Perform Bitwise NOT Operation on an Image using OpenCV Python

We can perform bitwise NOT operation on an image using cv2.bitwise_not(). Here is the syntax to perform bitwise NOT operation on an image -

cv2.bitwise_not(img)

Steps

To compute bitwise NOT on an image, you can follow the steps given below ?

• Import the required library. In all the following examples, the required Python library is OpenCV. Make sure you have already installed it.

• Read the input image as a grayscale image using cv2.imread() method. Specify the full path of the image with the image type (i.e. png or jpg).

• Compute the bitwise NOT on the input image using cv2.biwise_not(img).

• Display the bitwise NOT image

Let's understand the bitwise NOT operation on an input image with the help of some Python examples.

Example

In this example, we compute bitwise NOT of the input image.

# import required libraries
import cv2

# read an input image.
img = cv2.imread('not.png')

# compute bitwise NOT on input image
not_img = cv2.bitwise_not(img)

# display the computed bitwise NOT image
cv2.imshow('Bitwise NOT Image', not_img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

We will use the following image as the Input File for this example ?

Output

When you run the above program, it will produce the following output.

Notice the color inversion of different shapes in the output window.

Example

In this example, we compute bitwise NOT of the input image. Using this method, you can create a negative of an image.

# import required libraries
import cv2

# read an input image
img = cv2.imread('sketch.jpg')

# compute bitwise NOT on input image
not_img = cv2.bitwise_not(img)

# display the computed bitwise NOT image
cv2.imshow('Bitwise NOT Image', not_img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

We will use the following image as the Input File for this program ?

Output

When you run the above program, it will produce the following output ?

Notice that the above output image is a negative image of the original input image.

Example

In this example, we define an image circle of size 300×300. We perform bitwise NOT on this image.

%matplotlib qt
# import required libraries
import cv2
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# define an image as a circle
img = np.zeros((300, 300), dtype = "uint8")
img = cv2.circle(img, (150, 150), 150, 255, -1)

# perform bitwise NOT on image
not_img = cv2.bitwise_not(img)

# Display the bitwise NOT output image
plt.subplot(121), plt.imshow(img, 'gray'), plt.title("Circle")
plt.subplot(122), plt.imshow(not_img, 'gray'),
plt.title("Bitwise NOT")
plt.show()

Output

When you run the above program, it will produce the following output ?

The above output shows the 'Bitwise NOT' image is an inverted image of the image 'Circle'.