Develop Reference

Loading a jpeg using BitmapRegionDecoder gives checkerboard distortion

I'm loading a big jpeg file from a url using an InputStream from a URLConnection. The goal is to get an int[] with the image data as this is more efficient than using a Bitmap for further use. There are two options here.
The first is to create a Bitmap object and to copy the results in an int[]. This works in my application but the full image is in memory twice upon loading as the image data is copied into the int[] image.
Bitmap full = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(conn.getInputStream());
full.getPixels(image, 0, width, 0, 0, width, height);
To save memory, I'm trying to perform this process in a tiled fashion using a BitmapRegionDecoder.
int block = 256;
BitmapRegionDecoder decoder = BitmapRegionDecoder.
newInstance(conn.getInputStream(), false);
Rect tileBounds = new Rect();
// loop blocks
for (int i=0; i<height; i+=block) {
// get vertical bounds limited by image height
tileBounds.top = i;
int h = i+block<height ? block : height-i;
tileBounds.bottom = i+h;
for (int j=0; j<width; j+=block) {
// get hotizontal bounds limited by image width
tileBounds.left = j;
int w = j+block<width ? block : width-j;
tileBounds.right = j+w;
// load tile
tile = decoder.decodeRegion(tileBounds, null);
// copy tile in image
int index = i*width + j;
tile.getPixels(image, index, width, 0, 0, w, h);
}
}
Technically this works and I get the full image in the int[] image. Also the tiles are seemlessly inserted into the image.
Now my problem. The second method results in an image which has some kind of strange checkerboard distortion. Pixels seem to alternate between being slightly darker or slightly lighter. BitmapRegionDecoder is supposed to support jpeg, and BitmapFactory.decodeStream has no problems. What is the problem here?

Found it! apparently if you feed null into decoder.decodeRegion(tileBounds, null); it returns a Bitmap with quality Bitmap.Config.RGB_565 (not sure if this is device dependant). Simply feeding it a new options set returns a Bitmap of Bitmap.Config.RGB_ARGB8888 quality. By default this preferred quality is set.
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
...
// load tile
tile = decoder.decodeRegion(tileBounds, options);

Thanks for your self-investigation!
Though I would recommend avoid relying on some default and make it clear:
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inPreferredConfig=Config.ARGB_8888; //explicit setting!
result_bitmap=regionDecoder.decodeRegion(cropBounds, options);
Thanks!

OutOfMemory when inverting a bitmap?

I'm having the OutOfMemory error when inverting a bitmap.. Here is the code I use to invert:
public Bitmap invertBitmap(Bitmap bm) {
Bitmap src = bm.copy(bm.getConfig(), true);
// image size
int height = src.getHeight();
int width = src.getWidth();
int length = height * width;
int[] array = new int[length];
src.getPixels(array, 0, src.getWidth(), 0, 0, src.getWidth(), src.getHeight());
int A, R, G, B;
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
A = Color.alpha(array[i]);
R = 255 - Color.red(array[i]);
G = 255 - Color.green(array[i]);
B = 255 - Color.blue(array[i]);
array[i] = Color.argb(A, R, G, B);
}
src.setPixels(array, 0, src.getWidth(), 0, 0, src.getWidth(), src.getHeight());
return src;
}
The image is ~80 kb big, the dimensions are 800x1294 and the picture has words which are black and an invisible background..
The images are in a ViewPager..

when you copy bm, try: bm = null;

In android , due to 16MB (on almost all phones) memory cap for applications, it is not wise to hold entire bitmap in memory. This is a common scenario and is happening to may developers.
You can get many information about this problem in this stackoverflow thread. But I really urges you to read android's official document about efficient usage of Bitmaps. They are here and here.

