.. _astropy-visualization-stretchnorm:

**********************************
Image stretching and normalization
**********************************

The `astropy.visualization` module provides a framework for
transforming values in images (and more generally any arrays),
typically for the purpose of visualization. Two main types of
transformations are provided:

* Normalization to the [0:1] range using lower and upper limits where
  :math:`x` represents the values in the original image:

.. math::

    y = \frac{x - v_{\rm min}}{v_{\rm max} - v_{\rm min}}

* *Stretching* of values in the [0:1] range to the [0:1] range using a
  linear or non-linear function:

.. math::

    z = f(y)

In addition, classes are provided in order to identify lower and upper
limits for a dataset based on specific algorithms (such as using
percentiles).

Identifying lower and upper limits, as well as re-normalizing, is
described in the `Intervals and Normalization`_ section, while
stretching is described in the `Stretching`_ section.

Intervals and Normalization
===========================

Several classes are provided for determining intervals and for
normalizing values in this interval to the [0:1] range. One of the
simplest examples is the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.MinMaxInterval` which determines the
limits of the values based on the minimum and maximum values in the
array. The class is instantiated with no arguments::

    >>> from astropy.visualization import MinMaxInterval
    >>> interval = MinMaxInterval()

and the limits can be determined by calling the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.MinMaxInterval.get_limits` method, which
takes the array of values::

    >>> interval.get_limits([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
    (1, 6)

The ``interval`` instance can also be called like a function to
actually normalize values to the range::

    >>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([0. , 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1. ])

Other interval classes include
:class:`~astropy.visualization.ManualInterval`,
:class:`~astropy.visualization.PercentileInterval`,
:class:`~astropy.visualization.AsymmetricPercentileInterval`, and
:class:`~astropy.visualization.ZScaleInterval`. For these, values in
the array can fall outside of the limits given by the interval.  A
``clip`` argument is provided to control the behavior of the
normalization when values fall outside the limits::

    >>> from astropy.visualization import PercentileInterval
    >>> interval = PercentileInterval(50.)
    >>> interval.get_limits([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
    (3.0, 5.0)
    >>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])  # default is clip=True  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([0. , 0. , 0.5, 1. , 1. ])
    >>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6], clip=False)  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([-1. ,  0. ,  0.5,  1. ,  1.5])


Stretching
==========

In addition to classes that can scale values to the [0:1] range, a
number of classes are provided to 'stretch' the values using different
functions. These map a [0:1] range onto a transformed [0:1] range. A
simple example is the :class:`~astropy.visualization.SqrtStretch`
class::

    >>> from astropy.visualization import SqrtStretch
    >>> stretch = SqrtStretch()
    >>> stretch([0., 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.])  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([0.        , 0.5       , 0.70710678, 0.8660254 , 1.        ])

As for the intervals, values outside the [0:1] range can be treated
differently depending on the ``clip`` argument. By default, output
values are clipped to the [0:1] range::

    >>> stretch([-1., 0., 0.5, 1., 1.5])  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([0.       , 0.        , 0.70710678, 1.        , 1.        ])

but this can be disabled::

    >>> stretch([-1., 0., 0.5, 1., 1.5], clip=False)  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([       nan, 0.        , 0.70710678, 1.        , 1.22474487])

.. note::
    The stretch functions are similar but not always strictly
    identical to those used in e.g. `DS9
    <http://ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html>`_ (although they should have
    the same behavior). The equations for the DS9 stretches can be
    found `here <http://ds9.si.edu/doc/ref/how.html>`_ and can be
    compared to the equations for our stretches provided in the
    `astropy.visualization` API section. The main difference between
    our stretches and DS9 is that we have adjusted them so that the
    [0:1] range always maps exactly to the [0:1] range.


Combining transformations
=========================

Any intervals and stretches can be chained by using the ``+``
operator, which returns a new transformation. When combining intervals
and stretches, the stretch object must come before the interval
object. For example, to apply normalization based on a percentile
value, followed by a square root stretch, you can do::

    >>> transform = SqrtStretch() + PercentileInterval(90.)
    >>> transform([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])  # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
    array([0.        , 0.60302269, 0.76870611, 0.90453403, 1.        ])

As before, the combined transformation can also accept a ``clip``
argument (which is `True` by default).

Matplotlib normalization
========================

Matplotlib allows a custom normalization and stretch to be used when
displaying data by passing a :class:`matplotlib.colors.Normalize`
object, e.g. to :meth:`~matplotlib.axes.Axes.imshow`. The
`astropy.visualization` module provides an
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class
that wraps the interval (see `Intervals and Normalization`_) and
stretch (see `Stretching`_) objects into an object Matplotlib
understands.

The inputs to the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class are
the data and the interval and stretch objects:

.. plot::
    :include-source:
    :align: center

    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    from astropy.visualization import (MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch,
                                       ImageNormalize)

    # Generate a test image
    image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))

    # Create an ImageNormalize object
    norm = ImageNormalize(image, interval=MinMaxInterval(),
                          stretch=SqrtStretch())

    # or equivalently using positional arguments
    # norm = ImageNormalize(image, MinMaxInterval(), SqrtStretch())

    # Display the image
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
    im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
    fig.colorbar(im)

As shown above, the colorbar ticks are automatically adjusted.

The input image to :class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize`
is typically the one to be displayed, so there is a convenience function
:func:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.imshow_norm` to ease this use case:


.. plot::
    :include-source:
    :align: center

    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    from astropy.visualization import imshow_norm, MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch

    # Generate a test image
    image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))

    # Display the exact same thing as the above plot
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
    im, norm = imshow_norm(image, ax, origin='lower',
                           interval=MinMaxInterval(), stretch=SqrtStretch())
    fig.colorbar(im)

While this is the simplest case, it is also possible for a completely different
image to be used to establish the normalization (e.g. if one wants to display
several images with exactly the same normalization and stretch).

The inputs to the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class can
also be the vmin and vmax limits, which you can determine from the
`Intervals and Normalization`_ classes, and the stretch object:

.. plot::
    :include-source:
    :align: center

    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    from astropy.visualization import (MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch,
                                       ImageNormalize)

    # Generate a test image
    image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))

    # Create interval object
    interval = MinMaxInterval()
    vmin, vmax = interval.get_limits(image)

    # Create an ImageNormalize object using a SqrtStretch object
    norm = ImageNormalize(vmin=vmin, vmax=vmax, stretch=SqrtStretch())

    # Display the image
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
    im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
    fig.colorbar(im)

Finally, we also provide a convenience
:func:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.simple_norm` function that
can be useful for quick interactive analysis (it is also used by the
``fits2bitmap`` command-line script).  However, it is not recommended
to be used in scripted programs; it's better to use
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` directly:

.. plot::
    :include-source:
    :align: center

    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    from astropy.visualization import simple_norm

    # Generate a test image
    image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))

    # Create an ImageNormalize object
    norm = simple_norm(image, 'sqrt')

    # Display the image
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
    im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
    fig.colorbar(im)