Image

Overview

The image trace type is used to display raster images in a plot. This is particularly useful for visualizing images as data or overlaying images on other plot types. The image trace allows for the rendering of pixel data in a 2D grid.

You can customize the image size, position, and color scaling to represent image data effectively. Images can be used in scientific visualizations, geographic data, or any scenario where image data is needed.

Common Uses

Raster Images: Displaying raster images in data visualizations.
Geographic Maps: Visualizing maps or satellite images.
Image Data: Rendering images directly as part of data exploration and analysis.

Check out the Attributes for the full set of configuration options

Examples

Common Configurations

Simple Image PlotImage Plot with Custom ColorscaleImage Plot with Axis Annotations

Here's a simple image plot displaying an image based on pixel values:

You can copy this code below to create this chart in your project:

models:
  - name: image-data
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        z
        0,0,1,1
        1,0,0,1
        1,1,0,0
traces:
  - name: Simple Image Plot
    model: ${ref(image-data)}
    props:
      type: image
      z: ?{z}
charts:
  - name: Simple Image Chart
    traces:
      - ${ref(Simple Image Plot)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Simple Image Plot<br><sub>Raster Image Display</sub>

This example demonstrates an image plot with a custom colorscale to better represent the image data:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: image-data-custom
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        z
        0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4
        0.5,0.6,0.7,0.8
        0.9,1.0,0.2,0.3
traces:
  - name: Image Plot with Custom Colorscale
    model: ${ref(image-data-custom)}
    props:
      type: image
      z: ?{z}
      colorscale: "Viridis"
charts:
  - name: Image Plot with Custom Colorscale
    traces:
      - ${ref(Image Plot with Custom Colorscale)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Image Plot with Custom Colorscale<br><sub>Custom Coloring for Image Data</sub>

This example shows an image plot with axis labels and annotations to provide context for the image data:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: image-data-annotated
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        z
        1,0,0,1
        0,1,1,0
        0,0,1,1
traces:
  - name: Image Plot with Axis Annotations
    model: ${ref(image-data-annotated)}
    props:
      type: image
      z: ?{z}
charts:
  - name: Image Plot with Axis Annotations
    traces:
      - ${ref(Image Plot with Axis Annotations)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Image Plot with Axis Annotations<br><sub>Image with Axes</sub>
      xaxis:
        title:
          text: "X Axis"
      yaxis:
        title:
          text: "Y Axis"

A schema to validate plotly trace properties

Attributes

These attributes apply to traces where trace.props.type is set to image. You would configure these attributes on the trace with the trace.props object.

colormodel: 'any' #(1)!
customdata: 'array' #(2)!
customdatasrc: 'string' #(3)!
dx: 'number' #(4)!
dy: 'number' #(5)!
hoverinfo: 'array' #(6)!
hoverinfosrc: 'string' #(7)!
hoverlabel:
  align: 'array' #(8)!
  alignsrc: 'string' #(9)!
  bgcolor: 'color | array' #(10)!
  bgcolorsrc: 'string' #(11)!
  bordercolor: 'color | array' #(12)!
  bordercolorsrc: 'string' #(13)!
  font:
    color: color | array
    colorsrc: 'string' #(14)!
    family: 'string | array' #(15)!
    familysrc: 'string' #(16)!
    lineposition: 'array' #(17)!
    linepositionsrc: 'string' #(18)!
    shadow: 'string | array' #(19)!
    shadowsrc: 'string' #(20)!
    size: number | array
    sizesrc: 'string' #(21)!
    style: 'array' #(22)!
    stylesrc: 'string' #(23)!
    textcase: 'array' #(24)!
    textcasesrc: 'string' #(25)!
    variant: 'array' #(26)!
    variantsrc: 'string' #(27)!
    weight: 'integer | array' #(28)!
    weightsrc: 'string' #(29)!
  namelength: 'integer | array' #(30)!
  namelengthsrc: 'string' #(31)!
hovertemplate: 'string | array' #(32)!
hovertemplatesrc: 'string' #(33)!
hovertext: 'array' #(34)!
hovertextsrc: 'string' #(35)!
ids: 'array' #(36)!
idssrc: 'string' #(37)!
legend: 'string' #(38)!
legendgrouptitle:
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(39)!
    lineposition: 'string' #(40)!
    shadow: 'string' #(41)!
    size: number
    style: 'any' #(42)!
    textcase: 'any' #(43)!
    variant: 'any' #(44)!
    weight: 'integer' #(45)!
  text: 'string' #(46)!
legendrank: 'number' #(47)!
legendwidth: 'number' #(48)!
metasrc: 'string' #(49)!
name: 'string' #(50)!
opacity: 'number' #(51)!
source: 'string' #(52)!
stream:
  maxpoints: 'number' #(53)!
  token: 'string' #(54)!
text: 'array' #(55)!
textsrc: 'string' #(56)!
type: image
uid: 'string' #(57)!
visible: 'any' #(58)!
xaxis: 'string' #(59)!
yaxis: 'string' #(60)!
z: 'array' #(61)!
zmax: 'array' #(62)!
zmin: 'array' #(63)!
zorder: 'integer' #(64)!
zsmooth: 'any' #(65)!
zsrc: 'string' #(66)!

