imoverlay

Burn binary mask into 2-D image

Syntax

B = imoverlay(A,BW)

B = imoverlay(A,BW,color)

Description

B = imoverlay(A,BW) fills the grayscale or RGB image A with a solid color where the input binary mask, BW, is true.

B = imoverlay(A,BW,color) specifies the color that imoverlay uses to fill the image.

Examples

Burn Binary Image into Grayscale Image

Read a grayscale image into the workspace.

A = imread('cameraman.tif');

Read a binary image into the workspace.

BW = imread('text.png');

Burn the binary image into the grayscale image, specifying the color to be used for the binary mask.

B = imoverlay(A,BW,'yellow');

Display the result.

imshow(B)

Burn Binary Image into RGB Image

Read an RGB image into the workspace.

RGB = imread('peppers.png');

Read a binary image into the workspace.

BW = imread('text.png');

Crop the RGB image to make it the same size as the binary mask.

RGB_cropped = imcrop(RGB,[64,128,255,255]);

Burn the binary image into the cropped RGB image, choosing the color to be used.

B = imoverlay(RGB_cropped,BW,'red');

Display the result.

figure
imshow(B)

Input Arguments

A — Input image

2-D grayscale image | 2-D RGB image

Input image, specified as a 2-D grayscale image or 2-D RGB image.

Data Types: single | double | int16 | uint8 | uint16 | logical

BW — Mask image

2-D binary matrix | 2-D numeric matrix

Mask image, specified 2-D binary matrix or 2-D numeric matrix of the same size as the first two dimensions of image A. For numeric input, any nonzero pixels are considered to be 1 (true).

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

color — Color used for overlay

"yellow" (default) | RGB triplet | color name | short color name

Color used for the overlay, specified as an RGB triplet, a color name, or a short color name.

You can specify any color using an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a 3-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1].

You can specify some common colors by name as a string scalar or character vector. This table lists the named color options and the equivalent RGB triplets.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Appearance
'red'	'r'	[1 0 0]
'green'	'g'	[0 1 0]
'blue'	'b'	[0 0 1]
'cyan'	'c'	[0 1 1]
'magenta'	'm'	[1 0 1]
'yellow'	'y'	[1 1 0]
'black'	'k'	[0 0 0]
'white'	'w'	[1 1 1]

Here are the RGB triplets for the default colors that MATLAB^® uses in many types of plots.

RGB Triplet	Appearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]

Example: 'r'

Example: 'green'

Example: [0 0.4470 0.7410]

Output Arguments

B — Output image

2-D RGB image

Output image, returned as a 2-D RGB image.

Data Types: uint8

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• imoverlay supports the generation of C code (requires MATLAB Coder™). For more information, see Code Generation for Image Processing.

• When generating code, if you specify color as a character vector, then the value must be a compile-time constant.

GPU Code Generation

Generate CUDA® code for NVIDIA® GPUs using GPU Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• When generating code, if you specify color as a character vector, then the value must be a compile-time constant.

Version History

Introduced in R2016a