The memory size used by an image in completelly different from the file size of that image.
While in a file the image may be compressed using different alghorithms (jpg, png, etc.) and when loaded in memory as a bitmap, it uses 2 or 4 bytes per pixel.
So in your case (you are not sowing the code but it lloks like you are using 4 bytes per pixel), the memory size per image is:
size = width * height * 4; // this is aprox 2MB
In your code, first you copy the original bitmap to a new one, and then ceate an array to manipulate the colors. So in total you are using size x 3 = 6MB per image inversion.
There are plenty of examples on how to handle large bitmap in Android, but I'll leave you what I think is the most important topics:
Try to use only one copy of bitmap in your code above
If you are only having words in your image use Bitmap.Config = RGB_565. This only uses 2 bytes per pixel, reducing size by half.
Call recycle() on a bitmap that you don't need anymore.
Have a lool at scale option in Bitmap.Factory. You may reduce the size of image that still fit your needs.
good luck.

How to use high-quality rendering for an Android resource bitmap loaded into an OpenGL texture?

I know very little about OpenGL so please be gentle.
The app needs to load a bitmap (from resources), resize it, and use it in an OpenGL texture. I have an implementation that works, but there was a bad banding issue on the Wildfire S. So I changed the implementation and fixed the banding issue (by switching to ARGB_8888) but that then broke the functionality on the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus One.
I am seeing three visual presentations:
The bitmap (a smooth 24-bit gradient) shows correctly, with no banding.
The gradient shows, but with obvious banding
The texture shows as flat white, no bitmap (or issues in logcat)
Here are two versions of the method to load the bitmap, and notes on the results seen with each:
// White on Galaxy Nexus. White on Nexus One. Renders correct image (no banding) on Wildfire S
private Bitmap getBitmap1() {
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
options.outWidth = getTextureSize();
options.outHeight = getTextureSize();
final Bitmap bmp;
bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), bitmapResourceId, options);
return bmp;
}
// Renders correctly (no banding) on Galaxy Nexus. Renders on Nexus One and Wildfire S but with obvious banding.
private Bitmap getBitmap2() {
int textureSize = getTextureSize();
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
options.outWidth = getTextureSize();
options.outHeight = getTextureSize();
final Bitmap bmp;
bmp = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), bitmapResourceId, options), textureSize, textureSize, true);
return bmp;
}
getTextureSize() returns 1024.
How do I build a single method that shows the bitmap without banding on all devices, and without any devices show a big white box?

getBitmap1
outHeight and outWidth are used in conjunction with inJustDecodeBounds. You cannot use them to load a scaled bitmap. So the reason you are seeing a white texture is that the bitmap is not a power of two.
getBitmap2
you should keep a reference to the bitmap returned by decodeResource so that you can recycle it later.
also use options.inScaled = false;to load an unscaled version of the bitmap. Also take note that createScaledBitmap may change the depth of the bitmap to RGB_565 if the original bitmap contains no alpha channel (Source);
Questions:
is the original Bitmap Resource square? If not your scaling code will change the aspect ratio which could result in artifacts.
EDIT:
so how do you scale a bitmap and preserve the bit depths?
Easiest solution is to pass a bitmap with alpha channel into createScaledBitmap.
You can also scale yourself like so:
Bitmap newBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(1024, 1024, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
Canvas canvas = new Canvas(newBitmap);
final int width = src.getWidth();
final int height = src.getHeight();
final float sx = 1024 / (float)width;
final float sy = 1024 / (float)height;
Matrix m = new Matrix();
m.setScale(sx, sy);
canvas.drawBitmap(src,m,null );
src.recycle();
ANOTHER EDIT:
take a look at this Question for pointers on how to deal with that.

