# Viewing Images

How to use other packages with pydicom to view DICOM images

## Introduction

pydicom is mainly concerned with getting at the DICOM data elements in files, but it is often desirable to view pixel data as an image. There are several options:

- Use any of the many DICOM viewer programs available

- use pydicom with matplotlib

- use pydicom with Python’s stdlib Tkinter module.

- use pydicom with Pillow

- use pydicom with wxPython

## Using pydicom with matplotlib

matplotlib can be used with the `numpy.ndarray` from `Dataset.pixel_array` to display it:

    >>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    >>> from pydicom import examples
    >>> ds = examples.ct
    >>> plt.imshow(ds.pixel_array, cmap=plt.cm.gray)
    <matplotlib.image.AxesImage object at ...>