Introduction : Boundary Fill Algorithm starts at a pixel inside the polygon to be
filled and paints the interior proceeding outwards towards the boundary. This
algorithm works only if the color with which the region has to be filled and the
color of the boundary of the region are different. If the boundary is of one single
color, this approach proceeds outwards pixel by pixel until it hits the boundary of
the region.
Boundary Fill Algorithm is recursive in nature. It takes an interior point(x, y),
a fill color, and a boundary color as the input. The algorithm starts by checking
the color of (x, y). If it’s color is not equal to the fill color and the boundary color,
then it is painted with the fill color and the function is called for all the neighbours
of (x, y). If a point is found to be of fill color or of boundary color, the function
does not call its neighbours and returns. This process continues until all points up
to the boundary color for the region have been tested.
The boundary fill algorithm can be implemented by 4-connected pixels or 8-
connected pixels.
4-connected pixels : After painting a pixel, the function is called for four
neighbouring points. These are the pixel positions that are right, left, above, and
below the current pixel. Areas filled by this method are called 4-connected. Below
given is the algorithm :
Algorithm :
void boundaryFill4(int x, int y, int fill_color,int boundary_color)
{
if(getpixel(x, y) != boundary_color &&
getpixel(x, y) != fill_color)
{
putpixel(x, y, fill_color);
boundaryFill4(x + 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x - 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
}
}
Below is the implementation of above algorithm :
// C Implementation for Boundary Filling Algorithm
#include <graphics.h>
// Function for 4 connected Pixels
void boundaryFill4(int x, int y, int fill_color,int boundary_color)
{
if(getpixel(x, y) != boundary_color &&
getpixel(x, y) != fill_color)
{
putpixel(x, y, fill_color);
boundaryFill4(x + 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x - 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill4(x, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
}
}
//driver code
int main()
{
// gm is Graphics mode which is
// a computer display mode that
// generates image using pixels.
// DETECT is a macro defined in
// "graphics.h" header file
int gd = DETECT, gm;
// initgraph initializes the
// graphics system by loading a
// graphics driver from disk
initgraph(&gd, &gm, "");
int x = 250, y = 200, radius = 50;
// circle function
circle(x, y, radius);
// Function calling
boundaryFill4(x, y, 6, 15);
delay(10000);
getch();
// closegraph function closes the
// graphics mode and deallocates
// all memory allocated by
// graphics system .
closegraph();
return 0;
}
Output :
8-connected pixels : More complex figures are filled using this approach. The
pixels to be tested are the 8 neighbouring pixels, the pixel on the right, left,
above, below and the 4 diagonal pixels. Areas filled by this method are called 8-
connected. Below given is the algorithm :
Algorithm :
void boundaryFill8(int x, int y, int fill_color,int boundary_color)
{
if(getpixel(x, y) != boundary_color &&
getpixel(x, y) != fill_color)
{
putpixel(x, y, fill_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
}
}
Below is the implementation of above algorithm :
C
// C Implementation for Boundary Filling Algorithm
#include <graphics.h>
// Function for 8 connected Pixels
void boundaryFill8(int x, int y, int fill_color,int boundary_color)
{
if(getpixel(x, y) != boundary_color &&
getpixel(x, y) != fill_color)
{
putpixel(x, y, fill_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x - 1, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y - 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
boundaryFill8(x + 1, y + 1, fill_color, boundary_color);
}
}
//driver code
int main()
{
// gm is Graphics mode which is
// a computer display mode that
// generates image using pixels.
// DETECT is a macro defined in
// "graphics.h" header file
int gd = DETECT, gm;
// initgraph initializes the
// graphics system by loading a
// graphics driver from disk
initgraph(&gd, &gm, "");
// Rectangle function
rectangle(50, 50, 100, 100);
// Function calling
boundaryFill8(55, 55, 4, 15);
delay(10000);
getch();
// closegraph function closes the
// graphics mode and deallocates
// all memory allocated by
// graphics system .
closegraph();
return 0;
}
Output :
4-connected pixels Vs 8-connected pixels :
Let us take a figure with the boundary color as GREEN and the fill color as RED.
The 4-connected method fails to fill this figure completely. This figure will be
efficiently filled using the 8-connected technique.
Flood fill Vs Boundary fill :
Though both Flood fill and Boundary fill algorithms color a given figure with a
chosen color, they differ in one aspect. In Flood fill, all the connected pixels of a
selected color get replaced by a fill color. On the other hand, in Boundary fill, the
program stops when a given color boundary is found.
