Convert Digital Images into 'SpatRaster' Objects.

rasterpic

rasterpic is a tiny package with one single goal: to transform an image into a SpatRaster object (see ?terra::SpatRaster).

Installation

Install rasterpic from CRAN:

install.packages("rasterpic")

You can install the developing version of rasterpic with:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("dieghernan/rasterpic")

Alternatively, you can install rasterpic using the r-universe:

# Install rasterpic in R:
install.packages("rasterpic",
  repos = c(
    "https://dieghernan.r-universe.dev",
    "https://cloud.r-project.org"
  )
)

Example

This package allows you to create cool maps by using a wide variety of objects:

• Spatial object created with the sf package: sf, sfc, sfg or bbox.
• Spatial objects created with the terra package: SpatRaster, SpatVector, SpatExtent.
• A vector of coordinates with the form c(xmin, ymin, xmax, yman)

An example using an sf object:

library(rasterpic)
library(sf)
library(terra)

# The flag of the United Kingdom
img <- system.file("img/UK_flag.png", package = "rasterpic")
uk <- read_sf(system.file("gpkg/UK.gpkg", package = "rasterpic"))


class(uk)
#> [1] "sf"         "tbl_df"     "tbl"        "data.frame"

# Rasterize!
uk_flag <- rasterpic_img(uk, img)

uk_flag
#> class       : SpatRaster 
#> dimensions  : 400, 800, 3  (nrow, ncol, nlyr)
#> resolution  : 5398.319, 5398.319  (x, y)
#> extent      : -2542183, 1776472, 6430573, 8589900  (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax)
#> coord. ref. : WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (EPSG:3857) 
#> source(s)   : memory
#> colors RGB  : 1, 2, 3 
#> names       :   r,   g,   b 
#> min values  :   0,  14,  35 
#> max values  : 255, 255, 255

# Plot it!
# Using ggplot2 + tidyterra
library(tidyterra)
library(ggplot2)

autoplot(uk_flag) +
  geom_sf(data = uk, color = alpha("blue", 0.5))

We can also play with other parameters, as well as modifying the alignment of the image with respect to the object:

# Align, crop and mask
uk_flag2 <- rasterpic_img(uk, img, halign = 0.2, crop = TRUE, mask = TRUE)

autoplot(uk_flag2) +
  geom_sf(data = uk, fill = NA)

Image formats admitted

rasterpic can parse the following image formats:

• png files.
• jpg/jpeg files.
• tif/tiff files.

Citation

Hernangómez D (2025). rasterpic: Convert Digital Images into SpatRaster Objects. doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.rasterpic, https://dieghernan.github.io/rasterpic/.

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is:

@Manual{R-rasterpic,
  title = {{rasterpic}: Convert Digital Images into {SpatRaster} Objects},
  doi = {10.32614/CRAN.package.rasterpic},
  author = {Diego Hernangómez},
  year = {2025},
  version = {0.3.0},
  url = {https://dieghernan.github.io/rasterpic/},
  abstract = {Generate SpatRaster objects, as defined by the terra package, from digital images, using a specified spatial object as a geographical reference.},
}

Contributors

All contributions to this project are gratefully acknowledged using the allcontributors package following the allcontributors specification. Contributions of any kind are welcome!

Code

dieghernan

Issues

rhijmans.