how to run tiff images?

how to run tiff images through matlab. i am getting this error while executing. my image size is more than 500 MB.

Error using rtifc

Maximum variable size allowed by the program is exceeded.

Error in readtif (line 48)

[X, map, details] = rtifc(args);

Error in imread (line 415)

[X, map] = feval(fmt_s.read, filename, extraArgs{:});

Error in tiff (line 1)

x = imread('test_046.tif', 'tif');

Answer 1

[Vedant Shah]

Hi @NAVNISH GOEL,

This error message typically arises when MATLAB attempts to load a very large TIFF image entirely into memory, exceeding the allowable size for a single variable. This limit depends on the operating system, MATLAB version, and available system memory. Additional details on maximum allowed variable size can be found in the following MATLAB Central discussion:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/59747-maximum-variable-size-allowed-by-the-program-is-exceeded

To address this issue, we can access the image incrementally rather than loading it in full. MATLAB’s low-level “Tiff” class provides a suitable approach by enabling tile-by-tile or strip-by-strip reading, thereby conserving memory.

Below is a code snippet demonstrating how to read a TIFF image in strips which works well on a sample 625MB TIFF image:

t = imread('test_046.tif', 'tiff'); 
% Get image metadata 
imageInfo = imfinfo(' test_046.tif'); 
rowsPerStrip = t.getTag('RowsPerStrip'); 
imageHeight = imageInfo.Height; 
imageWidth = imageInfo.Width; 
numChannels = t.getTag('SamplesPerPixel'); 
% Preallocate full image array 
fullImage = zeros(imageHeight, imageWidth, numChannels, 'uint16'); 
% Read image strip by strip 
for row = 1:rowsPerStrip:imageHeight 
    stripIndex = ceil(row / rowsPerStrip); 
    strip = t.readEncodedStrip(stripIndex); 
    numRows = size(strip, 1); 
    fullImage(row:row+numRows-1, :, :) = strip; 
end 
t.close(); 

For more information, refer to the following documentation of “tiff” and “imfinfo” used in the above code snippet:

• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/tiff.html
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/imfinfo.html