how to download and display an image from an URL in R?

Question

My goal is to download an image from an URL and then display it in R.

I got an URL and figured out how to download it. But the downloaded file can't be previewed because it is 'damaged, corrupted, or is too big'.

y = "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/AaronEckhart10TIFF.jpg"
download.file(y, 'y.jpg')

I also tried

image('y.jpg')

in R, but the error message shows like:

Error in image.default("y.jpg") : argument must be matrix-like

Any suggestions?

Seems the underlying problem is the same as [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9655361/download-png-jpg-with-r) — MichaelChirico, Jul 17 '16 at 18:33

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

28

If I try your code it looks like the image is downloaded. However, when opened with windows image viewer it also says it is corrupt. The reason for this is that you don't have specified the mode in the download.file statement.

Try this:

download.file(y,'y.jpg', mode = 'wb')

For more info about the mode is see ?download.file

This way at least the file that you downloaded is working.

To view the image in R, have a look at

jj <- readJPEG("y.jpg",native=TRUE)
plot(0:1,0:1,type="n",ann=FALSE,axes=FALSE)
rasterImage(jj,0,0,1,1)

or how to read.jpeg in R 2.15 or Displaying images in R in version 3.1.0

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

1
1

answered Mar 17 '15 at 23:06

MichaelVE

1,304
10
15

Thanks! It works now. An follow up question: what should i do if I don't want to download (save) the jpeg file on the disk but just save it to the workplace? – user3768495 Mar 18 '15 at 16:46
You can download the image as a temporary file. Please accept the first answer if this answers your original question – MichaelVE Mar 19 '15 at 07:28
After adding the arg `mode = 'wb'`, it works. Thanks. – Jiaxiang Jun 11 '19 at 11:00

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 05 '19 at 07:37

2

this could work too here

library("jpeg")

library("png")

x <- "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/AaronEckhart10TIFF.jpg"    

image_name<- readJPEG(getURLContent(x)) # for jpg

image_name<- readPNG(getURLContent(x)) # for png

edited Oct 05 '19 at 07:37

Community

1
1

answered Sep 03 '17 at 21:24

jatin singh

123
1
1
13

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 04:15

1

After downloading the image, you can use base R to open the file using your default image viewer program like this:

file.show(yourfilename)

answered Jun 25 '20 at 04:15

Tania

136
1
4

how to download and display an image from an URL in R?

3 Answers3

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