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imhist

Histogram of image data

Description

[counts,binLocations] = imhist(I) calculates the histogram for the grayscale image I. The imhist function returns the histogram counts in counts and the bin locations in binLocations. The number of bins in the histogram is determined by the image type.

[counts,binLocations] = imhist(I,n) specifies the number of bins, n, used to calculate the histogram.

[counts,binLocations] = imhist(X,cmap) calculates the histogram for the indexed image X with colormap cmap. The histogram has one bin for each entry in the colormap.

example

imhist(___) displays a plot of the histogram. If the input image is an indexed image, then the histogram shows the distribution of pixel values above a color bar of the colormap cmap.

Examples

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Read a grayscale image into the workspace.

I = imread('pout.tif');

Display a histogram of the image. Since I is grayscale, by default the histogram will have 256 bins.

imhist(I)

Load a 3-D dataset.

load mristack

Display the histogram of the data. Since the image is grayscale, imhist uses 256 bins by default.

imhist(mristack)

Input Arguments

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Grayscale image, specified as a numeric array of any dimension. The imhist function expects images of data type double and single to have values in the range [0, 1]. If I has values outside the range [0, 1], then you can rescale values to the expected range by using the rescale function..

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | logical

Number of bins, specified as a positive integer. If I is a grayscale image, then imhist uses a default value of 256 bins. If I is a binary image, then imhist uses two bins.

Example: 50

Indexed image, specified as a numeric array of any dimension.

Data Types: single | double | uint8 | uint16 | logical

Colormap associated with indexed image X, specified as a c-by-3 numeric matrix with values in the range [0, 1]. Each row is a three-element RGB triplet that specifies the red, green, and blue components of a single color of the colormap. The colormap must be at least as long as the largest index in X.

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

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Histogram counts, returned as a numeric array. If the histogram is computed for an indexed image, X, then the length of counts is the same as the length of the colormap, cmap.

Bin locations, returned as a numeric array.

Tips

  • For grayscale images, the n bins of the histogram are each half-open intervals of width A/(n−1). In particular, the pth bin is the half-open interval

    A(p1.5)(n1)Bx<A(p0.5)(n1)B,

    where x is the intensity value. The scale factor A and offset B depend on the data type of the image as follows:

    Data TypeAB
    double10
    single10
    int8255128
    int1665,53532,768
    int324,294,967,2952,147,483,648
    uint82550
    uint1665,5350
    uint324,294,967,2950
    logical10

  • To display the histogram from counts and binLocations, use the command stem(binLocations,counts).

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

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See Also

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