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.TH IMG_Load 3 "SDL_image 3.0.0" "SDL_image" "SDL_image3 FUNCTIONS"
.SH NAME
IMG_Load \- Load an image from a filesystem path into a software surface\[char46]
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include \(dqSDL3_image/SDL_image.h\(dq
.PP
.BI "SDL_Surface * IMG_Load(const char *file);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
An SDL_Surface is a buffer of pixels in memory accessible by the CPU\[char46] Use
this if you plan to hand the data to something else or manipulate it
further in code\[char46]

There are no guarantees about what format the new SDL_Surface data will be;
in many cases, SDL_image will attempt to supply a surface that exactly
matches the provided image, but in others it might have to convert (either
because the image is in a format that SDL doesn't directly support or
because it's compressed data that could reasonably uncompress to various
formats and SDL_image had to pick one)\[char46] You can inspect an SDL_Surface for
its specifics, and use SDL_ConvertSurface to then migrate to any supported
format\[char46]

If the image format supports a transparent pixel, SDL will set the colorkey
for the surface\[char46] You can enable RLE acceleration on the surface afterwards
by calling: SDL_SetSurfaceColorKey(image, SDL_RLEACCEL,
image->format->colorkey);

There is a separate function to read files from an SDL_IOStream, if you
need an i/o abstraction to provide data from anywhere instead of a simple
filesystem read; that function is 
.BR IMG_Load_IO
()\[char46]

If you are using SDL's 2D rendering API, there is an equivalent call to
load images directly into an SDL_Texture for use by the GPU without using a
software surface: call 
.BR IMG_LoadTexture
() instead\[char46]

When done with the returned surface, the app should dispose of it with a
call to SDL_DestroySurface()\[char46]

.SH FUNCTION PARAMETERS
.TP
.I file
a path on the filesystem to load an image from\[char46]
.SH RETURN VALUE
Returns a new SDL surface, or NULL on error\[char46]

.SH AVAILABILITY
This function is available since SDL_image 3\[char46]0\[char46]0\[char46]

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR IMG_LoadTyped_IO (3),
.BR IMG_Load_IO (3),
.BR SDL_DestroySurface (3)