OpenGL.org has this to say about that error:
GL_INVALID_VALUE​, 0x0501: Given when a value parameter is not a leval
value for that function. This is only given for local problems; if the
spec allows the value in certain circumstances, and other parameters
or state dictate those circumstances, then GL_INVALID_OPERATION is the
result instead.
Step one is to find the exact opengl call that is causing the problem. You'll have to do trial and error to see which line is throwing that error. If you set up the program flow like this:
glSomeCallA()
glGetError() //returns 0
glSomeCallB()
glGetError() //returns 0
glSomeCallC()
glGetError() //returns 0x501
Then you'll know that glSomeCallC was the operation that caused the error. If you look at the man page for that particular call, it will enumerate everything that could cause a specific error to occur.
In your case I'll guess that the error will be after glTexImage call just to save you some time, though I'm not positive.
If you look at the glTexImage man page, at the bottom it will list everything that can cause an invalid value error. My guess will be that your texture is larger than the GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE. You can confirm this by checking glGetIntegerv(GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE);

Color Banding Solved ooooooooooyyyyyyyeaaaaaaaaaa
I solved color banding in two phases
1) * when we use the BitmapFactory to decode resources it decodes the resource in RGB565 which shows color banding, instead of using ARGB_8888, so i used BitmapFactory.Options for setting the decode options to ARGB_8888
second problem was whenever i scaled the bitmap it again got banded
2) This was the tough part and took a lot of searching and finally worked
* the method Bitmap.createScaledBitmap for scaling bitmaps also reduced the images to RGB565 format after scaling i got banded images(the old method for solving this was using at least one transparent pixel in a png but no other format like jpg or bmp worked)so here i created a method CreateScaledBitmap to scale the bitmap with the original bitmaps configurations in the resulting scale bitmap(actually i copied the method from a post by logicnet.dk and translated in java)
BitmapFactory.Options myOptions = new BitmapFactory.Options();
myOptions.inDither = true;
myOptions.inScaled = false;
myOptions.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;//important
//myOptions.inDither = false;
myOptions.inPurgeable = true;
Bitmap tempImage =
BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(),R.drawable.defaultart, myOptions);//important
//this is important part new scale method created by someone else
tempImage = CreateScaledBitmap(tempImage,300,300,false);
ImageView v = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imageView1);
v.setImageBitmap(tempImage);
// the function
public static Bitmap CreateScaledBitmap(Bitmap src, int dstWidth, int dstHeight, boolean filter)
{
Matrix m = new Matrix();
m.setScale(dstWidth / (float)src.getWidth(), dstHeight / (float)src.getHeight());
Bitmap result = Bitmap.createBitmap(dstWidth, dstHeight, src.getConfig());
Canvas canvas = new Canvas(result);
//using (var canvas = new Canvas(result))
{
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setFilterBitmap(filter);
canvas.drawBitmap(src, m, paint);
}
return result;
}
Please correct me if i am wrong.
Also comment if it worked for you.
I am so happy i solved it, Hope it works for you.

how do i come out of OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget

I am very new in android,and trying to put SDcard images in grid view by using Bitmap and BitmapFactory.
But it cause the Error like:
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(6137): java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(6137): at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.nativeDecodeStream(Native Method)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(6137): at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:459)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(6137): at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeFile(BitmapFactory.java:271)

Well ok, apparently this question will get answered the 100th time on SO. Here's the idea:
first off depending on the Android version on the device:
if you're using Android version 2.x and below (any version prior to Honeycomb) the memory taken by your Bitmap instances will NOT be reflected in the amount of free memory you have on the heap as reported by Runtime.getRuntime().xxxMemory() methods. Those instances are placed in memory OUTSIDE the heap. If you want to track down how much memory a Bitmap instance will use you have to manually calculate it as imageWidth*imageHeight*4. This will give you the bytes taken by your image in (off heap) memory. This memory consumption, as well as the on-heap memory consumption must have a total which is below the max memory allocated by Android to your application on a certain device, if not you'll get an OutOfMemory error.
the total memory allocated to a process by Android depends greatly on the device and Android version. This can be anywhere between 16 and 48 Megs. On older devices is 16 or 32. On newer ones is 32 or 48. This you have to individually check on each device you want to target. You can do it also at runtime, and use it as a guide as to how much stuff you can put in memory (maybe you want to downsample the images before loading them on a device that allocates 16 Mb of memory to your app)
On Android Honeycomb (version 3.x.x) and beyond, a Bitmap instance will use on-heap memory. This makes it easier to track down how much free memory you still have after loading images. Also with these versions of Android, the Bitmap instance will be garbage collected (when possible) automatically. On pre-Honeycomb you have to manyally call
Bitmap.recycle();
to free up the memory taken by your bitmap instance.
When using BitmapFactory to decode images (and create Bitmap instances) you can pass-in options such as to only get the width and height of an image, or to downsample it before decoding. This can help you asses how much memory an image will take BEFORE you actually place it in memory. Check out the docs: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/BitmapFactory.Options.html
If you feel adventorous you can trick the memory limitation all together, though this doesn't work on all devices: Create an OpenglSurfaceView, and display your images as textures on quads. You can use an orthogonal projection for simplicity (if you only need to give appearance of 2d). Trick here is that you can load an Image in memory as a bitmap, asign it to an OpenGL texture and the clear out that Bitmap instance. The actual image will still be displayeble from the Texture object, and these objects are not limited by the per-process memory limitation.

