---
title: "Image Representation"
language: "en"
type: "Guide"
summary: "The Wolfram Language's symbolic architecture allows a unique representation and treatment of images in both programs and documents. The Wolfram Language supports images with arbitrary numbers of channels and arbitrary color depths, and with a full range of internal data types either specified explicitly or chosen automatically."
sections: 
  - 
    title: "Image Properties "
    link: "null"
  - 
    title: "Image Options"
    link: "null"
  - 
    title: "Colors & Levels"
    link: "paclet:guide/ColorProcessing"
  - 
    title: "Dynamic Viewer"
    link: "null"
  - 
    title: "Image Decompositions"
    link: "null"
  - 
    title: "Importing & Exporting"
    link: "null"
keywords: 
- image representation
- raster images
- image format
- color format
- image types
- image arithmetic
- image metadata
canonical_url: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/ImageRepresentation.html"
source: "Wolfram Language Documentation"
related_guides: 
  - 
    title: "Image Processing"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/ImageProcessing.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Raster Image Formats"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/RasterImageFormats.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Basic Image Manipulation"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/BasicImageManipulation.en.md"
related_functions: 
  - 
    title: "AlphaChannel"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AlphaChannel.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Binarize"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Binarize.en.md"
  - 
    title: "BinaryImageQ"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/BinaryImageQ.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ColorCombine"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorCombine.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ColorConvert"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorConvert.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ColorSeparate"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorSeparate.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ColorSpace"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorSpace.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ConformImages"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ConformImages.en.md"
  - 
    title: "DominantColors"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DominantColors.en.md"
  - 
    title: "DynamicImage"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DynamicImage.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Export"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Export.en.md"
  - 
    title: "FindThreshold"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindThreshold.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Image"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Image3D"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image3D.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Image3DSlices"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image3DSlices.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageAccumulate"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageAccumulate.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageAspectRatio"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageAspectRatio.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageChannels"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageChannels.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageColorSpace"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageColorSpace.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageCooccurrence"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageCooccurrence.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageData"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageData.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageDimensions"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageDimensions.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageHistogram"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageHistogram.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageLevels"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageLevels.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageMeasurements"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageMeasurements.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageQ"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageQ.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageResolution"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageResolution.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageSize"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageSize.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageType"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageValue"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageValue.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ImageValuePositions"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageValuePositions.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Import"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Import.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Interleaving"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Interleaving.en.md"
  - 
    title: "KarhunenLoeveDecomposition"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/KarhunenLoeveDecomposition.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Magnification"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Magnification.en.md"
  - 
    title: "MetaInformation"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/MetaInformation.en.md"
  - 
    title: "Options"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Options.en.md"
  - 
    title: "PixelValue"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PixelValue.en.md"
  - 
    title: "PixelValuePositions"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PixelValuePositions.en.md"
  - 
    title: "PrincipalComponents"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PrincipalComponents.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ZoomCenter"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ZoomCenter.en.md"
  - 
    title: "ZoomFactor"
    link: "https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ZoomFactor.en.md"
---
# Image Representation

The Wolfram Language's symbolic architecture allows a unique representation and treatment of images in both programs and documents. The Wolfram Language supports images with arbitrary numbers of channels and arbitrary color depths, and with a full range of internal data types either specified explicitly or chosen automatically.

---

[`Image`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image.en.md), [`Image3D`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image3D.en.md) — represent a general multichannel image

[`ImageQ`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageQ.en.md) — test whether an expression is an image

### Image Properties

[`ImageMeasurements`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageMeasurements.en.md) — returns specified properties of an image

[`ImageType`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageType.en.md) — the type of data in the image ("Bit", "Byte", "Bit16", "Real32", "Real64")

[`ImageData`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageData.en.md) — the array of raster data for an image

* [`ImageColorSpace`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageColorSpace.en.md)
* [`ImageChannels`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageChannels.en.md)
* [`ImageDimensions`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageDimensions.en.md)
* [`ImageAspectRatio`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageAspectRatio.en.md)

[`ImageValue`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageValue.en.md), [`PixelValue`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PixelValue.en.md) — the value of a pixel at the specified position

[`ImageValuePositions`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageValuePositions.en.md), [`PixelValuePositions`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PixelValuePositions.en.md) — positions of the specified pixel value

[`ImageAccumulate`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageAccumulate.en.md) — gives the integral image

[`Image3DSlices`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Image3DSlices.en.md) — gives the 2D image slices for a 3D image

[`ConformImages`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ConformImages.en.md) — gives a list of images with conforming properties

### Image Options

[`Options`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Options.en.md) — find the options of an image

[`ColorSpace`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorSpace.en.md) — in what color space to interpret channel values ("RGB", "CMYK", etc.)

[`Interleaving`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Interleaving.en.md) — whether to interleave channels into the data array

[`MetaInformation`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/MetaInformation.en.md) — arbitrary metadata imported and exported with an image

* [`ImageSize`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageSize.en.md)
* [`Magnification`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Magnification.en.md)
* [`ImageResolution`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageResolution.en.md)

### [Colors & Levels](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/ColorProcessing.en.md)

[`ImageHistogram`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageHistogram.en.md) — histogram of levels by channel

[`FindThreshold`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindThreshold.en.md) — global threshold that partitions the intensity levels

[`DominantColors`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DominantColors.en.md) — find a list of dominant colors

[`ImageCooccurrence`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageCooccurrence.en.md) — co-occurrence matrix of image pixel intensities

* [`BinaryImageQ`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/BinaryImageQ.en.md)
* [`Binarize`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Binarize.en.md)
* [`ImageLevels`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageLevels.en.md)
* [`...`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/ColorProcessing.en.md)

[`ColorConvert`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorConvert.en.md) — convert between color spaces

* [`AlphaChannel`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/AlphaChannel.en.md)
* [`ColorSeparate`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorSeparate.en.md)
* [`ColorCombine`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ColorCombine.en.md)

### Dynamic Viewer

[`DynamicImage`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DynamicImage.en.md) — display a dynamic view of an image, a file or a URL

* [`ZoomCenter`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ZoomCenter.en.md)
* [`ZoomFactor`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ZoomFactor.en.md)

### Image Decompositions

* [`KarhunenLoeveDecomposition`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/KarhunenLoeveDecomposition.en.md)
* [`PrincipalComponents`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PrincipalComponents.en.md)

---

### Importing & Exporting

[`Import`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Import.en.md), [`Export`](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Export.en.md) — import, export in all standard formats

## Related Guides

* [Image Processing](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/ImageProcessing.en.md)
* [Raster Image Formats](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/RasterImageFormats.en.md)
* [Basic Image Manipulation](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/BasicImageManipulation.en.md)

## Related Links

* [Wolfram Community: Image Processing](http://community.wolfram.com/content?curTag=image%20processing)