How to read the RGB value of a given pixel in Python?

It's probably best to use the Python Image Library to do this which I'm afraid is a separate download.

The easiest way to do what you want is via the load() method on the Image object which returns a pixel access object which you can manipulate like an array:

from PIL import Image

im = Image.open('dead_parrot.jpg') # Can be many different formats.
pix = im.load()
print im.size  # Get the width and hight of the image for iterating over
print pix[x,y]  # Get the RGBA Value of the a pixel of an image
pix[x,y] = value  # Set the RGBA Value of the image (tuple)
im.save('alive_parrot.png')  # Save the modified pixels as .png

Alternatively, look at ImageDraw which gives a much richer API for creating images.

PyPNG - lightweight PNG decoder/encoder

Although the question hints at JPG, I hope my answer will be useful to some people.

Here's how to read and write PNG pixels using PyPNG module:

import png, array

point = (2, 10) # coordinates of pixel to be painted red

reader = png.Reader(filename='image.png')
w, h, pixels, metadata = reader.read_flat()
pixel_byte_width = 4 if metadata['alpha'] else 3
pixel_position = point[0] + point[1] * w
new_pixel_value = (255, 0, 0, 0) if metadata['alpha'] else (255, 0, 0)
pixels[
  pixel_position * pixel_byte_width :
  (pixel_position + 1) * pixel_byte_width] = array.array('B', new_pixel_value)

output = open('image-with-red-dot.png', 'wb')
writer = png.Writer(w, h, **metadata)
writer.write_array(output, pixels)
output.close()

PyPNG is a single pure Python module less than 4000 lines long, including tests and comments.

PIL is a more comprehensive imaging library, but it's also significantly heavier.

Using a library called Pillow, you can make this into a function, for ease of use later in your program, and if you have to use it multiple times. The function simply takes in the path of an image and the coordinates of the pixel you want to "grab." It opens the image, converts it to an RGB color space, and returns the R, G, and B of the requested pixel.

from PIL import Image
def rgb_of_pixel(img_path, x, y):
    im = Image.open(img_path).convert('RGB')
    r, g, b = im.getpixel((x, y))
    a = (r, g, b)
    return a

*Note: I was not the original author of this code; it was left without an explanation. As it is fairly easy to explain, I am simply providing said explanation, just in case someone down the line does not understand it.

Image manipulation is a complex topic, and it's best if you do use a library. I can recommend gdmodule which provides easy access to many different image formats from within Python.

There's a really good article on wiki.wxpython.org entitled Working With Images. The article mentions the possiblity of using wxWidgets (wxImage), PIL or PythonMagick. Personally, I've used PIL and wxWidgets and both make image manipulation fairly easy.

You can use pygame's surfarray module. This module has a 3d pixel array returning method called pixels3d(surface). I've shown usage below:

from pygame import surfarray, image, display
import pygame
import numpy #important to import

pygame.init()
image = image.load("myimagefile.jpg") #surface to render
resolution = (image.get_width(),image.get_height())
screen = display.set_mode(resolution) #create space for display
screen.blit(image, (0,0)) #superpose image on screen
display.flip()
surfarray.use_arraytype("numpy") #important!
screenpix = surfarray.pixels3d(image) #pixels in 3d array:
#[x][y][rgb]
for y in range(resolution[1]):
    for x in range(resolution[0]):
        for color in range(3):
            screenpix[x][y][color] += 128
            #reverting colors
screen.blit(surfarray.make_surface(screenpix), (0,0)) #superpose on screen
display.flip() #update display
while 1:
    print finished

I hope been helpful. Last word: screen is locked for lifetime of screenpix.