Image Processing Toolbox

Storage Classes in the Toolbox

By default, MATLAB stores most data in arrays of class double. The data in these arrays is stored as double precision (64-bit) floating-point numbers. All of MATLAB's functions and capabilities work with these arrays.

For image processing, however, this data representation is not always ideal. The number of pixels in an image may be very large; for example, a 1000-by-1000 image has a million pixels. Since each pixel is represented by at least one array element, this image would require about 8 megabytes of memory.

In order to reduce memory requirements, MATLAB supports storing image data in arrays of class uint8 and uint16. The data in these arrays is stored as 8-bit or 16-bit unsigned integers. These arrays require one eighth or one fourth as much memory as double arrays.

Images in MATLAB and the Image Processing Toolbox

Image Types in the Toolbox