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Image-ThumbHash-0.02
River stage zero No dependents
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/ Image::ThumbHash

NAME

Image::ThumbHash - A very compact representation of an image placeholder

SYNOPSIS

    use Image::ThumbHash qw(
        rgba_to_thumb_hash
        rgba_to_png
        rgba_to_data_url
        thumb_hash_to_rgba
        thumb_hash_to_average_rgba
        thumb_hash_to_approximate_aspect_ratio
        thumb_hash_to_data_url
    );

DESCRIPTION

This module implements the ThumbHash image placeholder generation algorithm by Evan Wallace.

This algorithm reduces small (thumbnail) images to an even smaller chunk of bytes, the "thumb hash". The thumb hash can then be used to recreate a lossy approximation of the original image.

The main use case of this algorithm is to reduce initial loading times of image galleries on the web. You would either convert the thumb hash to a small (inline) PNG on the server and embed in your HTML, or embed the raw thumb hash and convert it to a PNG on the client side (using JavaScript). In either case, you end up with small placeholder images that load instantly while the original images can be loaded in asynchronously.

FUNCTIONS

This module exports the following functions on request.

rgba_to_thumb_hash

    my $thumbhash = rgba_to_thumb_hash($width, $height, $rgba);

Encodes an RGBA image to a thumb hash. RGB should not be premultiplied by A.

$width is the image width; $height is the image height. Both are in pixels and must be 100 or less.

$rgba is a raw byte string containing 4 bytes for each pixel in the image, representing the red, green, blue, and alpha channels, respectively. That is, length($rgba) == $width * $height * 4.

The return value is a byte string containing the thumb hash.

rgba_to_png

    my $png = rgba_to_png($width, $height, $rgba);

Encodes an RGBA image to PNG. RGB should not be premultiplied by A. The resulting PNG is not optimized for size or compressed in any way.

$width is the image width; $height is the image height. Both are in pixels and must be 100 or less.

$rgba is a raw byte string containing 4 bytes for each pixel in the image, representing the red, green, blue, and alpha channels, respectively. That is, length($rgba) == $width * $height * 4.

The return value is a byte string containing the PNG.

rgba_to_data_url

    my $url = rgba_to_data_url($width, $height, $rgba);

Encodes an RGBA image to a PNG data URL. RGB should not be premultiplied by A.

$width is the image width; $height is the image height. Both are in pixels and must be 100 or less.

$rgba is a raw byte string containing 4 bytes for each pixel in the image, representing the red, green, blue, and alpha channels, respectively. That is, length($rgba) == $width * $height * 4.

The return value is a string containing a data: URL.

This is equivalent to:

    use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);
    my $url = 'data:image/png;base64,' . encode_base64(rgba_to_png($width, $height, $rgba), "");

thumb_hash_to_rgba

    my ($width, $height, $rgba) = thumb_hash_to_rgba($thumbhash);

Decodes a thumb hash to an RGBA image. RGB is not premultiplied by A.

The return value is a list containing the image width, height, and pixels as a byte string in RGBA format.

thumb_hash_to_average_rgba

    my ($red, $green, $blue, $alpha) = thumb_hash_to_average_rgba($thumbhash);

Extracts the average color from a thumb hash. RGB is not premultiplied by A.

The return value is a list containing the numeric RGBA values for the average color, in the range from 0 to 1.

thumb_hash_to_approximate_aspect_ratio

    my $aspect_ratio = thumb_hash_to_approximate_aspect_ratio($thumbhash);

Extracts and returns the approximate aspect ratio of the original image, i.e. width/height.

thumb_hash_to_data_url

    my $url = thumb_hash_to_data_url($thumbhash);

Decodes a thumb hash to a PNG data URL.

This is equivalent to:

    my $url = rgba_to_data_url(thumb_hash_to_rgba($thumbhash));

AUTHOR

Lukas Mai, <lmai at web.de>

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

The original concept and code are:

    Copyright (c) 2023 Evan Wallace

    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

See https://github.com/evanw/thumbhash.

The Perl implementation, documentation, and tests are:

Copyright 2023 Lukas Mai.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

See https://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.