Do not copy the image in full quality into your app first. Use the Options class to sample down the quality/size a bit:
ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();
InputStream is = cr.openInputStream(chosenImageUri);
Options optionSample = new BitmapFactory.Options();
optionSample.inSampleSize = 4; // Or 8 for smaller image
Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(is, null, optionSample);
// Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(filePathString, optionSample);
Try using inSampleSize = 8 if you are creating thumbnail bitmaps.
If you find yourself creating several Bitmap objects, each making some changes to the same image, try using bitmap.recycle(). But recycle() can lead to some runtime errors if your app has some reference to the old bitmaps (can be hard to detect), so be careful using it.
Let me know if it helps.

Android is more concerned about memory and the BitmapFactory accepts limited size images only.
I think the following will help you to scale image before use.
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Matrix;
public class ImageScale
{
/**
* Decodes the path of the image to Bitmap Image.
* #param imagePath : path of the image.
* #return Bitmap image.
*/
public Bitmap decodeImage(String imagePath)
{
Bitmap bitmap=null;
try
{
File file=new File(imagePath);
BitmapFactory.Options o = new BitmapFactory.Options();
o.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
BitmapFactory.decodeStream(new FileInputStream(file),null,o);
final int REQUIRED_SIZE=200;
int width_tmp=o.outWidth, height_tmp=o.outHeight;
int scale=1;
while(true)
{
if(width_tmp/2<REQUIRED_SIZE || height_tmp/2<REQUIRED_SIZE)
break;
width_tmp/=2;
height_tmp/=2;
scale*=2;
}
BitmapFactory.Options options=new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inSampleSize=scale;
bitmap=BitmapFactory.decodeStream(new FileInputStream(file), null, options);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
bitmap = null;
}
return bitmap;
}
/**
* Resizes the given Bitmap to Given size.
* #param bm : Bitmap to resize.
* #param newHeight : Height to resize.
* #param newWidth : Width to resize.
* #return Resized Bitmap.
*/
public Bitmap getResizedBitmap(Bitmap bm, int newHeight, int newWidth)
{
Bitmap resizedBitmap = null;
try
{
if(bm!=null)
{
int width = bm.getWidth();
int height = bm.getHeight();
float scaleWidth = ((float) newWidth) / width;
float scaleHeight = ((float) newHeight) / height;
// create a matrix for the manipulation
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
// resize the bit map
matrix.postScale(scaleWidth, scaleHeight);
// recreate the new Bitmap
resizedBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(bm, 0, 0, width, height, matrix, true);
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
resizedBitmap = null;
}
return resizedBitmap;
}
}
To get image path from URI use this function :
private String decodePath(Uri data)
{
Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(data, null, null, null, null);
cursor.moveToFirst();
int idx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ImageColumns.DATA);
String fileSrc = cursor.getString(idx);
return fileSrc;
}

