#
Load image data

Image datasets are loaded from the `image` column, which contains a PIL object.

To work with image datasets, you need to have the `vision` dependency installed. Check out the installation guide to learn how to install it.

When you load an image dataset and call the `image` column, the Image feature automatically decodes the PIL object into an image:

    >>> from datasets import load_dataset, Image

    >>> dataset = load_dataset("beans", split="train")
    >>> dataset[0]["image"]

Index into an image dataset using the row index first and then the `image` column - `dataset[0]["image"]` - to avoid decoding and resampling all the image objects in the dataset. Otherwise, this can be a slow and time-consuming process if you have a large dataset.

For a guide on how to load any type of dataset, take a look at the general loading guide.

##
Local files

You can load a dataset from the image path. Use the cast_column() function to accept a column of image file paths, and decode it into a PIL image with the Image feature:

    >>> from datasets import load_dataset, Image

    >>> dataset = Dataset.from_dict({"image": ["path/to/image_1", "path/to/image_2", ..., "path/to/image_n"]}).cast_column("image", Image())
    >>> dataset[0]["image"]
    <PIL.PngImagePlugin.PngImageFile image mode=RGBA size=1200x215 at 0x15E6D7160>]

If you only want to load the underlying path to the image dataset without decoding the image object, set `decode=False` in the Image feature:

    >>> dataset = load_dataset("beans", split="train").cast_column("image", Image(decode=False))
    >>> dataset[0]["image"]
    {'bytes': None,
     'path': '/root/.cache/huggingface/datasets/downloads/extracted/b0a21163f78769a2cf11f58dfc767fb458fc7cea5c05dccc0144a2c0f0bc1292/train/bean_rust/bean_rust_train.29.jpg'}

##
ImageFolder

You can also load a dataset with an `ImageFolder` dataset builder which does not require writing a custom dataloader. This makes `ImageFolder` ideal for quickly creating and loading image datasets with several thousand images for different vision tasks. Your image dataset structure should look like this:

    folder/train/dog/golden_retriever.png
    folder/train/dog/german_shepherd.png
    folder/train/dog/chihuahua.png

    folder/train/cat/maine_coon.png
    folder/train/cat/bengal.png
    folder/train/cat/birman.png

Load your dataset by specifying `imagefolder` and the directory of your dataset in `data_dir`:

    >>> from datasets import load_dataset

    >>> dataset = load_dataset("imagefolder", data_dir="/path/to/folder")
    >>> dataset["train"][0]
    {"image": <PIL.PngImagePlugin.PngImageFile image mode=RGBA size=1200x215 at 0x15E6D7160>, "label": 0}

    >>> dataset["train"][-1]
    {"image": <PIL.PngImagePlugin.PngImageFile image mode=RGBA size=1200x215 at 0x15E8DAD30>, "label": 1}

Load remote datasets from their URLs with the `data_files` parameter:

    >>> dataset = load_dataset("imagefolder", data_files="https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/E/1/3E1C3F21-ECDB-4869-8368-6DEBA77B919F/kagglecatsanddogs_3367a.zip", split="train")

Some datasets have a metadata file (`metadata.csv`/`metadata.jsonl`) associated with it, containing other information about the data like bounding boxes, text captions, and labels. The metadata is automatically loaded when you call load_dataset() and specify `imagefolder`.

To ignore the information in the metadata file, set `drop_labels=False` in load_dataset(), and allow `ImageFolder` to automatically infer the label name from the directory name:

    >>> from datasets import load_dataset

    >>> dataset = load_dataset("imagefolder", data_dir="/path/to/folder", drop_labels=False)

For more information about creating your own `ImageFolder` dataset, take a look at the Create an image dataset guide.