dicom2gif

A Python tool to convert DICOM series to GIF/APNG/TIFF format

Features

• Convert enhanced (multi-frame) and legacy DICOM series to GIF, APNG, or TIFF
• Automatic detection of frame duration from DICOM metadata
• Support for windowing (brightness/contrast) adjustment
• Batch processing of entire directories
• Select range of frames to save

Installation

pip install dicom2gif

Usage

Command Line

After installation, dicom2gif can be used as a command line tool. When given a directory, the tool will recursively search for DICOM files with the same Series Instance UID and create a separate movie file for each series.

dicom2gif [-h] [-p PATTERN] [-o OUT_FILE] [-f {gif,apng,tiff}] [-d DURATION] [-w WINDOWING] [--frames FRAMES] dcm_path

Options:

• dcm_path: Input DICOM file or directory
• -p, --pattern: Pattern to select DICOM files when dcm_path is a directory (defaults to *.dcm)
• -o, --out_file: Output file path (defaults to input name with .gif extension)
• -f, --format: Output file format, can be gif, apng, or tiff (ignored if --out_file is given)
• -d, --duration: Duration per frame in milliseconds (optional, auto-detected from DICOM if available)
• -w, --windowing: Can be two comma-separated integers for window center and width, 'dicom' for windowing parameters from DICOM metadata, or 'full' for windowing to full dynamic range (defaults to 'dicom')
• --frames: Frame range (1-based, inclusive). Examples: '5' (frame 5 only), '10-20' (frames 10 to 20), '10-' (frame 10 to end), '-20' (start to frame 20).

Python API

from dicom2gif import dicom2gif, read_dcm, read_dir, write

# Single enhanced DICOM file
series = read_dcm("path/to/file.dcm")
write(series, "output.gif", duration=50)

# Directory of DICOM files
all_series = read_dir("path/to/directory")
for path, series in all_series.items():
    out_file = path.with_suffix(".apng")
    write(series, out_file, windowing="dicom")

# Or directly
dicom2gif("path/to/file.dcm", out_file="output.gif", duration=50)
dicom2gif("path/to/directory", format="apng", windowing="full", frame_start=2, frame_end=10)

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.10
• numpy
• Pillow ≥ 7.1.2
• pydicom