Binaryworld - Process individual pixels of a bitmap ... [ VB.net -> Graphics ]

While you can access individual pixels of a bitmap by means of the GetPixel and SetPixel methods of the Bitmap object, in practice you seldom want to use these methods, as they are simply too slow for most cpu-intensive operations. Fortunately there is a faster way, which consists of moving all the pixels to an array of bytes, process the array, and move its elements back to the bitmap. You have to use the Bitmap.LockBits method to get a BitmapData object, which you later use to retrieve the address of pixels in memory.

This example shows how to create a "pixelation" effect on a 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap. Notice that you must modify this code for other bitmap formats:

Click here to copy the following block

' load a bitmap
Dim bmp As New Bitmap("c:\winnt\coffee bean.bmp")
' get its size
Dim width As Integer = bmp.Width
Dim height As Integer = bmp.Height

' lock its bits, get a BitmapData object
' notice that you must know the bitmap format
Dim rect As New Rectangle(0, 0, width, height)
Dim bmpData As System.Drawing.Imaging.BitmapData = bmp.LockBits(Nothing, _
  Drawing.Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, _
  Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format8bppIndexed)
' get the address of its first scan line
Dim ptr As IntPtr = bmpData.Scan0

' prepare an array that will receive all the pixels
' this code is specific to a bitmap with 8 bits per pixels
' you must use a different array type for other formats
Dim bytes As Integer = width * height
Dim pixels(bytes - 1) As Byte
' copy the pixels into the array
Marshal.Copy(ptr, pixels, 0, bytes)

' process all the pixels in the array to create a pixelation effect
Dim r, c As Integer
For r = 0 To height - 1 Step 2
  For c = 0 To width - 1 Step 2
    ' get the index of the array element that corresponds to this pixel
    ' notice that arrays are stored column-wise
    Dim index As Integer = c * height + r
    ' this is the color value of this pixel
    Dim colorValue As Byte = pixels(index)
    ' copy it to the 3 pixels to its right and below it
    pixels(index + 1) = colorValue
    pixels(index + height) = colorValue
    pixels(index + height + 1) = colorValue
  Next
Next

' copy the pixels back to the bitmap
Marshal.Copy(pixels, 0, ptr, bytes)
' unlock the bits
bmp.UnlockBits(bmpData)
' save the bitmap to another file
bmp.Save("c:\newbitmap.bmp")