SYNOPSIS

#include <vips/vips.h>

IMAGE *im_open( const char *filename, const char *mode )

IMAGE *im_open_local( IMAGE *im, const char *filename, const char *mode )

int im_open_local_array( IMAGE *im,
  IMAGE **out, int n, const char *filename, const char *mode )

DESCRIPTION

im_open(3) examines the mode string, and creates an appropriate VIPS IMAGE descriptor.

r opens the named file for reading. If the file is not in the native VIPS format for your machine, im_open(3) automatically converts the file for you in memory. For some large files (eg. TIFF) this may not be what you want: you should call the appropriate converter yourself, and arrange for the conversion to take place on disc. See im_tiff2vips(3), im_jpeg2vips(3), im_png2vips(3), im_magick2vips(3), and im_ppm2vips(3).

im_open(3) can read files in most formats.

w opens the named file for writing. It looks at the file name suffix to determine the type to write -- for example:

  im_open( "fred.tif", "w" )

will write in TIFF format.

You can pass parameters to the conversion functions encoded in the filename string. For example:

  im_open( "fred.tif:deflate", "w" )

will write a deflate (ZIP) compressed TIFF file. See the man pages for im_vips2tiff(3), im_vips2jpeg(3), im_vips2png(3) and im_vips2ppm(3) for details on all of the options available.

t creates a temporary memory buffer image.

p creates a "glue" descriptor you can use to join two image processing operations together.

rw opens the named file for reading and writing. This will only work for VIPS files in a format native to your machine. It is only for paintbox-type applications.

im_open_local(3) is a convenience function which opens an image descriptor as im_open(3), but makes it local to im, that is, when im is closed, the descriptor created by im_open_local(3) will be closed too.

im_open_local(3) is handy for saving you from adding many im_close(3) calls to escape points. Example: find the total of an array of images.

  #include <vips/vips.h>

  int
  total( IMAGE **in, int nin, IMAGE *out )
  {
    int i;
    IMAGE *t1, *t2;

    if( nin <= 0 ) {
      im_errormsg( "total: nin should be > 0" );
      return( -1 );
    }
    else if( nin == 1 )
      return( im_copy( *in, out ) );
    else
      for( t1 = *in, i = 1; i < nin; i++ ) {
        if( i + 1 == nin )          t2 = out;
        else if( !(t2 = im_open_local( out, "t2", "p" )) )

          return( -1 );

        if( im_add( t1, in[i], t2 ) )
          return( -1 );
        t1 = t2;
      }

    return( 0 );
  }

This function will create many intermediate images, but does not need to close them. Any which are created will be closed automatically when out is closed by our caller.

im_open_local(3) returns NULL on error, or if its first parameter is NULL.

im_open_local_array(3) will open an array of images, failing if any of the opens fail. It's handy if you need a number of images for intermediates. Example:

  IMAGE *t[6];

  if( im_open_local_array( out, t, 6, "mytemps", "p" ) )
    return( -1 );

opens 6 temp images (t[0] to t[5]).

RETURN VALUE

The function returns the image descriptor on success and NULL on error.

COPYRIGHT

K. Martinez, 1992.

AUTHOR

K. Martinez.