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ImagePad[image,m]

pads image on all sides with m background pixels.

ImagePad[image,m,padding]

pads image on all sides using the value or method specified by padding.

ImagePad[image,{{left,right},{bottom,top}},…]

pads image with the specified numbers of pixels on each side.

ImagePad[image,{{left,right},{front,back},{bottom,top}},…]

pads a 3D image with the specified numbers of pixels.

ImagePad[video,…]

pads frames of video.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Data  
Size  
Padding  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Workflows
History
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ImagePad

ImagePad[image,m]

pads image on all sides with m background pixels.

ImagePad[image,m,padding]

pads image on all sides using the value or method specified by padding.

ImagePad[image,{{left,right},{bottom,top}},…]

pads image with the specified numbers of pixels on each side.

ImagePad[image,{{left,right},{front,back},{bottom,top}},…]

pads a 3D image with the specified numbers of pixels.

ImagePad[video,…]

pads frames of video.

Details

  • ImagePad is typically used to add a frame around or extend beyond an image.
  • The following forms of padding can be specified:
  • zan intensity value
    colora color (GrayLevel, RGBColor, etc.)
    {c1,c2,…}list of channel values
    Automaticautomatic choice based on the boundary
    "Fixed"repetitions of the pixels on each boundary
    "Periodic"cyclic repetitions of the complete image
    "Reflected"reflections of the image in the boundary
    "Reversed"reversals of the complete image
    "TextureSynthesis"texture synthesis based on the complete image
    {"TextureSynthesis",mask}texture synthesis based on the specified mask
  • With {"TextureSynthesis",texturemask}, texturemask can be one of the following:
  • nuse an n-pixel-wide border for padding
    Scaled[s]use fraction s of pixel dimension on each side
    maskimagea binary mask specifying the region to use for padding
  • The padding value "Fixed" indicates that the rectangles of pixels added at each corner should be copies of the pixels at the corners of the original image.
  • "Reversed" indicates that the outermost layer of pixels in the image should be repeated as the innermost layer of pixels in the padding. "Reflected" specifies that these pixels should not be repeated.
  • ImagePad[image,…] typically gives an image that has the same type as image. Padding a binary image with arbitrary intensity or color pixels typically returns an image of a real type.
  • ImagePad[image,-m] removes m pixels from each side of image.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (2)

Pad an image:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 20]

Pad using the fixed padding scheme:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 20, "Fixed"]

Scope  (7)

Data  (3)

Pad an image equally on all sides:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 10]

Pad frames of a video:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[Video["ExampleData/fish.mp4"], 10]

Pad a 3D image:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 10]

Size  (1)

Pad with a uniform border width of 10 pixels:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 10]

Specify different paddings on each side:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, {{5, 10}, {20, 40}}]

Crop an image by specifying negative padding size:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, -10]

Padding  (3)

Specify the padding color:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 20, Red]

Use fixed padding:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 20, "Fixed"]

Use reflected padding:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 20, "Reflected"]

Use periodic padding:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 20, "Periodic"]

If an image already has a fairly constant frame, the mean frame color is used for Automatic padding:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 20, Automatic]

Without a constant color frame, black padding is used:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 20, Automatic]

Pad using texture synthesis:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 15, "TextureSynthesis"]

Select padding texture elements from a 10-pixel-wide border:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 30, {"TextureSynthesis", 10}]

Select padding texture elements from a specified fraction of pixel dimension on each side:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 30, {"TextureSynthesis", Scaled[0.25]}]

Use the butterfly to synthesize a texture for the border pixels:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 30, {"TextureSynthesis", [image]}]

Use the background to synthesize texture:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 30, {"TextureSynthesis", ColorNegate[Dilation[[image], 15]]}]

By default, zero padding is used:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 5]

Specify different padding sizes for each side:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, {{0, 0}, {0, 0}, {10, 10}}]

Specify the padding color:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 1, Red]

Use periodic padding:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 17, "Periodic"]

Applications  (4)

Add an image frame using different padding schemes:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 15{{1, 1}, {1, 1}}, #]& /@ {0.5, Red, {.2, .8, .2}, "Fixed", "Periodic", "Reflected", "Reversed", "TextureSynthesis", {"TextureSynthesis", [image]}}

Create a tiled image using periodic padding:

Wolfram Language code: i = ImagePad[[image], 1, 1]; {w, h} = ImageDimensions[i];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 2{{0, w}, {0, h}}, "Periodic"]

Detect and remove almost uniform borders of an image:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: BorderDimensions[i, .1]

Remove the border:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, -%]

Synthesize texture using a pattern:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 100, "TextureSynthesis"]

Properties & Relations  (3)

When padding a grayscale image with a color, a color image is returned:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], 5, Brown]
Wolfram Language code: ImageColorSpace[%]

ImagePad only changes the border of an image:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 5, "TextureSynthesis"]

Use Inpaint to fill regions inside an image:

Wolfram Language code: Inpaint[i, [image]]

ImagePad adds or removes a number of pixels on the sides:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[[image], {{20, 20}, {-20, -20}}, Padding -> Yellow]

Use ImageCrop to specify the output dimensions:

Wolfram Language code: ImageCrop[[image], {190, 62}, Padding -> Yellow]

Possible Issues  (1)

By default, texture synthesis may select any pixels of the image. This may introduce undesired parts:

Wolfram Language code: i = [image];
Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 40, "TextureSynthesis"]

Specify the region from which padding texture elements are selected, using a mask:

Wolfram Language code: ImagePad[i, 40, {"TextureSynthesis", [image]}]
Wolfram Research (2008), ImagePad, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html (updated 2021).

Text

Wolfram Research (2008), ImagePad, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html (updated 2021).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2008. "ImagePad." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2021. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2008). ImagePad. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_imagepad, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ImagePad}", year="2021", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html}", note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_imagepad, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ImagePad}, year={2021}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImagePad.html}, note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}