Quality problems when resizing an image at runtime

I have a image file on the disk and I am resizing the file and saving it back to disk as a new image file. For the sake of this question, I am not bringing them into memory in order to display them on the screen, only to resize them and resave them. This all works just fine. However, the scaled images have artifacts on them like shown here: android: quality of the images resized in runtime
They are saved with this distortion, as I can pull them off the disk and look at them on my computer and they still have the same issue.
I am using code similar to this Strange out of memory issue while loading an image to a Bitmap object to decode the bitmap into memory:
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(imageFilePathString, options);
int srcWidth = options.outWidth;
int srcHeight = options.outHeight;
int scale = 1;
while(srcWidth / 2 > desiredWidth){
srcWidth /= 2;
srcHeight /= 2;
scale *= 2;
}
options.inJustDecodeBounds = false;
options.inDither = false;
options.inSampleSize = scale;
Bitmap sampledSrcBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(imageFilePathString, options);
Then I am doing the actual scaling with:
Bitmap scaledBitmap = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(sampledSrcBitmap, desiredWidth, desiredHeight, false);
Lastly, the new resized image is saved to disk with:
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(newFilePathString);
scaledBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, out);
Then, as I mentioned, if I pull that file off the disk and look at it, it has that quality issue linked above and looks terrible. If I skip the createScaledBitmap and just save the sampledSrcBitmap right back to disk there is no problem, it seems to only happen if the size changes.
I have tried, as you can see in the code, setting inDither to false as mentioned here http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/8b1abdbe881f9f71 and as mentioned in the very first linked post above. That didn't change anything. Also, in the first post I linked, Romain Guy said:
Instead of resizing at drawing time
(which is going to be very costly),
try to resize in an offscreen bitmap
and make sure that Bitmap is 32 bits
(ARGB888).
However, I have no idea how to make sure the Bitmap stays as 32 bits through the whole process.
I have also read a couple other articles such as this http://android.nakatome.net/2010/04/bitmap-basics.html but they all seemed to be addressing drawing and displaying the Bitmap, I just want to resize it and save it back to disk without this quality problem.
Thanks much

After experimenting I have finally found a way to do this with good quality results. I'll write this up for anyone that might find this answer helpful in the future.
To solve the first problem, the artifacts and weird dithering introduced into the images, you need to insure your image stays as a 32-bit ARGB_8888 image. Using the code in my question, you can simply add this line to the options before the second decode.
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
After adding that, the artifacts were gone but edges throughout the images came through jagged instead of crisp. After some more experimentation I discovered that resizing the bitmap using a Matrix instead of Bitmap.createScaledBitmap produced much crisper results.
With those two solutions, the images are now resizing perfectly. Below is the code I am using in case it benefits someone else coming across this problem.
// Get the source image's dimensions
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(STRING_PATH_TO_FILE, options);
int srcWidth = options.outWidth;
int srcHeight = options.outHeight;
// Only scale if the source is big enough. This code is just trying to fit a image into a certain width.
if(desiredWidth > srcWidth)
desiredWidth = srcWidth;
// Calculate the correct inSampleSize/scale value. This helps reduce memory use. It should be a power of 2
// from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/477572/android-strange-out-of-memory-issue/823966#823966
int inSampleSize = 1;
while(srcWidth / 2 > desiredWidth){
srcWidth /= 2;
srcHeight /= 2;
inSampleSize *= 2;
}
float desiredScale = (float) desiredWidth / srcWidth;
// Decode with inSampleSize
options.inJustDecodeBounds = false;
options.inDither = false;
options.inSampleSize = inSampleSize;
options.inScaled = false;
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
Bitmap sampledSrcBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(STRING_PATH_TO_FILE, options);
// Resize
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.postScale(desiredScale, desiredScale);
Bitmap scaledBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(sampledSrcBitmap, 0, 0, sampledSrcBitmap.getWidth(), sampledSrcBitmap.getHeight(), matrix, true);
sampledSrcBitmap = null;
// Save
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(NEW_FILE_PATH);
scaledBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, out);
scaledBitmap = null;
EDIT: After continual work on this I have found that the images still aren't 100% perfect. I'll make an update if I can improve it.
Update: After revisting this, I found this question on SO and there was an answer that mentioned the inScaled option. This helped with the quality as well so I added updated the answer above to include it. I also now null the bitmaps after they are done being used.
Also, as a side note, if you are using these images in a WebView, make sure you take this post into consideration.
Note: you should also add a check to make sure the width and height are valid numbers (not -1). If they are, it will cause the inSampleSize loop to become infinite.

