SDL::Image(3) Bindings for the SDL_Image library

DESCRIPTION

SDL::Image allows you to load many different format of images into memory as an SDL::Surface.

CATEGORY

Image

SUPPORTED FORMATS

The following types are supported:
TGA
TrueVision Targa (MUST have .tga)
BMP
Windows Bitmap(.bmp)
PNM
Portable Anymap (.pnm) .pbm = Portable BitMap (mono) .pgm = Portable GreyMap (256 greys) .ppm = Portable PixMap (full color)
XPM
X11 Pixmap (.xpm) can be #included directly in code This is NOT the same as XBM(X11 Bitmap) format, which is for monocolor images.
XCF
GIMP native (.xcf) (XCF = eXperimental Computing Facility?) This format is always changing, and since there's no library supplied by the GIMP project to load XCF, the loader may frequently fail to load much of any image from an XCF file. It's better to load this in GIMP and convert to a better supported image format.
PCX
ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush (.pcx)
GIF
CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
JPG
Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format (.jpg or .jpeg)
TIF
Tagged Image File Format (.tif or .tiff)
LBM
Interleaved Bitmap (.lbm or .iff) FORM : ILBM or PBM(packed bitmap), HAM6, HAM8, and 24bit types are not supported.
PNG
Portable Network Graphics (.png)
XV
ICO
CUR

LOADING METHODS

load

 my $surface = SDL::Image::load( $file );

$file Image file name to load a surface from.

Load file for use as an image in a new SDL::Surface. This actually calls SDL::Image::load_typed_rw, with the file extension used as the type string. This can load all supported image files, including TGA as long as the filename ends with ``.tga''. It is best to call this outside of event loops, and rather keep the loaded images around until you are really done with them, as disk speed and image conversion to a surface is not that speedy.

Note: If the image format loader requires initialization, it will attempt to do that the first time it is needed if you have not already called SDL::Image::init to load support for your image format.

Note: If the image format supports a transparent pixel, SDL::Image will set the colorkey for the surface. You can enable RLE acceleration on the surface afterwards by calling:

SDL::Video::set_color_key

  my $image = SDL::Image::load( $some_png_file );
  SDL::Video::set_color_key($image, SDL_RLEACCEL, $image->format->colorkey);

Return

An image as a SDL::Surface. NULL is returned on errors, such as no support built for the image, or a file reading error. Use SDL::get_error to get cause of error.

load_typed_rw

  SDL::Image::load_typed_rw($src, $freesrc, $type);
src
The source SDL::RWops as a pointer. The image is loaded from this.
freesrc
A non-zero value mean is will automatically close/free the src for you. Since SDL Perl cannot handle the memory inside this function you would most likely want 1 here.
type
A string that indicates which format type to interpret the image as.

Here is a list of the currently recognized strings (case is not important):

"BMP"
"CUR"
"GIF"
"ICO"
"JPG"
"LBM"
"PCX"
"PNG"
"PNM"
"TGA"
"TIF"
"XCF"
"XPM"
"XV"

Load src for use as a surface. This can load all supported image formats. This method does not guarantee that the format specified by type is the format of the loaded image, except in the case when TGA format is specified (or any other non-magicable format in the future). Using SDL_RWops is not covered here, but they enable you to load from almost any source.

Note: If the image format loader requires initialization, it will attempt to do that the first time it is needed if you have not already called SDL::Image::init to load support for your image format.

Note: If the image format supports a transparent pixel, SDL::Image will set the colorkey for the surface. You can enable RLE acceleration on the surface afterwards by calling: SDL::Video::set_color_key

Transparency

  use SDL;
  use SDL::RWOps;
  use SDL::Image;
  my $file2 = SDL::RWOps->new_file("test/data/menu.png", "rb");
  my $image = SDL::Image::load_typed_rw($file2, 1, "PNG");
  SDL::Video::set_color_key($image, SDL_RLEACCEL, $image->format->colorkey);

Return

The image as a new SDL::Surface. NULL is returned on errors.

is_[TYPE]

Test for valid, supported image files:
is_ICO
is_CUR
is_PNG
is_BMP
is_GIF
is_JPG
is_LBM
is_PCX
is_PNM
is_TIF
is_XCF
is_XPM
is_XV

These functions take a SDL::RWOps as a parameter.

Return

1 if the image is a valid [TYPE] and the [TYPE] format support is compiled into SDL_image. 0 is returned otherwise.

