How to use the Python imagehash library

Basic Usage of ImageHash

Generating Hashes

To generate a hash for an image, you need to import ImageHash and Pillow’s Image module:

from PIL import Image
import imagehash
# Load an image
image = Image.open('path/to/your/image.jpg')
# Generate a hash
hash = imagehash.average_hash(image)
print(hash)

Replace 'path/to/your/image.jpg' with the path to your image file. This example uses the average_hash method, which is good for general-purpose use.

Comparing Images

You can compare two images to see how similar they are by comparing their hashes:

image1 = Image.open('path/to/your/first/image.jpg')
image2 = Image.open('path/to/your/second/image.jpg')
hash1 = imagehash.average_hash(image1)
hash2 = imagehash.average_hash(image2)
# Calculate the difference between the two hashes
difference = hash1 - hash2
print(difference)
# A smaller difference means the images are more similar
if difference < 10:
    print("The images are similar.")
else:
    print("The images are different.")

Different Types of Hashes

ImageHash provides several methods to generate different types of hashes, each with its own use case:

• average_hash: Good for general-purpose image comparison.
• phash: Perceptual hash, more sensitive than average_hash.
• dhash: Difference hash, good for detecting changes in image edges.
• whash: Wavelet hash, useful for detecting scaled images.

You can experiment with these different hashing functions to see which works best for your specific application.

Advanced Usage

Customizing Hash Size

You can customize the hash size (the default is 8) to increase or decrease the granularity of the hash:

# Generate a hash with a hash size of 16 (more detailed)
hash = imagehash.average_hash(image, hash_size=16)