In my situation I am drawing the image to the screen. Here's what I did to get my images to look correct (a combination of littleFluffyKitty's answer, plus a few other things).
For my options when I actually load the image (using decodeResource) I set the following values:
options.inScaled = false;
options.inDither = false;
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
When I actually draw the image, I set up my paint object like this:
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setAntiAlias(true);
paint.setFilterBitmap(true);
paint.setDither(true);
Hopefully someone else finds that useful too. I wish there were just options for "Yes, let my resized images look like garbage" and "No, please don't force my users to gouge their eyes out with spoons" instead of all the myriad of different options. I know they want to give us lots of control, but maybe some helper methods for common settings could be useful.

I created simple library based on littleFluffyKitty answer which does resize and does some other things like crop and rotation so please free to use it and improve it - Android-ImageResizer.

"However, I have no idea how to make sure the Bitmap stays as 32 bits
through the whole process."
I wanted to post an alternative solution, which takes care of keeping the ARGB_8888 config untouched. NOTE: This code only decodes bitmaps and needs to be extended, so you could store a Bitmap.
I assume you are writing code for a version of Android lower than 3.2 (API level < 12), because since then the behavior of the methods
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(pathToImage);
BitmapFactory.decodeFile(pathToImage, opt);
bitmapObject.createScaledBitmap(bitmap, desiredWidth, desiredHeight, false /*filter?*/);
has changed.
On older platforms (API level < 12) the BitmapFactory.decodeFile(..) methods try to return a Bitmap with RGB_565 config by default, if they can't find any alpha, which lowers the quality of an iamge. This is still ok, because you can enforce an ARGB_8888 bitmap using
options.inPrefferedConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888
options.inDither = false
The real problem comes when each pixel of your image has an alpha value of 255 (i.e. completely opaque). In that case the Bitmap's flag 'hasAlpha' is set to false, even though your Bitmap has ARGB_8888 config. If your *.png-file had at least one real transparent pixel, this flag would have been set to true and you wouldn't have to worry about anything.
So when you want to create a scaled Bitmap using
bitmapObject.createScaledBitmap(bitmap, desiredWidth, desiredHeight, false /*filter?*/);
the method checks whether the 'hasAlpha' flag is set to true or false, and in your case it is set to false, which results in obtaining a scaled Bitmap, which was automatically converted to the RGB_565 format.
Therefore on API level >= 12 there is a public method called
public void setHasAlpha (boolean hasAlpha);
which would have solved this issue. So far this was just an explanation of the problem.
I did some research and noticed that the setHasAlpha method has existed for a long time and it's public, but has been hidden (#hide annotation). Here is how it is defined on Android 2.3:
/**
* Tell the bitmap if all of the pixels are known to be opaque (false)
* or if some of the pixels may contain non-opaque alpha values (true).
* Note, for some configs (e.g. RGB_565) this call is ignore, since it does
* not support per-pixel alpha values.
*
* This is meant as a drawing hint, as in some cases a bitmap that is known
* to be opaque can take a faster drawing case than one that may have
* non-opaque per-pixel alpha values.
*
* #hide
*/
public void setHasAlpha(boolean hasAlpha) {
nativeSetHasAlpha(mNativeBitmap, hasAlpha);
}
Now here is my solution proposal. It does not involve any copying of bitmap data:
