Real Python: Image Processing With the Python Pillow Library

Python Pillow is a library used for image manipulation and basic image processing tasks, supporting various image formats like JPEG and PNG. It allows users to read, edit, and save images, and perform tasks like cropping, resizing, rotating, and applying filters. Pillow is a fork of the Python Imaging Library (PIL) and is often used for high-level image processing tasks and exploratory work. It offers a gentle learning curve and a comprehensive set of features for basic to intermediate image processing needs. Pillow can be integrated with NumPy for pixel-level manipulations and creating animations. The library is not the fastest, but it is suitable for its intended use cases. To use Pillow, you need to install it using pip, and then you can import it into your code using "from PIL import Image". The main class defined in Pillow is the Image class, which stores images when they are read using the library. You can use the Image.open() function to read an image from a file, and the .load() function to read the image into memory. Pillow is a versatile tool for image manipulation and is widely used by the Python community due to its ease of use and integration with NumPy.