Textures and images

raylib distinguishes two related types: Image is CPU-side pixel data (a heap-allocated buffer you can read and modify without a GPU or a window), and Texture2D is a GPU-side handle created by uploading an Image. The typical flow is: generate or load an Image, manipulate it, then call load_texture_from_image on RaylibHandle to push it to the GPU.

Both types are RAII resources — they clean up automatically on drop (see RAII and resources).

API surface

Image::load_image — load an image file from disk; returns Result<Image, …>.
Image::gen_image_color — generate a solid-color image in memory; no window needed.
Image::gen_image_perlin_noise — procedural Perlin-noise image.
Image::draw — CPU-side blit of one image onto another.
Image::get_color — read a single pixel's Color by (x, y).
RaylibHandle::load_texture_from_image — upload an Image to the GPU as a Texture2D; requires a window + thread token.
RenderTexture2D — off-screen render target; used for render-to-texture workflows.
RaylibDraw::draw_texture — draw a Texture2D at a position with a tint color.

Example

CPU-side image operations (generation and pixel read-back) work without a window or GPU. The example below generates a red image and asserts a pixel value — no display required.

rust

# extern crate raylib;
use raylib::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    // Generate a 64×64 solid-red Image entirely in CPU memory.
    let img = Image::gen_image_color(64, 64, Color::RED);

    // Read back a pixel and verify its color.
    let pixel = img.get_color(32, 32);
    assert_eq!(pixel.r, 255);
    assert_eq!(pixel.g, 0);
    assert_eq!(pixel.b, 0);
    // `img` is dropped here; UnloadImage is called automatically.
}

Uploading to the GPU requires a window:

rust,no_run

# extern crate raylib;
use raylib::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    let (mut rl, thread) = raylib::init()
        .size(640, 480)
        .title("Texture demo")
        .build();

    let img = Image::gen_image_color(64, 64, Color::BLUE);
    // load_texture_from_image uploads to GPU; img can be dropped afterwards.
    let tex = rl.load_texture_from_image(&thread, &img).unwrap();
    drop(img); // CPU buffer freed; GPU copy lives on in `tex`.

    while !rl.window_should_close() {
        let mut d = rl.begin_drawing(&thread);
        d.clear_background(Color::RAYWHITE);
        d.draw_texture(&tex, 100, 100, Color::WHITE);
    }
}

Gotchas

Image is CPU; Texture2D is GPU. You cannot modify a Texture2D directly. If you need per-frame CPU edits, keep the Image, modify it, and re-upload with update_texture.
RenderTexture2D Y-flip on readback. The WS4 headless harness reads the software-renderer framebuffer as BGRA with Y-inverted rows and then normalises it for you. If you use load_image_from_screen directly, be aware of the GL-style bottom-left origin. See notes/ws4b-complete.md.
Memory-leak fix in 6.0. export_image_to_memory had a leak in 5.x (backlog #247). It was fixed by PR #250 in WS3 — the buffer is now wrapped as ManuallyDrop<Box<[u8]>> and freed correctly.

Textures and images

Textures and images

API surface

Example

Gotchas

See also

Showcase examples