Checked at runtime using java.lang.Reflect if the current
Bitmap implementation has a public 'setHasAplha' method.
(According to my tests it works perfectly since API level 3, and i haven't tested lower versions, because JNI wouldn't work). You may have problems if a manufacturer has explicitly made it private, protected or deleted it.
Call the 'setHasAlpha' method for a given Bitmap object using JNI.
This works perfectly, even for private methods or fields. It is official that JNI does not check whether you are violating the access control rules or not.
Source: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jni/html/pitfalls.html (10.9)
This gives us great power, which should be used wisely. I wouldn't try modifying a final field, even if it would work (just to give an example). And please note this is just a workaround...
Here is my implementation of all necessary methods:
JAVA PART:
// NOTE: this cannot be used in switch statements
private static final boolean SETHASALPHA_EXISTS = setHasAlphaExists();
private static boolean setHasAlphaExists() {
// get all puplic Methods of the class Bitmap
java.lang.reflect.Method[] methods = Bitmap.class.getMethods();
// search for a method called 'setHasAlpha'
for(int i=0; i<methods.length; i++) {
if(methods[i].getName().contains("setHasAlpha")) {
Log.i(TAG, "method setHasAlpha was found");
return true;
}
}
Log.i(TAG, "couldn't find method setHasAlpha");
return false;
}
private static void setHasAlpha(Bitmap bitmap, boolean value) {
if(bitmap.hasAlpha() == value) {
Log.i(TAG, "bitmap.hasAlpha() == value -> do nothing");
return;
}
if(!SETHASALPHA_EXISTS) { // if we can't find it then API level MUST be lower than 12
// couldn't find the setHasAlpha-method
// <-- provide alternative here...
return;
}
// using android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK to support API level 3 and above
// use android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT to support API level 4 and above
if(Integer.valueOf(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK) <= 11) {
Log.i(TAG, "BEFORE: bitmap.hasAlpha() == " + bitmap.hasAlpha());
Log.i(TAG, "trying to set hasAplha to true");
int result = setHasAlphaNative(bitmap, value);
Log.i(TAG, "AFTER: bitmap.hasAlpha() == " + bitmap.hasAlpha());
if(result == -1) {
Log.e(TAG, "Unable to access bitmap."); // usually due to a bug in the own code
return;
}
} else { //API level >= 12
bitmap.setHasAlpha(true);
}
}
/**
* Decodes a Bitmap from the SD card
* and scales it if necessary
*/
public Bitmap decodeBitmapFromFile(String pathToImage, int pixels_limit) {
Bitmap bitmap;
Options opt = new Options();
opt.inDither = false; //important
opt.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;
bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(pathToImage, opt);
if(bitmap == null) {
Log.e(TAG, "unable to decode bitmap");
return null;
}
setHasAlpha(bitmap, true); // if necessary
int numOfPixels = bitmap.getWidth() * bitmap.getHeight();
if(numOfPixels > pixels_limit) { //image needs to be scaled down
// ensures that the scaled image uses the maximum of the pixel_limit while keeping the original aspect ratio
// i use: private static final int pixels_limit = 1280*960; //1,3 Megapixel
imageScaleFactor = Math.sqrt((double) pixels_limit / (double) numOfPixels);
Bitmap scaledBitmap = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(bitmap,
(int) (imageScaleFactor * bitmap.getWidth()), (int) (imageScaleFactor * bitmap.getHeight()), false);
bitmap.recycle();
bitmap = scaledBitmap;
Log.i(TAG, "scaled bitmap config: " + bitmap.getConfig().toString());
Log.i(TAG, "pixels_limit = " + pixels_limit);
Log.i(TAG, "scaled_numOfpixels = " + scaledBitmap.getWidth()*scaledBitmap.getHeight());
setHasAlpha(bitmap, true); // if necessary
}
return bitmap;
}
Load your lib and declare the native method:
static {
