# How to serialize vtkImageData to a binary buffer

**URL:** <https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-serialize-vtkimagedata-to-a-binary-buffer/1369>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [July 17, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-serialize-vtkimagedata-to-a-binary-buffer/1369 "2019-07-17T17:56:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![oregonduckman](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@oregonduckman](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/oregonduckman)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-serialize-vtkimagedata-to-a-binary-buffer/1369/1 "2019-07-17T17:56:44Z")

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I am using the following code to serialize a vtkImageData object to text. Since to result is all text and quite large I am looking for a way to serialize the vtkImageData object to binary, any thoughts?

pvtkImageData is an instance of vtkImageData\*

```
vtkSmartPointer <vtkDataSetWriter> writer = vtkSmartPointer <vtkDataSetWriter> ::New();
writer->WriteToOutputStringOn();
writer->SetInputData(pvtkImageData);
writer->Update();

writer->GetOutputString()
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yongun\_Lee](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Yongun\_Lee](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Yongun_Lee)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-serialize-vtkimagedata-to-a-binary-buffer/1369/2 "2020-05-20T09:36:13Z")

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pvtkImageData-\>GetScalarPointer();