Bitmap.Save 'A generic error occurred in GDI+'

Question

Hello All,

I was just going to play around by generating some bitmaps programatically.

I started off with this simple example, expecting everything to go smoothly, but have run into a strange error.

The following code is by no means good, just something simple and complete I would expect to work:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace BitmapOutput
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The picture i am drawing
        /// </summary>
        System.Drawing.Bitmap myBitmap;

        /// <summary>
        /// Graphics object for drawing
        /// </summary>
        System.Drawing.Graphics myGrafx;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            this.myBitmap = new Bitmap(800, 600);

            this.myGrafx =                 System.Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(this.myBitmap);

            this.DrawPicture();

            this.ShowPicture();

            this.SavePicture();
        }

        public void DrawPicture()
        {
            this.myGrafx.DrawEllipse(
                new Pen(System.Drawing.Color.AliceBlue),                 new Rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100));
        }

        public void ShowPicture()
        {
            this.pictureBox1.Image = this.myBitmap;
        }

        public void SavePicture()
        {
            this.myBitmap.Save("Output\\out.bmp" ,                    System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp );
        }
    }
}

This runs fine until the SavePicture(...) function is called.

I get the exception:
"A generic error occurred in GDI+."

at the this.myBitmap.Save(...); line.

Most likely there is some detail that I have overlooked, and I appreciate it if anyone could point out to me what I could do to fix it.

But, I'd like to think that this code would work, it makes sense, and requires little effort, that should be one of the goals of .net

Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated!

P.S. how do I use 'code' tags?

Answer 1

it happens with me - its a minor bug which should *hopefully* be fixed in SP1 of .NET 2.0.

sometimes this error occurs, sometimes it doesnt

sometimes putting a Thread.Sleep() (for about 30 ms) helps it just before the save

Answer 2

Hello,

 

Perhaps too late but for who ever encounters the same problem, I've found a solution (work around) this error bij copying the bitmap to an new one

 

        public void SavePicture()
        {

            Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(this.myBitmap)
            bm.Save("Output\\out.bmp" ,System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp );
        }

Do'n ask me why but it works....

 

Greets,

Jean Paul

ON7AMI

Answer 3

Thanks very much.

That fixed my generic error too.

Answer 4

Perfect. Bizarre, but perfect.

Answer 5

Thanks so much.. was struggling to resolve this for the last 1 hour...

 

Answer 6

Great, thanks for posting this work around  

 

Answer 7

Worked for me as well, THANKS.

---

N I C K

Answer 8

check this link for answer
http://blog.vishalon.net/Post/70.aspx

Answer 9

thankyou

Answer 10

Thank you Jean Paul.

This fixed my problem too.

Answer 11

Two years later, and let the thank yous continue.  This worked for me too!

Answer 12

Seems the second bitmap fix is still applicable in Fx 3.5, even with the Bitmap.Save(stream,format) overload, too!  Thanks for the help. 

Answer 13

Actually, the fix is to properly dispose of your objects in order.  This is one advantage of C#, with the using() syntax:

// new image with transparent Alpha layer
using (var bitmap = new Bitmap(330, 18, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb))
{
	using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
	{
		// add some anti-aliasing
		graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;

		using (var font = new Font("Arial", 14.0f, GraphicsUnit.Pixel))
		{
			using (var brush = new SolidBrush(Color.White))
			{
				// draw it
				graphics.DrawString(user.Email, font, brush, 0, 0);
			}
		}
	}

	// setup the response
	Response.Clear();
	Response.ContentType = "image/png";
	Response.BufferOutput = true;

	// write it to the output stream
	bitmap.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Png);
	Response.Flush();
}

Notice how I dispose (end the using) of the graphics parameter, before I save it?  You don't have to use the using() statements, just call Dispose() at the end of the scope I show above.

I ran into this problem today on Azure (works locally in the cloud, just an Azure 1.3 thing!), and I saw the link to the blog post above.  That was a good link, as it pointed me in the direction of disposing the graphics earlier.

But, there is no point of increasing hte memory usage of two bitmaps if you dispose of your graphics properly before saving.

---

http://eduncan911.com

Answer 14

It doesn't seem to be to do with the order of disposal - am executing code like this twice in quick succession and seeing the bug  ('cos that what it's looking like) the second time irrespective of what gets disposed when and which overload of Save I call. Have resorted to using the bitmap clone technique as described above - it's kludgey but it works, for which my thanks!

Answer 15

Because this thread seems to get a lot of visits, it might be worth adding this proposition from JohnWein to fix the problem instead of working around it...

GDI+ keeps a lock on files from which an image was contructed. To avoid the lock, construct the image from a MemorySteam:

 MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(File.ReadAllBytes(fileName)); 

Image img = Image.FromStream(ms); 

---

"The improbable we do, the impossible just takes a little longer." (Steven Parker)

Answer 16

I think it is not a code problem, it is due to installed components, I also experienced the same issue and is solved by self after uploading on a regular server.

---

C#.net developer

Answer 17

Thanks a ton Jan Var der Haegen! These Two code lines saved my day :)