How to convert image to byte array

Can anybody suggest how I can convert an image to a byte array and vice versa?

I'm developing a WPF application and using a stream reader.

Sample code to change an image into a byte array

public byte[] ImageToByteArray(System.Drawing.Image imageIn)
{
   using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
   {
      imageIn.Save(ms,imageIn.RawFormat);
      return  ms.ToArray();
   }
}

C# Image to Byte Array and Byte Array to Image Converter Class

For Converting an Image object to byte[] you can do as follows:

public static byte[] converterDemo(Image x)
{
    ImageConverter _imageConverter = new ImageConverter();
    byte[] xByte = (byte[])_imageConverter.ConvertTo(x, typeof(byte[]));
    return xByte;
}

Another way to get Byte array from image path is

byte[] imgdata = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(path));

Here's what I'm currently using. Some of the other techniques I've tried have been non-optimal because they changed the bit depth of the pixels (24-bit vs. 32-bit) or ignored the image's resolution (dpi).

  // ImageConverter object used to convert byte arrays containing JPEG or PNG file images into 
  //  Bitmap objects. This is static and only gets instantiated once.
  private static readonly ImageConverter _imageConverter = new ImageConverter();

Image to byte array:

  /// <summary>
  /// Method to "convert" an Image object into a byte array, formatted in PNG file format, which 
  /// provides lossless compression. This can be used together with the GetImageFromByteArray() 
  /// method to provide a kind of serialization / deserialization. 
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="theImage">Image object, must be convertable to PNG format</param>
  /// <returns>byte array image of a PNG file containing the image</returns>
  public static byte[] CopyImageToByteArray(Image theImage)
  {
     using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
     {
        theImage.Save(memoryStream, ImageFormat.Png);
        return memoryStream.ToArray();
     }
  }

Byte array to Image:

  /// <summary>
  /// Method that uses the ImageConverter object in .Net Framework to convert a byte array, 
  /// presumably containing a JPEG or PNG file image, into a Bitmap object, which can also be 
  /// used as an Image object.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="byteArray">byte array containing JPEG or PNG file image or similar</param>
  /// <returns>Bitmap object if it works, else exception is thrown</returns>
  public static Bitmap GetImageFromByteArray(byte[] byteArray)
  {
     Bitmap bm = (Bitmap)_imageConverter.ConvertFrom(byteArray);
     
     if (bm != null && (bm.HorizontalResolution != (int)bm.HorizontalResolution ||
                        bm.VerticalResolution != (int)bm.VerticalResolution))
     {
        // Correct a strange glitch that has been observed in the test program when converting 
        //  from a PNG file image created by CopyImageToByteArray() - the dpi value "drifts" 
        //  slightly away from the nominal integer value
        bm.SetResolution((int)(bm.HorizontalResolution + 0.5f), 
                         (int)(bm.VerticalResolution + 0.5f));
     }

     return bm;
  }

Edit: To get the Image from a jpg or png file you should read the file into a byte array using File.ReadAllBytes():

 Bitmap newBitmap = GetImageFromByteArray(File.ReadAllBytes(fileName));

This avoids problems related to Bitmap wanting its source stream to be kept open, and some suggested workarounds to that problem that result in the source file being kept locked.

try this:

public byte[] imageToByteArray(System.Drawing.Image imageIn)
{
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    imageIn.Save(ms,System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Gif);
    return ms.ToArray();
}

public Image byteArrayToImage(byte[] byteArrayIn)
{
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(byteArrayIn);
    Image returnImage = Image.FromStream(ms);
    return returnImage;
}

You can use File.ReadAllBytes() method to read any file into byte array. To write byte array into file, just use File.WriteAllBytes() method.

Hope this helps.

You can find more information and sample code here.

If you don't reference the imageBytes to carry bytes in the stream, the method won't return anything. Make sure you reference imageBytes = m.ToArray();

    public static byte[] SerializeImage() {
        MemoryStream m;
        string PicPath = pathToImage";

        byte[] imageBytes;
        using (Image image = Image.FromFile(PicPath)) {
            
            using ( m = new MemoryStream()) {

                image.Save(m, image.RawFormat);
                imageBytes = new byte[m.Length];
               //Very Important    
               imageBytes = m.ToArray();
                
            }//end using
        }//end using

        return imageBytes;
    }//SerializeImage

Do you only want the pixels or the whole image (including headers) as an byte array?

For pixels: Use the CopyPixels method on Bitmap. Something like:

var bitmap = new BitmapImage(uri);

//Pixel array
byte[] pixels = new byte[width * height * 4]; //account for stride if necessary and whether the image is 32 bit, 16 bit etc.

bitmap.CopyPixels(..size, pixels, fullStride, 0); 

Code:

using System.IO;

byte[] img = File.ReadAllBytes(openFileDialog1.FileName);

This is Code for converting the image of any type(for example PNG, JPG, JPEG) to byte array

   public static byte[] imageConversion(string imageName){            
       

        //Initialize a file stream to read the image file
        FileStream fs = new FileStream(imageName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

        //Initialize a byte array with size of stream
        byte[] imgByteArr = new byte[fs.Length];

        //Read data from the file stream and put into the byte array
        fs.Read(imgByteArr, 0, Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length));

        //Close a file stream
        fs.Close();
        
        return imageByteArr
    }

To be convert the image to byte array.The code is give below.

public byte[] ImageToByteArray(System.Drawing.Image images)
{
   using (var _memorystream = new MemoryStream())
   {
      images.Save(_memorystream ,images.RawFormat);
      return  _memorystream .ToArray();
   }
}

To be convert the Byte array to Image.The code is given below.The code is handle A Generic error occurred in GDI+ in Image Save.

public void SaveImage(string base64String, string filepath)
{
    // image convert to base64string is base64String 
    //File path is which path to save the image.
    var bytess = Convert.FromBase64String(base64String);
    using (var imageFile = new FileStream(filepath, FileMode.Create))
    {
        imageFile.Write(bytess, 0, bytess.Length);
        imageFile.Flush();
    }
}

This code retrieves first 100 rows from table in SQLSERVER 2012 and saves a picture per row as a file on local disk

 public void SavePicture()
    {
        SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Data Source=localhost;Integrated security=true;database=databasename");
        SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter("select top 100 [Name] ,[Picture] From tablename", con);
        SqlCommandBuilder MyCB = new SqlCommandBuilder(da);
        DataSet ds = new DataSet("tablename");
        byte[] MyData = new byte[0];
        da.Fill(ds, "tablename");
        DataTable table = ds.Tables["tablename"];
           for (int i = 0; i < table.Rows.Count;i++ )               
               {
                DataRow myRow;
                myRow = ds.Tables["tablename"].Rows[i];
                MyData = (byte[])myRow["Picture"];
                int ArraySize = new int();
                ArraySize = MyData.GetUpperBound(0);
                FileStream fs = new FileStream(@"C:\NewFolder\" + myRow["Name"].ToString() + ".jpg", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write);
                fs.Write(MyData, 0, ArraySize);
                fs.Close();
               }
       
    }

> please note: Directory with NewFolder name should exist in C:\