pix[x,y] returns integer instead of (R,G,B,A) tupel

Question

I have the following issue: I extract the different frames of a gif in several PNG files with:

def extractFrames(inGif, outFolder):
    frame = Image.open(inGif)
    nframes = 0
    while frame:
        frame.save( '%s/%s-%s.png' % (outFolder, os.path.basename(inGif), nframes ) , 'PNG')
        nframes += 1
        try:
            frame.seek( nframes )
        except EOFError:
            break;
    return True

That works as intended. However if I run the following piece of code:

im = Image.open(item) #item is one of the earlier created PNGs
pix = im.load()
for x in range(0,im.size[0]):
    for y in range(0,im.size[1]):
        print pix[x,y]

The output will be something like 13 or 3 instead of the intended (255, 255, 255, 255). Once I open the files in Paint and save them without modifying anything, the script runs just fine and outputs a tuple with (R, G, B, A).

So my question is: Why is that and how can I modify the code that I don't have to open all images manually before running the second part of the code?

Edit: I tried the whole thing initially with extracting the framess into GIFs instead of PNGs, with the same result.

Answer 1

Check the pixel format upon opening. If the image is palettized then add another bit that retrieves the color from the image palette.