Generate pixel based image in R from character array

Question

I have a very long character array. I want to generate pixel based image (raster image) by encoding each character to certain color in image. For example, 'A' as red pixel, 'B' as purple, ... and 'Z' by some other color. I am using R for it.

Please help me how can i generate such pixel based image. I search and found raster and pixmap packages in R but i am new to R and not sure how to use them for my case. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

Here's a possible solution :

library(png)
library(tiff)
library(abind)

# function which plots the image
createImage <- function(txt,charToColorMap,destinationFile,format=c('png','tiff'),debugPlot=FALSE){

  # helper function which finds all the divisors of a number
  divisors <- function(x){
    y <- seq_len(x)
    y[ x%%y == 0 ]
  }

  # split the string in charaters
  chars <- strsplit(txt,'')[[1]]

  # find the most "squared" rectangle that contains all the characters without padding
  d <- divisors(length(chars)) 
  y <- d[length(d) %/% 2]
  x <- length(chars) / y

  # create an array with 4 matrices (or planes) one for each RGBA channel
  RGBAmx <- col2rgb(charToColorMap,alpha=TRUE) / 255
  colorIndexes <- match(chars,names(charToColorMap))

  colorIndexesR <- matrix(RGBAmx['red',colorIndexes],nrow=y,ncol=x,byrow = TRUE)
  colorIndexesG <- matrix(RGBAmx['green',colorIndexes],nrow=y,ncol=x,byrow = TRUE)
  colorIndexesB <- matrix(RGBAmx['blue',colorIndexes],nrow=y,ncol=x,byrow = TRUE)
  colorIndexesA <- matrix(RGBAmx['alpha',colorIndexes],nrow=y,ncol=x,byrow = TRUE)

  planes <- abind(colorIndexesR,colorIndexesG,colorIndexesB,colorIndexesA,along=3)

  # write the PNG image
  if(format[1] == 'png'){
    writePNG(planes,destinationFile)
  }else if(format[1] == 'tiff'){
    writeTIFF(planes,destinationFile)
  }else{
    stop('usupported format')
  }

  # for debug purpose only we plot the image...
  if(debugPlot){
    mx <- matrix(colorIndexes,nrow=y,ncol=x,byrow = TRUE)
    image(z=t(mx[nrow(mx):1,]),col=charToColorMap)
  }

  invisible()
}

Usage :

# arbitrary and incomplete LETTER -> COLOR map 
charToColorMap <- c(A='red',B='blue',C='green',D='black',E='yellow',F='orange')

txt <- "ABACDAAFFEDDADFAFAED"

createImage(txt,charToColorMap,destinationFile = "test.png",debugPlot=TRUE)

Resulting PNG image (800% zoom to see the pixels) :