Learn How to Turn your Image into a Cartoon Using Python
This article will cover the various methods of turning a normal image into a cartoon version using Python. We will be using Python libraries and packages like OpenCV, Pillow, scikit-image and matplotlib. By the end of this article, you should have a better understanding of what it takes to convert any image into a cartoon image with just a few lines of code.
Here is the basic outline of the process:
- Import the necessary packages.
- Load the image using one of the three libraries we are using (
OpenCV,Pilloworscikit-image). - Convert the image to grayscale.
- Get the edges of the image.
- Convert the image into a cartoon version.
- Display image using
matplotlib.pyplotorOpenCv
Using OpenCV
#import the packages
import cv2
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Load the image using cv2
img = cv2.imread("4.jpg")
img = cv2.cvtColor(img,cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
#Convert to grayscale and apply median blur to reduce image noise
grayimg = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
grayimg = cv2.medianBlur(grayimg, 5)
#Get the edges
edges = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(grayimg, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_MEAN_C, cv2.THRESH_BINARY, 5, 5)
#Convert to a cartoon version
color = cv2.bilateralFilter(img, 9, 250, 250)
cartoon = cv2.bitwise_and(color, color, mask=edges)
#Display original image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(img)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Original Image")
plt.show()
#Display cartoon image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(cartoon)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Cartoon Image")
plt.show()Because cv2 uses BGR color format and matplotlib uses RGB color format, we have to convert BGR to RGB. This can be done using the code below:
img = cv2.cvtColor(img,cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
If you want to use a GUI window to display the output using cv2 you do not need to convert the color format. You can use the following code to view in the GUI window:
#Display original image
cv2.imshow("Original Image", img)
#Display cartoon image
cv2.imshow("Cartoon", cartoon)
#To keep the window open until the user closes it we can use
# the cv2.waitKey method passing 0 as parameter
cv2.waitKey (0)
#Remove the window from screen and memory after exiting the script
cv2.destroyAllWindows()The outcome appears to be this:
Using scikit-image
#import the packages
from skimage import io, color
from skimage.filters import sobel
from skimage.segmentation import felzenszwalb
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Load the image
img = io.imread("original.jpg")
# Convert to grayscale
grayimg = color.rgb2gray(img)
# Apply the felzenszwalb segmentation
segments_fz = felzenszwalb(img, scale=100, sigma=0.5, min_size=50)
# Convert to a cartoon version
cartoon = color.label2rgb(segments_fz, img, kind='avg')
#Display original image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(img)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Original Image")
plt.show()
#Display cartoon image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(cartoon)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Cartoon Image")
plt.show()The outcome appears to be this:
Using Pillow
#Import the packages
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from PIL import Image, ImageOps, ImageFilter
# Load the image
img = Image.open("original.jpg")
# Convert to a cartoon version
cartoon = ImageOps.posterize(img, 2)
#Display the original image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(img)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Original Image")
plt.show()
#Display the cartoon image
plt.figure(figsize=(2,2))
plt.imshow(cartoon)
plt.axis("off")
plt.title("Cartoon Image")
plt.show()The outcome appears to be this:
In conclusion, turning images into cartoons using Python is a simple yet powerful task. With the help of packages such as OpenCV, Pillow and scikit-image it is possible to cartoonizing effects to images in just a few lines of code. You can experiment with these tools and learn how you can turn your pictures into amazing cartoons.
Happy Coding!
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