If you are trying to display OpenCV image using matplotlib, use the code below.

import numpy as np
import cv2
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline  # if you are running this code in Jupyter notebook

# reads image 'opencv-logo.png' as grayscale
img = cv2.imread('/path_to_image/opencv-logo.png', 0) 
plt.imshow(img, cmap='gray')
Answer from An unfinished seeker on Stack Overflow
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OpenCV
docs.opencv.org › 4.13.0 › d4 › da8 › group__imgcodecs.html
OpenCV: Image file reading and writing
The imread function loads an image from the specified file and returns OpenCV matrix. If the image cannot be read (because of a missing file, improper permissions, or unsupported/invalid format), the function returns an empty matrix.
Discussions

I'm having this issue with OpenCV in Windows, imread returns "NoneType" I found this asked before and 'resolved' but I don't understand the fix.

most likely explanation is a typo in the image filename or path. opencv has pretty bad error reporting in that area.

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