How to save a WPF BitmapSource image to a file? - wpf

Question

In WPF, the System.Windows.Clipboard.getImage() function returns a BitmapSource object. As a newbie in WPF coming from a WinForms background, its not clear to me how to save this image to a file. What are the steps I must take?

Answer 1

You need to use an encoder (subclass of BitmapEncoder). For instance, to save it to the PNG format, you do something like that :
public static void SaveClipboardImageToFile(string filePath)
{
var image = Clipboard.GetImage();
using (var fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create))
{
BitmapEncoder encoder = new PngBitmapEncoder();
encoder.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(image));
encoder.Save(fileStream);
}
}
By the way, note that there's a bug in Clipboard.GetImage. It shouldn't be a problem if you just save the image to a file, but it will be if you want to display it.
EDIT : the bug mentioned above seems to be fixed in 4.0

Answer 2

This clears up the BitmapFrame.Create issue that you have.
public static void SaveClipboardImageToFile(string filePath)
{
//var image = Clipboard.GetImage();
BitmapSource image = (BitmapSource)Clipboard.GetImage();
using (var fileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create))
{
BitmapEncoder encoder = new PngBitmapEncoder();
//encoder.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(image));
encoder.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(image As BitmapSource));
encoder.Save(fileStream);
}
}