How to load a base64-encoded image in LabVIEW?

[Harris Hu]

I received some image data from a web API in Base64 format. Is there a way to load it into LabVIEW without generating a local file?

There are many images to display, and converting them to local files would be cumbersome.

base64.txt is a simple example of the returned data.

image/jpeg

base64.txt

[ensegre]

I haven't tried any of them, but these are the first 3 results popping up from a web search:
https://forums.ni.com/t5/Example-Code/LabVIEW-Utility-VIs-for-Base64-and-Base32Hex-Encoding-Using/ta-p/3491477
https://www.vipm.io/package/labview_open_source_project_lib_serializer_base64/

https://github.com/LabVIEW-Open-Source/Serializer.Addons (apparently the repo of the code of the previous one)

Edited January 8 by ensegre
typo

[ShaunR]

2 hours ago, Harris Hu said:

I received some image data from a web API in Base64 format. Is there a way to load it into LabVIEW without generating a local file?

There are many images to display, and converting them to local files would be cumbersome.

base64.txt is a simple example of the returned data.

image/jpeg

base64.txt 4.3 kB · 1 download

LabVIEW can only draw PNG from a binary string using the PNG Data to LV Image VI. (You'd need to base64 decode the string first)

I think there are some hacky .NET solutions kicking around that should be able to do JPG if you are using Windows.

[Neil Pate]

The Weather Station example that ships with LabVIEW shows a bit of this.

 

but the data is not Base64, its just a pure characters,

 

Edited January 8 by Neil Pate

[ensegre]

As for converting jpg streams in memory, very long time ago I have used https://forums.ni.com/t5/Example-Code/jpeg-string-to-picture/ta-p/3529632 (windows only).
At the end of the discussion thread there, @dadreamer refers to https://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/Convert-JPEG-image-in-memory-to-Imaq-Image/m-p/3786705#M51129, which links to an alternative WinAPI way.

[Harris Hu]

39 minutes ago, Neil Pate said:

LabVIEW 自带的气象站示例就展示了这一点。

 

但这些数据并非Base64编码，而只是纯字符数据。

 

This is acceptable.

[ensegre]

You could also check https://github.com/ISISSynchGroup/mjpeg-reader  which provides a .Net solution (not tried).

So, who volunteers for something working on linux?

[ShaunR]

On 1/8/2026 at 3:17 PM, ensegre said:

You could also check https://github.com/ISISSynchGroup/mjpeg-reader  which provides a .Net solution (not tried).

So, who volunteers for something working on linux?

There is an example shipped with LabVIEW called "Image Compression with DCT". If one added the colour-space conversion, quantization and changed the order of encoding (entropy encoding) and Huffman RLE you'd have a JPG [En/De]coder.

That'd work on all platforms 

Not volunteering; just saying 

Edited January 11 by ShaunR

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

On 1/11/2026 at 11:43 AM, ShaunR said:

There is an example shipped with LabVIEW called "Image Compression with DCT". If one added the colour-space conversion, quantization and changed the order of encoding (entropy encoding) and Huffman RLE you'd have a JPG [En/De]coder.

That'd work on all platforms 

Not volunteering; just saying 

You make it sound trivial when you list it like that. 😁

[ShaunR]

28 minutes ago, Rolf Kalbermatter said:

You make it sound trivial when you list it like that. 😁

While we are waiting for Hooovah to give us a huffman decoder  ...

most of the rest seem to be here: Cosine Transform (DCT), sample quantization, and Huffman coding and here: LabVIEW Colour Lab

Edited January 12 by ShaunR

[hooovahh]

On 1/12/2026 at 8:57 AM, ShaunR said:

While we are waiting for Hooovah to give us a huffman decoder  ...

 

😅 You might be waiting a while, I'm mostly interested in compression, not decompression.  That being said in the post I made, there is a VI called Process Huffman Tree and Process Data - Inflate Test under the Sandbox folder.  I found it on the NI forums at some point and thought it was neat but I wasn't ready to use it yet.  It isn't complete obviously but does the walking through of bits of the tree, to bytes.

EDIT: Here is the post on NI's forums I found it on.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

On 1/12/2026 at 2:57 PM, ShaunR said:

While we are waiting for Hooovah to give us a huffman decoder  ...

most of the rest seem to be here: Cosine Transform (DCT), sample quantization, and Huffman coding and here: LabVIEW Colour Lab

You seem to have done all the pre-research already. Are you really not wanting to volunteer? 😁

[ensegre]

I haven't yet really looked into, but why not just wrapping libjpeg, instead of endeavoring the didactic exercise of G-reinventing of the wheel?

[ShaunR]

19 minutes ago, Rolf Kalbermatter said:

You seem to have done all the pre-research already. Are you really not wanting to volunteer? 😁

Nope. It needs someone better than I.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

6 minutes ago, ShaunR said:

Nope. It needs someone better than I.

I can understand that sentiment. I'm also just doing some shit that I barely can understand.🤫

[ensegre]

Uhm.
 
This is G-image. Am I missing something?

Edited January 13 by ensegre

[ShaunR]

55 minutes ago, ensegre said:

Uhm.
 
This is G-image. Am I missing something?

OP is using LV2019.

Nice tool though. Shame they don't ship the C source for the DLL but they do have it on their github repository.

Edited January 13 by ShaunR

[ensegre]

11 minutes ago, ShaunR said:

OP is using LV2019.

Where do you get that from?

[ensegre]

So in LV>=20,

using OpenSerializer.Base64 and G-Image. That simple.

Linux just does not have IMAQ. Well, who said that the result should be an IMAQ image?

Edited January 13 by ensegre

[Harris Hu]

8 hours ago, ensegre said:

So in LV>=20,

using OpenSerializer.Base64 and G-Image. That simple.

Linux just does not have IMAQ. Well, who said that the result should be an IMAQ image?

This is excellent.