Colormaps in OpenCV

Introduction

Yesterday I needed to visualize some data in OpenCV. It's easy to apply a colormap in MATLAB, but OpenCV doesn't come with predefined colormaps. So I simply took the interpolation steps from the GNU Octave colormaps and turned them into C++ classes.

The source code is on:

Using the code

You only need cv::applyColorMap to apply a colormap on a given image. The signature of cv::applyColorMap is:

void applyColorMap(InputArray src, OutputArray dst, int colormap)

The following code example reads an image (given as a command line argument), applies a Jet colormap on it and shows the result:

#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include "colormap.hpp"

using namespace cv;

int main(int argc, const char *argv[]) {
    // Get the path to the image, if it was given
    // if no arguments were given.
    string filename;
    if (argc > 1) {
        filename = string(argv[1]);
    }
    // The following lines show how to apply a colormap on a given image
    // and show it with cv::imshow example with an image. An exception is
    // thrown if the path to the image is invalid.
    if(!filename.empty()) {
        Mat img0 = imread(filename);
        // Throw an exception, if the image can't be read:
        if(img0.empty()) {
            CV_Error(CV_StsBadArg, "Sample image is empty. Please adjust your path, so it points to a valid input image!");
        }
        // Holds the colormap version of the image:
        Mat cm_img0;
        // Apply the colormap:
        applyColorMap(img0, cm_img0, COLORMAP_JET);
        // Show the result:
        imshow("cm_img0", cm_img0);
        waitKey(0);
    }

    return 0;
}

The available colormaps are:

enum
{
    COLORMAP_AUTUMN = 0,
    COLORMAP_BONE = 1,
    COLORMAP_JET = 2,
    COLORMAP_WINTER = 3,
    COLORMAP_RAINBOW = 4,
    COLORMAP_OCEAN = 5,
    COLORMAP_SUMMER = 6,
    COLORMAP_SPRING = 7,
    COLORMAP_COOL = 8,
    COLORMAP_HSV = 9,
    COLORMAP_PINK = 10,
    COLORMAP_HOT = 11
}

And here are the scales corresponding to each of the maps, so you know what they look like:

Name Scale
Autumncolorscale_autumn
Bonecolorscale_bone
Coolcolorscale_cool
Hotcolorscale_hot
HSVcolorscale_hsv
Jetcolorscale_jet
Oceancolorscale_ocean
Pinkcolorscale_pink
Rainbowcolorscale_rainbow
Springcolorscale_spring
Summercolorscale_summer
Wintercolorscale_winter

Demo

The demo coming with the cv::applyColorMap shows how to use the colormaps and how I've created the scales you have seen:

If you want to apply a Jet colormap on a given image, then call the demo with:

./cm_demo /path/to/your/image.ext

Or if you just want to generate the color scales, then call the demo with:

./cm_demo

Note: Replace ./cm_demo with cm_demo.exe if you are running Windows!

Building the demo

The project comes as a CMake project, so building it is as simple as:

philipp@mango:~/some/dir/colormaps-opencv$ mkdir build
philipp@mango:~/some/dir/colormaps-opencv$ cd build
philipp@mango:~/some/dir/colormaps-opencv/build$ cmake ..
philipp@mango:~/some/dir/colormaps-opencv/build$ make
philipp@mango:~/some/dir/colormaps-opencv/build$ ./cm_demo path/to/your/image.ext

Or if you use MinGW on Windows:

C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv> mkdir build
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv> cd build
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv\build> cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv\build> mingw32-make
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv\build> cm_demo.exe /path/to/your/image.ext

Or if you are using Visual Studio, you can generate yourself a solution like this (please adjust to your version):

C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv> mkdir build
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv> cd build
C:\some\dir\colormaps-opencv\build> cmake -G "Visual Studio 9 2008" ..

How to contribute

One of the easiest ways to contribute is to participate in discussions. You can also contribute by submitting pull requests.

General feedback and discussions?

Do you have questions or feedback on this article? Please create an issue on the Repositories issue tracker.

Something is wrong or missing?

There may be something wrong or missing in this article. If you want to help fixing it, then please make a Pull Request to this file.