Plot a JPG image using base graphics in R

Question

I am searching for a simple way to plot a photographic JPEG image on a graphics device in R.

For example the following using the raster package appears to ignore the colour attributes in the image. I want to reproduce the photograph in its original colours:

library(raster) library(rgdal)  myJPG <- raster("colourfulPic.jpg") plot(myJPG)  ## Recolours JPEG; 

I have discovered that the package rimage has recently been archived and appears to no longer be recommended for use (see here), if it, indeed, ever did what I need.

Similarly the EBImage for BioConductor, which may also possibly work, is not built for 64 bit Windows, and unfortunately I need this architecture.

Please tell me I missing something very obvious in base graphics?

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Answer 1

Here goes an updated solution, that relies only on the jpeg package and handles color and greyscale images (packages used in other solutions are outdated and won't install with a recent R version).

The solution consists in this plot function:

plot_jpeg = function(path, add=FALSE) {   require('jpeg')   jpg = readJPEG(path, native=T) # read the file   res = dim(jpg)[2:1] # get the resolution, [x, y]   if (!add) # initialize an empty plot area if add==FALSE     plot(1,1,xlim=c(1,res[1]),ylim=c(1,res[2]),asp=1,type='n',xaxs='i',yaxs='i',xaxt='n',yaxt='n',xlab='',ylab='',bty='n')   rasterImage(jpg,1,1,res[1],res[2]) } 

This function can then be called with the path of the picture as argument, for example:

plot_jpeg('~/nyancat.jpg') 

To add the picture to an existing plot, use the switch add=TRUE - and be wary of axis limits!