png-ext2
v3.0.4
Published
A C++ module for node-js that converts an RGB and RGBA buffers to PNG images (in memory).
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node-png
This is a node.js module, writen in C++, that uses libpng to produce a PNG image (in memory) from RGB or RGBA buffers.
The module exports three objects: Png
, FixedPngStack
and DynamicPngStack
.
The Png
object is for creating PNG images from an RGB, RGBA, or Grayscale buffer.
The FixedPngStack
is for joining a number of PNGs together (stacking them
together) on a transparent blackground.
The DynamicPngStack
is for joining a number of PNGs together in the most
space efficient way (so that the canvas border matches the leftmost upper corner
of some PNG and the rightmost bottom corner of some PNG).
Png
The Png
object takes 5 arguments in its constructor:
var png = new Png(buffer, width, height, buffer_type, bits_per_pixel);
The first argument, buffer
, is a node.js Buffer
filled with RGB(A) values.
The second argument is integer width of the image.
The third argument is integer height of the image.
The fourth argument is 'rgb', 'bgr', 'rgba', 'bgra', or 'gray'. Defaults to 'rgb'.
The fifth argument is valid only when buffer_type='gray'. Valid arguments are 8 (default) and 16.
The constructed png
object has the encode
method that's asynchronous in nature.
You give it a callback and it will call your function with a node.js Buffer object
containing the encoded PNG data when it's done:
png.encode(function (png_image) {
// ...
});
The constructed png
object also has encodeSync
method that does the encoding
synchronously and returns Buffer with PNG image data:
var png_image = png.encode();
You can either send the png_image to the browser, or write to a file, or
do something else with it. See examples/
directory for some examples.
FixedPngStack
The FixedPngStack
object takes 3 arguments in its constructor:
var fixed_png = new FixedPngStack(width, height, buffer_type);
The first argument is integer width of the canvas image. The second argument is integer height of the canvas image. The third argument is 'rgb', 'bgr', 'rgba or 'bgra'. Defaults to 'rgb'.
Now you can use the push
method of fixed_png
object to push buffers
to the canvas. The push
method takes 5 arguments:
fixed_png.push(buffer, x, y, w, h);
It pushes an RGB(A) image in buffer
of width w
and height h
to the canvas
position (x, y). You can push as many buffers to canvas as you want. After
that you should call encode
method or encodeSync
method that will join all
the pushed RGB(A) buffers together and return a single PNG.
All the regions that did not get covered will be transparent.
DynamicPngStack
The DynamicPngStack
object doesn't take any dimension arguments because its
width and height is dynamically computed. To create it, do:
var dynamic_png = new DynamicPngStack(buffer_type);
The buffer_type
again is 'rgb', 'bgr', 'rgba' or 'bgra', depending on what type
of buffers you're gonna push to dynamic_png
.
It provides four methods - push
, encode
, encodeSync
, and dimensions
. The
push
and encode
methods are the same as in FixedPngStack
. You push
each
of the RGB(A) buffers to the stack and after that you call encode
or
encodeSync
.
The encode
asynchronous method receives one more argument than others - it
receives the dimensions object with x, y, width and height of the dynamic PNG.
See the next paragraph for what the dimensions are.
The dimensions
method is more interesting. It must be called only after
encode
as its values are calculated upon encoding the image. It returns an
object with width
, height
, x
and y
properties. The width
and
height
properties show the width and the height of the final image. The x
and y
propreties show the position of the leftmost upper PNG.
Here is an example that illustrates it. Suppose you wish to join two PNGs together. One with width 100x40 at position (5, 10) and the other with width 20x20 at position (2, 210). First you create the DynamicPngStack object:
var dynamic_png = new DynamicPngStack();
Next you push the RGB(A) buffers of the two PNGs to it:
dynamic_png.push(png1_buf, 5, 10, 100, 40);
dynamic_png.push(png2_buf, 2, 210, 20, 20);
Now you can call encode
to produce the final PNG:
var png = dynamic_png.encodeSync();
Now let's see what the dimensions are,
var dims = dynamic_png.dimensions();
Same asynchronously:
dynamic_png.encode(function (png, dims) {
// png is the PNG image (in a node.js Buffer)
// dims are its dimensions
});
The x position dims.x
is 2 because the 2nd png is closer to the left.
The y position dims.y
is 10 because the 1st png is closer to the top.
The width dims.width
is 103 because the first png stretches from x=5 to
x=105, but the 2nd png starts only at x=2, so the first two pixels are not
necessary and the width is 105-2=103.
The height dims.height
is 220 because the 2nd png is located at 210 and
its height is 20, so it stretches to position 230, but the first png starts
at 10, so the upper 10 pixels are not necessary and height becomes 230-10= 220.
How to compile?
To get the node-png module compiled, you need to have libpng and node.js installed. Then just run:
node-gyp configure build
to build node-png module. It will be called png.node
. To use it, make sure
it's in NODE_PATH.
See also http://github.com/pkrumins/node-jpeg module that produces JPEG images. And also http://github.com/pkrumins/node-gif for producing GIF images.
If you wish to stream PNGs over a websocket or xhr-multipart, you'll have to base64 encode it. Use my http://github.com/pkrumins/node-base64 module to do that.