"Parameter not valid" exception loading System.Drawing.Image

Question

I had the same problem and apparently is solved now, despite this and some other gdi+ exceptions are very misleading, I found that actually the problem was that the parameter being sent to a Bitmap constructor was not valid. I have this code:

using (System.IO.FileStream fs = new System.IO.FileStream(inputImage, System.IO.FileMode.Open, System.IO.FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
    try
    {
        using (Bitmap bitmap = (Bitmap)Image.FromStream(fs, true, false))
        {
            try
            {
                bitmap.Save(OutputImage + ".bmp", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp);
                GC.Collect();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw ex;
            }
        }
    }
    catch (ArgumentException aex)
    {
        throw new Exception("The file received from the Map Server is not a valid jpeg image", aex);
    }
}

The following line was causing an error:

Bitmap bitmap = (Bitmap)Image.FromStream(fs, true, false)

The file stream was built from the file downloaded from the Map Server. My app was sending the request incorrectly to get the image, and the server was returning something with the jpg extension, but was actually a html telling me that an error ocurred. So I was taking that image and trying to build a Bitmap with it. The fix was to control/ validate the image for a valid jpeg image.

Hope it helps!

My guess is that byteArrayIn doesn't contain valid image data.

Please give more information though:

• Which line of code is throwing an exception?
• What's the message?
• Where did you get byteArrayIn from, and are you sure it should contain a valid image?

byte[] fileData = null;
using (var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(Request.Files[0].InputStream))
{
    fileData = binaryReader.ReadBytes(Request.Files[0].ContentLength);
}
ImageConverter imageConverter = new System.Drawing.ImageConverter();
System.Drawing.Image image = imageConverter.ConvertFrom(fileData) as System.Drawing.Image;
image.Save(imageFullPath, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);

Which line is throwing the exception? The new MemoryStream(...)? or the Image.FromStream(...)? And what is the byteArrayIn? Is it a byte[]? I only ask because of the comment "And none of value in it is not greater than 255" - which of course is automatic for a byte[].

As a more obvious question: does the binary actually contain an image in a sensible format?

For example, the following (although not great code) works fine:

    byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes(@"d:\extn.png"); // not a good idea...
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(data);
    Image img = Image.FromStream(ms);
    Console.WriteLine(img.Width);
    Console.WriteLine(img.Height);

The "parameter is not valid" exception thrown by Image.FromStream() tells you that the stream is not a 'valid' or 'recognised' format. Watch the memory streams, especially if you are taking various offsets of bytes from a file.

// 1. Create a junk memory stream, pass it to Image.FromStream and 
// get the "parameter is not valid":
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(new Byte[] {0x00, 0x01, 0x02});
System.Drawing.Image returnImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(ms);`

// 2. Create a junk memory stream, pass it to Image.FromStream
// without verification:
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(new Byte[] {0x00, 0x01, 0x02});
System.Drawing.Image returnImage = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(ms, false, true);

Example 2 will work, note that useEmbeddedColorManagement must be false for validateImageData to be valid.

May be easiest to debug by dumping the memory stream to a file and inspecting the content.

This error is caused by binary data being inserted into a buffer. To solve this problem, you should insert one statement in your code.

This statement is:

obj_FileStream.Read(Img, 0, Convert.ToInt32(obj_FileStream.Length));

Example:

FileStream obj_FileStream = new FileStream(str_ImagePath, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Read);
Byte[] Img = new Byte[obj_FileStream.Length];
obj_FileStream.Read(Img, 0, Convert.ToInt32(obj_FileStream.Length));         
dt_NewsFeedByRow.Rows[0][6] = Img;