Conversion of WEBP to grayscale on read

[DLumi]

🐛 Describe the bug

The read_image func ignores ImageReadMode.GRAY when reading WEBP images. It produces tensors with 3 color channels instead of 1.

Example image: here

Reproduction code:

from torchvision.io import read_image, ImageReadMode

read_image("webp-image-file-format.webp"), ImageReadMode.GRAY).shape

Expected: torch.Size([1, 576, 1022])

Actual: torch.Size([3, 576, 1022])

Versions

PyTorch version: 2.5.1+cu124
Is debug build: False
CUDA used to build PyTorch: 12.4
ROCM used to build PyTorch: N/A

OS: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (x86_64)
GCC version: (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0
Clang version: Could not collect
CMake version: Could not collect
Libc version: glibc-2.35

Python version: 3.11.10 (main, Oct  3 2024, 07:29:13) [GCC 11.2.0] (64-bit runtime)
Python platform: Linux-5.15.0-125-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35
Is CUDA available: True
CUDA runtime version: 12.5.40
CUDA_MODULE_LOADING set to: LAZY
GPU models and configuration: GPU 0: Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB
Nvidia driver version: 550.120
cuDNN version: Probably one of the following:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_adv_infer.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_adv_train.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_cnn_infer.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_cnn_train.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_ops_infer.so.8.9.7
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_ops_train.so.8.9.7
HIP runtime version: N/A
MIOpen runtime version: N/A
Is XNNPACK available: True

CPU:
Architecture:                         x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):                       32-bit, 64-bit
Address sizes:                        39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
Byte Order:                           Little Endian
CPU(s):                               10
On-line CPU(s) list:                  0-9
Vendor ID:                            GenuineIntel
Model name:                           Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10600K CPU @ 4.10GHz
CPU family:                           6
Model:                                165
Thread(s) per core:                   1
Core(s) per socket:                   10
Socket(s):                            1
Stepping:                             5
BogoMIPS:                             8207.99
Flags:                                fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq vmx ssse3 fma cx16 pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves arat umip pku ospke md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities
Virtualization:                       VT-x
Hypervisor vendor:                    KVM
Virtualization type:                  full
L1d cache:                            320 KiB (10 instances)
L1i cache:                            320 KiB (10 instances)
L2 cache:                             40 MiB (10 instances)
L3 cache:                             16 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA node(s):                         1
NUMA node0 CPU(s):                    0-9
Vulnerability Gather data sampling:   Unknown: Dependent on hypervisor status
Vulnerability Itlb multihit:          Not affected
Vulnerability L1tf:                   Not affected
Vulnerability Mds:                    Not affected
Vulnerability Meltdown:               Not affected
Vulnerability Mmio stale data:        Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT Host state unknown
Vulnerability Reg file data sampling: Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed:               Mitigation; Enhanced IBRS
Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow:   Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass:      Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Vulnerability Spectre v1:             Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2:             Mitigation; Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS SW sequence; BHI SW loop, KVM SW loop
Vulnerability Srbds:                  Unknown: Dependent on hypervisor status
Vulnerability Tsx async abort:        Not affected

Versions of relevant libraries:
[pip3] numpy==2.0.2
[pip3] nvidia-cublas-cu12==12.4.5.8
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-cupti-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cudnn-cu12==9.1.0.70
[pip3] nvidia-cufft-cu12==11.2.1.3
[pip3] nvidia-curand-cu12==10.3.5.147
[pip3] nvidia-cusolver-cu12==11.6.1.9
[pip3] nvidia-cusparse-cu12==12.3.1.170
[pip3] nvidia-nccl-cu12==2.21.5
[pip3] nvidia-nvjitlink-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-nvtx-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] optree==0.13.1
[pip3] torch==2.5.1
[pip3] torchvision==0.20.1
[pip3] triton==3.1.0
[conda] numpy                     2.0.2                    pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cublas-cu12        12.4.5.8                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-cupti-cu12    12.4.127                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12    12.4.127                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12  12.4.127                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cudnn-cu12         9.1.0.70                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cufft-cu12         11.2.1.3                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-curand-cu12        10.3.5.147               pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cusolver-cu12      11.6.1.9                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-cusparse-cu12      12.3.1.170               pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-nccl-cu12          2.21.5                   pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-nvjitlink-cu12     12.4.127                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] nvidia-nvtx-cu12          12.4.127                 pypi_0    pypi
[conda] optree                    0.13.1                   pypi_0    pypi
[conda] torch                     2.5.1                    pypi_0    pypi
[conda] torchvision               0.20.1                   pypi_0    pypi
[conda] triton                    3.1.0                    pypi_0    pypi

[NicolasHug]

Hi @DLumi , thanks for the feature request. Some reading modes like gray are only implemented for some specific image format: https://pytorch.org/vision/main/generated/torchvision.io.ImageReadMode.html#torchvision.io.ImageReadMode

Unfortunately, webp doesn't natively support a grayscale output format: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51006981/does-webp-support-grayscale-colorspace

So for your use-case, it might be best to simply call the ToGrayscale transform on such images. It would be a no-op for images which are already in grayscale.

[DLumi]

@NicolasHug , thank you for the reply.
I've just noticed the Note on ImageReadMode page, so thanks for pointing that out.

Is there a possibility to add this extra call inside the function just for the WEBP to keep things consistent?
Not sure how it's implemented, but opencv can read WEBP as grayscale if you specify it in read function. I think tensorflow is also able to read it as a grayscale image, although, I'm not sure.

Or at least emit a warning when trying to open WEBP with ImageReadMode.GRAY so that it's super clear what went wrong if you missed the note in documentation?