height, bits, input, bitmap_data, lut );
bitmap.UnlockBits( bitmap_data );
return bitmap;
}
static unsafe void ConvertCore( int width, int height, int bits, byte[] input, BitmapData output, uint[] lut )
{
// Copy pixels from input to output, applying LUT
ushort mask = (ushort)( ( 1 << bits ) - 1 );
int in_stride = output.Stride;
int out_stride = width * 2;
byte* out_data = (byte*)output.Scan0;
fixed ( byte* in_data = input )
{
for ( int y = 0; y < height; y++ )
{
uint* out_row = (uint*)( out_data + ( y * in_stride ) );
ushort* in_row = (ushort*)( in_data + ( y * out_stride ) );
for ( int x = 0; x < width; x++ )
{
ushort in_pixel = (ushort)( in_row[ x ] & mask );
out_row[ x ] = lut[ in_pixel ];
}
}
}
}
static uint[] CreateLut( int bits )
{
// Create a linear LUT to convert from grayscale to ARGB
int max_input = 1 << bits;
uint[] lut = new uint[ max_input ];
for ( int i = 0; i < max_input; i++ )
{
// map input value to 8-bit range
//
byte intensity = (byte)( ( i * 0xFF ) / max_input );
// create ARGB output value A=255, R=G=B=intensity
//
lut[ i ] = (uint)( 0xFF000000L | ( intensity * 0x00010101L ) );
}
return lut;
}
static byte[] Wedge( int width, int height, int bits )
{
// horizontal wedge
int max = 1 << bits;
byte[] pixels = new byte[ width * height * 2 ];
for ( int y = 0; y < height; y++ )
{
for ( int x = 0; x < width; x++ )
{
int pixel = x % max;
int addr = ( ( y * width ) + x ) * 2;
pixels[ addr + 1 ] = (byte)( ( pixel & 0xFF00 ) >> 8 );
pixels[ addr + 0 ] = (byte)( ( pixel & 0x00FF ) );
}
}
return pixels;
}
}
Spoof a 16b format & use ColorMatrix to map it correctly before display.
I haven't done performance tests of this approach on Windows, but on other platforms (e.g., Android) where I needed efficient memory storage and rapid remapping of different ranges in the 12b or 16b data I've made good use of this technique.
I tell it my 12/16b grayscale data is really RGB565, so that it's happy serializing, deserializing & other manipulations. When I need to display I pass it through a ColorMatrix which maps the appropriate window to an 8b grayscale in ARGB8888.
If anyone wants to try this I'll post my mapping algorithm.