Example

 use SDL::RWOps;
 use SDL::Image;
 my $file = SDL::RWOps->new_file("file", "rb");
 
 print "Image is BMP" if ( SDL::is_BMP );

load_[TYPE]_rw

Specific loader for known formats:
load_ICO_rw
load_CUR_rw
load_PNG_rw
load_BMP_rw
load_GIF_rw
load_JPG_rw
load_LBM_rw
load_PCX_rw
load_PNM_rw
load_TIF_rw
load_XCF_rw
load_XPM_rw
load_XV_rw

These functions take a SDL::RWop as a parameter

Return

The image as a new SDL::Surface. NULL is returned on errors, like if the [TYPE] is not supported, or a read error.

Example

 use SDL;
 use SDL::RWOps;
 use SDL::Image;
 my $file = SDL::RWOps->new_file("file.png", "rb");  
 my $image = SDL::Image::load_PNG_rw($file);
 
 die SDL::get_error if (!$image);

read_XPM_from_array

 my $picture = SDL::Image::read_XPM_from_array(\@XPM, $width);

This functions takes the reference of an array in the valid @XPM format. Also the $width of the XPM image.

Return

The image as a new SDL::Surface. NULL is returned on errors, like if XPM is not supported, or a read error.

Example

        my @XPM= (
        '30 30 9 1',
        '       c #FFFFFF',
        '.      c #EFEFEF',
        '+      c #CFCFCF',
        '@      c #9F9F9F',
        '#      c #808080',
        '$      c #505050',
        '%      c #202020',
        '&      c #000000',
        '*      c #303030',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '           .+@##@+.           ',
        '          .@$%&&%$@.          ',
        '         .@*&&&&&&*@.         ',
        '         +$&&&&&&&&$+         ',
        '         @%&&&&&&&&%@         ',
        '         #&&&&&&&&&&#         ',
        '         #&&&&&&&&&&#         ',
        '         @%&&&&&&&&%@         ',
        '         +$&&&&&&&&$+         ',
        '         .@*&&&&&&*@.         ',
        '          .@$%&&%$@.          ',
        '           .+@##@+.           ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',
        '                              ',);
        
        my $picture = SDL::Image::read_XPM_from_array(\@XPM, 30);

MISC METHODS

linked_version

Provides the version of linked sdl_image library.

Return

Returns a SDL::Version object

Example

        my $version = SDL::Image::linked_version();
        print $version->major.' '.$version->minor.' '.$version->patch;

init

For version SDL_image 1.2.10 and up

Flags

bitwise OR'd set of image formats to support by loading a library now. The values you may OR together to pass in are:

IMG_INIT_JPG
IMG_INIT_PNG
IMG_INIT_TIF

Initialize by loading support as indicated by the flags, or at least return success if support is already loaded. You may call this multiple times, which will actually require you to call IMG_Quit just once to clean up. You may call this function with a 0 to retrieve whether support was built-in or not loaded yet.

Note: to load JPG, PNG, and/or TIF images you can call IMG_Init with the right IMG_INIT_* flags OR'd together before you program gets busy, to prevent a later hiccup while it loads the library, and to check that you do have the support that you need before you try and use it.

Note: No initialization is needed nor performed when using the SDL::Image::is_JPG, SDL::Image::is_PNG, and SDL::Image::is_TIF functions.

Note: this function does not always set the error string, so do not depend on SDL::Image::get_error being meaningful all the time.

Return

A bitmask of all the currently inited image loaders.

Example

  use SDL::Image;
  my $flags = IMG_INIT_JPG | IMG_INIT_PNG | IMG_INIT_JPG;
  my $inited = SDL::Image::init($flags);

quit

For version SDL_image 1.2.10 and up

This function cleans up all dynamically loaded library handles, freeing memory. If support is required again it will be initialized again, either by SDL::Image::init or loading an image with dynamic support required. You may call this function when SDL::Image::load functions are no longer needed for the JPG, PNG, and TIF image formats. You only need to call this function once, no matter how many times SDL::Image::init was called.

Example

 use SDL::Image;
 SDL::Image::init(IMG_INIT_JPG); #loads JPG support
 SDL::Image::load("file.png"); #loads PNG support
 SDL::Image::quit(); #unloads everything

set_error

Same as SDL::set_error

get_error

Same as SDL::get_error

AUTHORS

See ``AUTHORS'' in SDL.