Drawing a really large binary matrix as colored grid

Question

I have a 50x300 binary marix, which I want to display as a colored grid. I tried the approaches of drawing a large binary matrix as colored grid which I like, but

• the approach using pgfplots table is too large, resizebox results in an out of memory error and I couldn't find an appropriate solution to adjust the cell size of the table in pgfplotsset. setting the fontsize as tinz as possible did not suffice, and
• the tikz-matrix approach results in a compile timeout.

I have really no idea what to do now.. Increasing the memory assignment seems too hacky for me, isn't there a more elegant option? I also would like to stick to the pgfplots approach..

Answer 1

If you want efficiency, primitive is generally better. Note, the Op for this question specified tikz in the solution.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\newlength{\cellwidth}
\newlength{\cellheight}
\let\END=\eof

\newcommand{\colormatrix}[1]% #1 = binary matrix
{\parbox{\CMcolumns\cellwidth}{%
  \baselineskip=\cellheight
  \lineskip=0pt
  \def\one{1}%
  \def\zero{0}%
  \bgroup
    \countdef\col=1
    \col=0
    \CMParse#1\END
  \egroup
}}

\def\CMParse#1{\ifx#1\END\else
  \if#1\one\relax{\color{\onecolor}\rule{\cellwidth}{\cellheight}}\fi
  \if#1\zero\relax{\color{\zerocolor}\rule{\cellwidth}{\cellheight}}\fi
  \advance\col by 1
  \ifnum\col<\CMcolumns\relax\else
    \hfil
    \col=0
  \fi
\expandafter\CMParse\fi}% expand \fi first

\newcommand{\setcolormatrix}[6]% #1=width, #2=height, #3=number columns, #4=number rows, #5=one color, #6=zero color
{\global\cellwidth=\dimexpr #1/#3\relax
 \global\cellheight=\dimexpr #2/#4\relax
 \global\def\CMcolumns{#3}%
 \global\def\onecolor{#5}%
 \global\def\zerocolor{#6}%
}

\begin{document}
\setcolormatrix{1in}{1in}{11}{7}{blue}{yellow}%
\colormatrix{%
10110101010
10010101010
01010111010
11110010100
01100011001
11101010111
10101010111}

\end{document}

---

The file image.tex (created by the editor) consists of

10110101010
10010101010
01010111010
11110010100
01100011001
11101010111
10101010111

and the updated solution is given by

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\newlength{\cellwidth}
\newlength{\cellheight}
\newread\imagefile
\let\END=\eof

\newcommand{\colormatrix}[1]% #1 = filename
{\parbox{\CMcolumns\cellwidth}{%
  \baselineskip=\cellheight
  \lineskip=0pt
  \def\one{1}%
  \def\zero{0}%
  \def\empty{\par}%
  \openin\imagefile=#1
  \loop\ifeof\imagefile\else
    \read\imagefile to \buffer%
    \ifx\buffer\empty\relax\else
      \expandafter\CMParse\buffer\END
      \hfil
    \fi
  \repeat
  \closein\imagefile
}}

\long\def\CMParse#1{\ifx#1\END\else
  \if#1\one\relax{\color{\onecolor}\rule{\cellwidth}{\cellheight}}\fi
  \if#1\zero\relax{\color{\zerocolor}\rule{\cellwidth}{\cellheight}}\fi
\expandafter\CMParse\fi}% expand \fi first

\newcommand{\setcolormatrix}[6]% #1=width, #2=height, #3=number columns, #4=number rows, #5=one color, #6=zero color
{\global\cellwidth=\dimexpr #1/#3\relax
 \global\cellheight=\dimexpr #2/#4\relax
 \global\def\CMcolumns{#3}%
 \global\def\onecolor{#5}%
 \global\def\zerocolor{#6}%
}

\begin{document}
\setcolormatrix{1in}{1in}{11}{7}{blue}{yellow}%
\colormatrix{image}

\end{document}

Answer 2

This is MWE using Asymptote:

The sample 30x500 file was generated with

// 
// "gendata.asy" :
//
int m=30, n=500;
file fout=output("binmatrix.txt");
srand(1717177);
string s;
for(int i=0;i<m;++i){
  s="";
  for(int j=0;j<n;++j){
    s+=string(round(unitrand()));
  }
  write(fout,s+'\n');
}
flush(fout);
close(fout);

And the Asymptote code for the image is

//
// "m1.asy" :
// 
settings.tex="pdflatex";
file fin=input("binmatrix.txt"); 

string[] s=fin;

int m=s.length, n=length(s[1]);

real h=1cm;
real w=h/m*n;
size(w,h);

import graph;
import palette;
real[][] v=new real[n][m];
for(int i=0; i < m; ++i){
  for(int j=0; j < n; ++j){
    v[j][i]=(real)substr(s[i],j,1);
  }
}
pen[] Palette=new pen[]{deepblue,orange};
bounds range=image(v,(0,0),(n,m),Palette);

You can also combine bits into colors, for example, like this:

settings.tex="pdflatex";
file fin=input("binmatrix.txt"); 

string[] s=fin;

int m=s.length, n=length(s[1]);

real h=1cm;
real w=h/m*n/3;
size(w,h);

import graph;
import palette;
pen[][] v=new pen[(int)(n/3)][m];
for(int i=0; i < m; ++i){
  for(int j=0; j < (int)(n/3); ++j){
    v[j][i]=rgb((real)substr(s[i],3*j,1),(real)substr(s[i],3*j+1,1),(real)substr(s[i],3*j+2,1));;
  }
}
image(v,(0,0),(n/3,m)); 

Answer 3

You might consider using imagemagick for this. For example, you could format your data in a plain PGM format.

File "sample.pgm"

P2
8 8
1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Converting it with imagemagick using the following command.

convert sample.pgm -scale 320x320 sample.bmp

results in the following bitmap.

Answer 4

Using \pdfliteral to produce inline image is, I believe, the most efficient way.

The drawback is that each small square is represented by two characters.

The idea comes from this question: Include PDF via \pdfliteral

\pdfcompresslevel0
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\hbox to 10cm{%
    \immediate\pdfliteral{
        q
            11 0 0 7 0 0 cm            % input width = 11px;
                                       % input height = 7px
            10 0 0 3 0 0 cm            % output width = 10cm
                                       % output height = 3cm
            2.57693 0 0 2.57693 0 0 cm % magic number
            BI
                /W 11                  % input width = 11px;
                /H 7                   % input height = 7px
                /CS [
                    /Indexed /RGB
                    1                  % = using 2 colors
                                       % maximal is 255 = using 256 colors
                    <FF0000 0000FF>    % red and blue
                ]
                /BPC 8
                /F /AHx
                /I false
            ID
                01 00 01 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00
                01 00 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00
                00 01 00 01 00 01 01 01 00 01 00
                01 01 01 01 00 00 01 00 01 00 00
                00 01 01 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 01
                01 01 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 01 01
                01 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 01 01 01
                >
            EI
        Q
    }
    \hfill
}\vbox to3cm{}

\bigskip

\end{document}