Getting error - 'could not find a writer'while giving imshow, imwrite command opencv

Question

I am a beginner at opencv and python. I have just installed opencv2.4.9 and enthought canopy-32bit. I am getting error for the following:

import cv2
image = cv2.imread('Lena.jpg')
cv2.imwrite('Mypic',image)

This is what I get:

c:\users\nam\appdata\local\temp\tmpokspbt.py in <module>()
      3 
      4 image = cv2.imread('Lena.jpg')
----> 5 cv2.imwrite('Mypic',image)

error: ..\..\..\..\opencv\modules\highgui\src\loadsave.cpp:275: error: (-2) could not find a writer for the specified extension in function cv::imwrite_

Answer 1

you need to give an extension to imwrite(), so it knows, how to save(compress) it.

cv2.imwrite('Mypic.png',image)
# jpg,bmp,png,ppm,pgm,tiff supported 'out-of-the-box,
# webp,jp2 depending on if you compiled in the resp. 3rd party support
# no gif or tga.

Answer 2

You need to make sure you have the image type within the string you give to the imwrite(). imwrite() dose not have a default method to save, thus it is required within the name you give to it. instead of : cv2.imwrite('Mypic',image) you need to write :

cv2.imwrite('Mypic.The_format_you_want_to_save',image)

As an example:

cv2.imwrite('Mypic.jpg',image)

Answer 3

Add an extension for the output file like .jpg, .png, etc based on the application.

For example in this case you could use,

import cv2
image = cv2.imread('Lena.jpg')
cv2.imwrite('Mypic.jpg',image)