Uncompressing TIFF files directly in Python

[sophie_newbie]

Hey guys,

OK this is a long shot but does anyone know of a way to uncompress tiff
files directly in python. I know it can be done with an os call but
that'll only work on unix and only if the right software is installed!

I need to convert tiff images downloaded from uspto.gov to pdf, these
images are compressed using G4, so I dunno if anyone knows of a method
of doing this witout the os call! Surely there is a utility out there
somewhere?

Sophie

[Peter Hansen]

sophie_newbie wrote:

Hey guys,

OK this is a long shot but does anyone know of a way to uncompress tiff
files directly in python. I know it can be done with an os call but
that'll only work on unix and only if the right software is installed!

I need to convert tiff images downloaded from uspto.gov to pdf, these
images are compressed using G4, so I dunno if anyone knows of a method
of doing this witout the os call! Surely there is a utility out there
somewhere?

Why didn't you want an OS call? Do you have other constraints that
would invalidate anything but a pure Python solution?

What about using FreeImage? (http://freeimage.sourceforge.net)

It can be called via ctypes as http://freeimagepy.sourceforge.net/ does.

-Peter

[Paul Rubin]

"sophie_newbie" <pa**********@gmail.com> writes:

I need to convert tiff images downloaded from uspto.gov to pdf, these
images are compressed using G4, so I dunno if anyone knows of a method
of doing this witout the os call! Surely there is a utility out there
somewhere?

There's a libtiff library callable from C. Maybe someone has written
Python wrappers for it; if not, maybe you can become that someone.

[sophie_newbie]

I mainly just need it to work with windows and assumed that an os call
would only work with windows!

I've downloaded that free image software and the ctypes program, it
seems to be working but I haven't yet worked out how to get it to
decompress a G4 TIFF image...

If anyone knows it would be of help?

[Fredrik Lundh]

"sophie_newbie" wrote:

I mainly just need it to work with windows and assumed that an os call
would only work with windows!

I've downloaded that free image software and the ctypes program, it
seems to be working but I haven't yet worked out how to get it to
decompress a G4 TIFF image...

If anyone knows it would be of help?

tiffcp and friends are available for windows too:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/tiff.htm

infile = "somefile.tif"

os.system("tiffcp -c none %s temp.tif" % infile)

im = Image.open("temp.tif")

</F>

[Peter Hansen]

sophie_newbie wrote:

I mainly just need it to work with windows and assumed that an os call
would only work with windows!

Presumably you mistyped something there, since what you are basically
saying is that an os call which only works on windows would suit you
just fine since you only care about windows.

-Peter

[Gary Duzan]

sophie_newbie wrote:

Hey guys,

OK this is a long shot but does anyone know of a way to uncompress tiff
files directly in python. I know it can be done with an os call but
that'll only work on unix and only if the right software is installed!

I need to convert tiff images downloaded from uspto.gov to pdf, these
images are compressed using G4, so I dunno if anyone knows of a method
of doing this witout the os call! Surely there is a utility out there
somewhere?

You can look into using the Python Imaging Library, which supports
reading TIFFs and runs on multiple platforms, including Windows.

http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/

Gary Duzan
Motorola CHS

[sophie_newbie]

Ya I did, sorry!

[sophie_newbie]

Ya that was the original plan but it didn't support the G4 compression
of the tif files!

I think the idea of using tiffcp is the best as it runs on both unix
and windows which is what i need!