[Image-SIG] Where is the indexed PNG alpha table ?

[Ray Pasco]

Subject: Re: [Image-SIG] Where is the indexed PNG
alpha table ?
Date:        Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:58:18 +1300
From:        Douglas Bagnall <douglas at paradise.net.nz>
To:          Ray Pasco <pascor at hotpop.com>
CC:          image-sig at python.org

Ray Pasco wrote:

>> I am wondering how to get at the alpha layer table 
that goes along
>> with an indexed PNG image.
>>
>
>I believe that alpha in an indexed PNG is not stored
as a channel, but 
> as indexed colours.  In other words, the index is
not of RGB values, but 
> of RGBA values.  If you only have full transparancy,
there'll only be 
>one index value for it, and PIL will probably do the
right thing with

>>> im = Image.open('indexed.png').convert('RGBA')

> but I'm not sure how it would cope with multiple
semi-transparent values 
> -- I don't know how to make such an image to test
with.


douglas

I asked this because I just learned that indexed PNG
images *can* have a 
separate "alpha" index table in parallel with the
color index table.

"Indexed im>ages with transparency actually contain
a table specifying the transparency of each indexed
colour. However, the
size of that table can be less than the number of
indexed colour, in which
case missing values are assumed fully opaque. The
transparency table can
contain only one value, but in this case, it always
correspond to the first
colour of the palette. It does not have to be fully
transparent either. Any
value from 0 (fully transparent) to 255 (fully opaque)
is allowed. See
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/iso/index-object.html#11tRNS".

Also see in section 4.4, first item e in:
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/iso/index-object.html#4Concepts.PNGImage

Is this alpha index table not implemented in PIL (yet)
?

Ray Pasco







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