How to store an image in a variable

Question

I would like to store the image generated by matplotlib in a variable raw_data to use it as inline image.

import os import sys os.environ['MPLCONFIGDIR'] = '/tmp/' import matplotlib matplotlib.use("Agg") import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  print "Content-type: image/png\n" plt.plot(range(10, 20))  raw_data = plt.show()  if raw_data:     uri = 'data:image/png;base64,' + urllib.quote(base64.b64encode(raw_data))     print '<img src = "%s"/>' % uri else:     print "No data"  #plt.savefig(sys.stdout, format='png') 

None of the functions suit my use case:

• plt.savefig(sys.stdout, format='png') - Writes it to stdout. This does help.. as I have to embed the image in a html file.
• plt.show() / plt.draw() does nothing when executed from command line

Answer 1

Have you tried cStringIO or an equivalent?

import os import sys import matplotlib import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import StringIO import urllib, base64  plt.plot(range(10, 20)) fig = plt.gcf()  imgdata = StringIO.StringIO() fig.savefig(imgdata, format='png') imgdata.seek(0)  # rewind the data  print "Content-type: image/png\n" uri = 'data:image/png;base64,' + urllib.quote(base64.b64encode(imgdata.buf)) print '<img src = "%s"/>' % uri