# Loading an image in place
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276
**Category:** Performance
**Created:** [January 26, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276 "2026-01-26T20:51:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mj2984](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mj2984)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276/1 "2026-01-26T20:51:21Z")
Is there any method available in general libraries that can load images to a pre allocated array (to avoid allocations during runtime), assuming the user knows the image size (or pre allocates a larger array and fills a view of it). For videos there is a function VideoIO.read! that does this, but I’m unaware of any for images.
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### Author:  [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 10:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276/2 "2026-01-26T22:10:59Z")
What kind of image format?
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### Author:  [@mj2984](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mj2984)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276/3 "2026-01-26T22:17:33Z")
Hopefully, as many formats as possible. For starters, uncompressed formats like portable graytone map.
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### Author:  [@noetheriankoala](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/noetheriankoala)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276/5 "2026-01-26T22:22:31Z")
Have you looked into [memory-mapped IO](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/Mmap/)? Whether this is what you want will depend on the format of your image; I suggest providing more detail in your question (see [here](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/please-read-make-it-easier-to-help-you/14757)).
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### Author:  [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/loading-an-image-in-place/135276/6 "2026-01-26T22:50:03Z")
GDAL reads pretty much everything and it requires that a pre-allocated buffer is passed in to store the image. So, I guess ArchGDAL.jl and GMT.jl ([gdalread](https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/GMTjl_doc/documentation/gdalfuns/gdalread.html) function, but this is only from memory) should fill your condition.