Accessing Images

How an image is imported into IDL depends upon whether it is stored in an unformatted binary file or a common image file format. IDL can query and import image data contained in the image file formats listed in Supported File Formats (Using IDL).

Note
IDL can also import and export images stored in scientific data formats, such HDF and netCDF. For more information on these formats, see the Scientific Data Formats manual.

See Importing and Writing Data into Variables (Using IDL) for details on data access in IDL. This chapter and the IDL Reference Guide provide details on the file access routines used in examples in the following chapters.

Querying Images

Common image file formats contain standardized header information that can be queried. IDL provides the QUERY_IMAGE function to return valuable information about images stored in supported image file formats. For information on using QUERY_IMAGE, see Returning Image File Information (Using IDL).