Image

Decode, transform, and encode images with a fast native pipeline

Bun.Image is a chainable image pipeline for decoding, resizing, rotating, and re-encoding JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, and AVIF — built on libjpeg-turbo, spng, libwebp, and SIMD geometry kernels, with zero npm dependencies and no native addon build step.

await Bun.file("photo.jpg").image().resize(400, 400, { fit: "inside" }).webp({ quality: 80 }).write("thumb.webp");

The API is shaped after Sharp: construct from an input, chain transforms, pick an output format, then await a terminal method. Nothing runs until the terminal is awaited, and the work executes off the JavaScript thread.

Input

The constructor accepts a path, bytes, or a Blob — including Bun.file() and Bun.s3(). Blob#image() is shorthand for new Bun.Image(blob):

new Bun.Image("./photo.jpg"); // file path
new Bun.Image(buffer); // Buffer / ArrayBuffer / TypedArray
new Bun.Image(Bun.file("photo.jpg")); // BunFile (read lazily, off-thread)
Bun.file("photo.jpg").image(); // same as above
Bun.s3("bucket/photo.jpg").image(); // S3File

The format is sniffed from the bytes — extensions and Content-Type are ignored.

Path strings are filesystem paths. Don’t pass user-controlled strings directly to the constructor — that’s an arbitrary-file-read primitive. Read untrusted input into a Buffer (e.g. via fetch/Bun.file with your own validation) and pass the bytes.

When passing a TypedArray/ArrayBuffer, don’t mutate it while a terminal is pending — decode runs off-thread and borrows the bytes. SharedArrayBuffer and resizable buffers are refused; use buf.slice() to pass a fixed view.

A second options argument guards against decompression bombs and controls EXIF handling:

new Bun.Image(input, {
  // Reject if width*height > this. Checked after reading the header,
  // before allocating the pixel buffer. Default matches Sharp (~268 MP).
  maxPixels: 4096 * 4096,
  // Apply JPEG EXIF Orientation before any other op. Default: true.
  autoOrient: true,
});

Metadata

Read width, height, and format without decoding pixel data:

const { width, height, format } = await new Bun.Image(input).metadata();
// => { width: 1920, height: 1080, format: "jpeg" }

Resize

img.resize(800); // width 800, keep aspect ratio
img.resize(800, 600); // exactly 800×600 (stretch)
img.resize(800, 600, { fit: "inside" }); // fit within 800×600
img.resize(800, 600, { withoutEnlargement: true }); // never upscale
img.resize(800, 600, { filter: "mitchell" });

fit	Behavior
"fill" (default)	Stretch to exactly width × height
"inside"	Preserve aspect ratio; result fits within the box

filter selects the resampling kernel. The default "lanczos3" is the right choice for photographs.

Filter	Use when
"lanczos3" (default)	General-purpose, sharpest for photos
"lanczos2"	Slightly softer, fewer ringing artifacts
"mitchell"	Smooth gradients; the classic bicubic compromise
"cubic"	Catmull-Rom — sharper than Mitchell, can ring
"mks2013" / "mks2021"	”Magic Kernel Sharp”; used by Facebook/Instagram
"bilinear" / "linear"	Fast, soft
"box"	Area-average; good for large integer downscales
"nearest"	Pixel art / hard edges

When the source is a JPEG and the target is at most half the source size, decode skips straight to the nearest M/8 IDCT scale, so generating a thumbnail from a 24 MP photo never materializes the full-resolution buffer.

Rotate · flip

img.rotate(90); // 90° clockwise (multiples of 90 only)
img.flip(); // mirror vertically (about the x-axis)
img.flop(); // mirror horizontally (about the y-axis)

Modulate

img.modulate({
  brightness: 1.2, // 1 = unchanged
  saturation: 0, // 0 = greyscale, 1 = unchanged, >1 = boost
});

Output formats

Calling a format method sets the encode target; without one, the source format is reused.

img.jpeg({ quality: 85 }); // 1–100, default 80
img.png({ compressionLevel: 6 }); // zlib level 0–9
img.png({ palette: true, colors: 64, dither: true }); // indexed PNG
img.webp({ quality: 80 });
img.webp({ lossless: true });
img.heic({ quality: 80 }); // macOS / Windows only
img.avif({ quality: 60 }); // macOS / Windows only

palette: true quantizes to a ≤256-color palette and emits an indexed (color-type 3) PNG, optionally with Floyd–Steinberg dither. This is typically 3–5× smaller than truecolor for screenshots and UI assets.