Color model used to map the numerical color components described in z into colors. If source is specified, this attribute will be set to rgba256 otherwise it defaults to rgb.
Assigns extra data each datum. This may be useful when listening to hover, click and selection events. Note that, scatter traces also appends customdata items in the markers DOM elements
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for customdata.
Set the pixel's horizontal size.
Set the pixel's vertical size
Determines which trace information appear on hover. If none or skip are set, no information is displayed upon hovering. But, if none is set, click and hover events are still fired.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for hoverinfo.
Sets the horizontal alignment of the text content within hover label box. Has an effect only if the hover label text spans more two or more lines
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for align.
Sets the background color of the hover labels for this trace
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for bgcolor.
Sets the border color of the hover labels for this trace.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for bordercolor.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for color.
HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for family.
Sets the kind of decoration line(s) with text, such as an under, over or through as well as combinations e.g. under+over, etc.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for lineposition.
Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for shadow.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for size.
Sets whether a font should be styled with a normal or italic face from its family.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for style.
Sets capitalization of text. It can be used to make text appear in all-uppercase or all-lowercase, or with each word capitalized.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for textcase.
Sets the variant of the font.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for variant.
Sets the weight (or boldness) of the font.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for weight.
Sets the default length (in number of characters) of the trace name in the hover labels for all traces. -1 shows the whole name regardless of length. 0-3 shows the first 0-3 characters, and an integer >3 will show the whole name if it is less than that many characters, but if it is longer, will truncate to namelength - 3 characters and add an ellipsis.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for namelength.
Template string used for rendering the information that appear on hover box. Note that this will override hoverinfo. Variables are inserted using %{variable}, for example "y: %{y}" as well as %{xother}, {%xother}, {%_xother}, {%xother_}. When showing info for several points, xother will be added to those with different x positions from the first point. An underscore before or after (x|y)other will add a space on that side, only when this field is shown. Numbers are formatted using d3-format's syntax %{variable:d3-format}, for example "Price: %{y:$.2f}". https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format for details on the formatting syntax. Dates are formatted using d3-time-format's syntax %{variable|d3-time-format}, for example "Day: %{2019-01-01|%A}". https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format for details on the date formatting syntax. The variables available in hovertemplate are the ones emitted as event data described at this link https://plotly.com/javascript/plotlyjs-events/#event-data. Additionally, every attributes that can be specified per-point (the ones that are arrayOk: true) are available. Finally, the template string has access to variables z, color and colormodel. Anything contained in tag <extra> is displayed in the secondary box, for example "{fullData.name}". To hide the secondary box completely, use an empty tag <extra></extra>.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for hovertemplate.
Same as text.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for hovertext.
Assigns id labels to each datum. These ids for object constancy of data points during animation. Should be an array of strings, not numbers or any other type.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for ids.
Sets the reference to a legend to show this trace in. References to these legends are legend, legend2, legend3, etc. Settings for these legends are set in the layout, under layout.legend, layout.legend2, etc.
HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
Sets the kind of decoration line(s) with text, such as an under, over or through as well as combinations e.g. under+over, etc.
Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
Sets whether a font should be styled with a normal or italic face from its family.
Sets capitalization of text. It can be used to make text appear in all-uppercase or all-lowercase, or with each word capitalized.
Sets the variant of the font.
Sets the weight (or boldness) of the font.
Sets the title of the legend group.
Sets the legend rank for this trace. Items and groups with smaller ranks are presented on top/left side while with reversed legend.traceorder they are on bottom/right side. The default legendrank is 1000, so that you can use ranks less than 1000 to place certain items before all unranked items, and ranks greater than 1000 to go after all unranked items. When having unranked or equal rank items shapes would be displayed after traces i.e. according to their order in data and layout.
Sets the width (in px or fraction) of the legend for this trace.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for meta.
Sets the trace name. The trace name appears as the legend item and on hover.
Sets the opacity of the trace.
Specifies the data URI of the image to be visualized. The URI consists of "data:image/[][;base64],"
Sets the maximum number of points to keep on the plots from an incoming stream. If maxpoints is set to 50, only the newest 50 points will be displayed on the plot.
The stream id number links a data trace on a plot with a stream. See https://chart-studio.plotly.com/settings for more details.
Sets the text elements associated with each z value.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for text.
Assign an id to this trace, Use this to provide object constancy between traces during animations and transitions.
Determines whether or not this trace is visible. If legendonly, the trace is not drawn, but can appear as a legend item (provided that the legend itself is visible).
Sets a reference between this trace's x coordinates and a 2D cartesian x axis. If x (the default value), the x coordinates refer to layout.xaxis. If x2, the x coordinates refer to layout.xaxis2, and so on.
Sets a reference between this trace's y coordinates and a 2D cartesian y axis. If y (the default value), the y coordinates refer to layout.yaxis. If y2, the y coordinates refer to layout.yaxis2, and so on.
A 2-dimensional array in which each element is an array of 3 or 4 numbers representing a color.
Array defining the higher bound for each color component. Note that the default value will depend on the colormodel. For the rgb colormodel, it is [255, 255, 255]. For the rgba colormodel, it is [255, 255, 255, 1]. For the rgba256 colormodel, it is [255, 255, 255, 255]. For the hsl colormodel, it is [360, 100, 100]. For the hsla colormodel, it is [360, 100, 100, 1].
Array defining the lower bound for each color component. Note that the default value will depend on the colormodel. For the rgb colormodel, it is [0, 0, 0]. For the rgba colormodel, it is [0, 0, 0, 0]. For the rgba256 colormodel, it is [0, 0, 0, 0]. For the hsl colormodel, it is [0, 0, 0]. For the hsla colormodel, it is [0, 0, 0, 0].
Sets the layer on which this trace is displayed, relative to other SVG traces on the same subplot. SVG traces with higher zorder appear in front of those with lower zorder.
Picks a smoothing algorithm used to smooth z data. This only applies for image traces that use the source attribute.
Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for z.