How do I create an 8-bit PNG with transparency from an NSBitmapImageRep?

Question

I have a 32-bit NSBitmapImageRep which has an alpha channel with essentially 1-bit values (the pixels are either on or off).

I want to save this bitmap to an 8-bit PNG file with transparency. If I use the -representationUsingType:properties: method of NSBitmapImageRep and pass in NSPNGFileType, a 32-bit PNG is created, which is not what I want.

I know that 8-bit PNGs can be read, they open in Preview with no problems, but is it possible to write this type of PNG file using any built-in Mac OS X APIs? I'm happy to drop down to Core Image or even QuickTime if necessary. A cursory examination of the CGImage docs didn't reveal anything obvious.

EDIT: I've started a bounty on this question, if someone can provide working source code that takes a 32-bit NSBitmapImageRep and writes a 256-color PNG with 1-bit transparency, it's yours.

Answer 1

pngnq (and new pngquant which achieves higher quality) has BSD-style license, so you can just include it in your program. No need to spawn as separate task.

Answer 2

CGImageDestination is your man for low-level image writing, but I don't know if it supports that specific ability.

Answer 3

One thing to try would be creating a NSBitmapImageRep with 8 bits, then copying the data to it.

This would actually be a lot of work, as you would have to compute the color index table yourself.

Answer 4

How about pnglib? It's really lightweight and easy to use.

Answer 5

A great reference for working with lower level APIs is Programming With Quartz

Some of the code below is based on examples from that book.

Note: This is un-tested code meant to be a starting point only....

- (NSBitmapImageRep*)convertImageRep:(NSBitmapImageRep*)startingImage{

    CGImageRef anImage = [startingImage CGImage];

    CGContextRef    bitmapContext;
    CGRect ctxRect;
    size_t  bytesPerRow, width, height;

    width = CGImageGetWidth(anImage);
    height = CGImageGetHeight(anImage);
    ctxRect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, width, height);
    bytesPerRow = (width * 4 + 63) & ~63;
    bitmapData = calloc(bytesPerRow * height, 1);
    bitmapContext = createRGBBitmapContext(width, height, TRUE);
    CGContextDrawImage (bitmapContext, ctxRect, anImage);

    //Now extract the image from the context
    CGImageRef      bitmapImage = nil;
    bitmapImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmapContext);
    if(!bitmapImage){
        fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't create the image!\n");
        return nil;
    }

    NSBitmapImageRep *newImage = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithCGImage:bitmapImage];
    return newImage;
}

Context Creation Function:

CGContextRef createRGBBitmapContext(size_t width, size_t height, Boolean needsTransparentBitmap)
{
    CGContextRef context;
    size_t bytesPerRow;
    unsigned char *rasterData;

    //minimum bytes per row is 4 bytes per sample * number of samples
    bytesPerRow = width*4;
    //round up to nearest multiple of 16.
    bytesPerRow = COMPUTE_BEST_BYTES_PER_ROW(bytesPerRow);

    int bitsPerComponent = 2;  // to get 256 colors (2xRGBA)

    //use function 'calloc' so memory is initialized to 0.
    rasterData = calloc(1, bytesPerRow * height);
    if(rasterData == NULL){
        fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't allocate the needed amount of memory!\n");
        return NULL;
    }

    // uses the generic calibrated RGB color space.
    context = CGBitmapContextCreate(rasterData, width, height, bitsPerComponent, bytesPerRow,
                                    CGColorSpaceCreateWithName(kCGColorSpaceGenericRGB),
                                    (needsTransparentBitmap ? kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst :
                                     kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst)
                                    );
    if(context == NULL){
        free(rasterData);
        fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't create the context!\n");
        return NULL;
    }

    //Either clear the rect or paint with opaque white,
    if(needsTransparentBitmap){
        CGContextClearRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
    }else{
        CGContextSaveGState(context);
        CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, getRGBOpaqueWhiteColor());
        CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
        CGContextRestoreGState(context);
    }
    return context;
}

Usage would be:

NSBitmapImageRep *startingImage;  // assumed to be previously set.
NSBitmapImageRep *endingImageRep = [self convertImageRep:startingImage];
// Write out as data
NSData *outputData = [endingImageRep representationUsingType:NSPNGFileType properties:nil];
// somePath is set elsewhere
[outputData writeToFile:somePath atomically:YES];