Terminals

A pipeline does no work until one of these is awaited:

await img.bytes(); // Uint8Array
await img.buffer(); // Buffer
await img.blob(); // Blob with .type set to the output MIME
await img.toBase64(); // string
await img.dataurl(); // "data:image/png;base64,…"
await img.write("out.webp"); // number (bytes written)
await img.write(Bun.s3("bucket/out.webp"));

.write() accepts the same destinations as Bun.write — a path string, Bun.file(), Bun.s3(), or an fd. If you didn’t chain a format method and the destination is a path string, the extension picks one (.jpg/.png/.webp/.heic/.avif).

Placeholders

For a low-quality placeholder to inline in HTML before the real image loads, .placeholder() returns a ThumbHash-rendered ≤32px blur as a data: URL — ~400–700 bytes, no client-side decoder needed:

const lqip = await Bun.file("hero.jpg").image().placeholder();
// <img src={lqip} … /> — then swap to the real URL on load.

For coarse-to-fine rendering of the image itself, encode a progressive JPEG:

img.jpeg({ progressive: true });

After the first terminal resolves, img.width and img.height reflect the output dimensions (they’re -1 before).

Bun.serve integration

A Bun.Image pipeline is a valid Response body and sets Content-Type automatically. To keep the encode off the JS thread in a server handler, await a terminal first:

Bun.serve({
  routes: {
    "/avatar/:id": async req => {
      // Validate before touching the filesystem (see the Input note above).
      if (!/^[a-z0-9]+$/.test(req.params.id)) return new Response(null, { status: 400 });
      const out = await Bun.file(`avatars/${req.params.id}.png`).image().resize(128, 128).webp().blob();
      return new Response(out);
    },
  },
});

Passing the pipeline directly (new Response(img)) also works, but currently runs the encode synchronously during body init.

Clipboard

const img = Bun.Image.fromClipboard();
if (img) {
  const png = await img.resize(800, 800, { fit: "inside" }).png().bytes();
}

fromClipboard() reads PNG, TIFF, HEIC, JPEG, WebP, GIF, or BMP from the system pasteboard on macOS and Windows; the regular decode pipeline takes it from there. Returns null if there’s no image, and always null on Linux — call wl-paste/xclip yourself and pass the bytes to the constructor.

For a passive “image in clipboard, press ⌘V” hint, poll clipboardChangeCount() (a single integer read) and call hasClipboardImage() only when it moves; macOS has no clipboard-change notification, so this is the documented pattern.

Platform backends

	Linux	macOS	Windows
JPEG / PNG / WebP	libjpeg-turbo · spng · libwebp	same	same
BMP / GIF (decode)	built-in	ImageIO	WIC
TIFF (decode)	❌	ImageIO	WIC
Resize / rotate / flip	Highway SIMD	Accelerate vImage	Highway SIMD
HEIC / AVIF	❌ ERR_IMAGE_FORMAT_UNSUPPORTED	ImageIO ²	WIC ¹
Clipboard	❌ returns null	NSPasteboard	Win32

¹ Windows requires the HEIF Image Extensions / AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store. ² AVIF encode needs an OS AV1 encoder — Apple Silicon M3+ only. Intel Mac and M1/M2 reject with ERR_IMAGE_FORMAT_UNSUPPORTED; AVIF decode works everywhere ImageIO does (macOS 13+).

When a system-backend format isn’t available on the current machine, the terminal rejects with error.code === "ERR_IMAGE_FORMAT_UNSUPPORTED" — branch on that to fall back to a portable format:

const out = await img
  .avif({ quality: 50 })
  .bytes()
  .catch(e => {
    if (e.code === "ERR_IMAGE_FORMAT_UNSUPPORTED") return img.webp({ quality: 80 }).bytes();
    throw e;
  });

Formats handled by the system backend (TIFF, HEIC, AVIF, clipboard) inherit the OS’s patch level — keep macOS / Windows updated. JPEG, PNG, and WebP go through the same statically-linked codecs on every platform, so encoded output is byte-identical across Linux, macOS, and Windows. To force the portable Highway path for geometry too — e.g. for golden-image tests — set the process-global backend:

Bun.Image.backend = "bun"; // default is "system" on macOS/Windows