System.loadLibrary("bitmaputils");
}
private static native int setHasAlphaNative(Bitmap bitmap, boolean value);
Native section ('jni' folder)
Android.mk:
LOCAL_PATH := $(call my-dir)
include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_MODULE := bitmaputils
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := bitmap_utils.c
LOCAL_LDLIBS := -llog -ljnigraphics -lz -ldl -lgcc
include $(BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARY)
bitmapUtils.c:
#include <jni.h>
#include <android/bitmap.h>
#include <android/log.h>
#define LOG_TAG "BitmapTest"
#define Log_i(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_INFO,LOG_TAG,__VA_ARGS__)
#define Log_e(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_ERROR,LOG_TAG,__VA_ARGS__)
// caching class and method IDs for a faster subsequent access
static jclass bitmap_class = 0;
static jmethodID setHasAlphaMethodID = 0;
jint Java_com_example_bitmaptest_MainActivity_setHasAlphaNative(JNIEnv * env, jclass clazz, jobject bitmap, jboolean value) {
AndroidBitmapInfo info;
void* pixels;
if (AndroidBitmap_getInfo(env, bitmap, &info) < 0) {
Log_e("Failed to get Bitmap info");
return -1;
}
if (info.format != ANDROID_BITMAP_FORMAT_RGBA_8888) {
Log_e("Incompatible Bitmap format");
return -1;
}
if (AndroidBitmap_lockPixels(env, bitmap, &pixels) < 0) {
Log_e("Failed to lock the pixels of the Bitmap");
return -1;
}
// get class
if(bitmap_class == NULL) { //initializing jclass
// NOTE: The class Bitmap exists since API level 1, so it just must be found.
bitmap_class = (*env)->GetObjectClass(env, bitmap);
if(bitmap_class == NULL) {
Log_e("bitmap_class == NULL");
return -2;
}
}
// get methodID
if(setHasAlphaMethodID == NULL) { //initializing jmethodID
// NOTE: If this fails, because the method could not be found the App will crash.
// But we only call this part of the code if the method was found using java.lang.Reflect
setHasAlphaMethodID = (*env)->GetMethodID(env, bitmap_class, "setHasAlpha", "(Z)V");
if(setHasAlphaMethodID == NULL) {
Log_e("methodID == NULL");
return -2;
}
}
// call java instance method
(*env)->CallVoidMethod(env, bitmap, setHasAlphaMethodID, value);
// if an exception was thrown we could handle it here
if ((*env)->ExceptionOccurred(env)) {
(*env)->ExceptionDescribe(env);
(*env)->ExceptionClear(env);
Log_e("calling setHasAlpha threw an exception");
return -2;
}
if(AndroidBitmap_unlockPixels(env, bitmap) < 0) {
Log_e("Failed to unlock the pixels of the Bitmap");
return -1;
}
return 0; // success
}
That's it. We are done. I've posted the whole code for copy-and-paste purposes.
The actual code isn't that big, but making all these paranoid error checks makes it a lot bigger. I hope this could be helpful to anyone.

onScreenResults = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(tempBitmap, scaledOSRW, scaledOSRH, true); <----
setting the filter to true worked for me.

So, createScaledBitmap and createBitmap (with matrix that scales) on immutable bitmap (like when decoded) will ignore original Bitmap.Config and create bitmap with Bitmap.Config.ARGB_565 if original doesn't have any transparency (hasAlpha == false).
But it won't do it on mutable bitmap.
So, if your decoded bitmap is b:
Bitmap temp = Bitmap.createBitmap(b.getWidth(), b.getHeight(), Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
Canvas canvas = new Canvas(temp);
canvas.drawBitmap(b, 0, 0, null);
b.recycle();
Now you can rescale temp and it should retain Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888.

Image scaling can also be accomplished by this means with absolutely no quality loss!
//Bitmap bmp passed to method...
ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
bmp.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, stream);
Image jpg = Image.getInstance(stream.toByteArray());
jpg.scalePercent(68); // or any other number of useful methods.