learnopencv/imread/imread_examples.py

#!/usr/bin/python
import cv2

# Read 8-bit grayscale image
im = cv2.imread("earth-16-bit-per-channel.png", cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
print "flags :  cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE"
print "Size %s, type %s\n" % (im.shape,im.dtype)

# Read 8-bit color image
im = cv2.imread("earth-16-bit-per-channel.png", cv2.IMREAD_COLOR)
print "flags : cv2.IMREAD_COLOR"
print "Size %s, type %s\n" % (im.shape,im.dtype)

# Read 16-bit color image
im = cv2.imread("earth-16-bit-per-channel.png", cv2.IMREAD_ANYCOLOR | cv2.IMREAD_ANYDEPTH )
print "flags :  cv2.IMREAD_ANYCOLOR | cv2.IMREAD_ANYDEPTH"
print "Size %s, type %s\n" % (im.shape,im.dtype)

# Read transparent PNG / TIFF image
im = cv2.imread("earth-16-bit-per-channel.png", cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED)
print "flags : cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED"
print "Size %s, type %s\n" % (im.shape,im.dtype)