Quickly getting the color of some pixels on the screen in Python on Windows 7

Question

I need to get the color of some pixels on the screen or from the active window, and I need to do so quickly. I\'ve tried using win32gui and ctypes/

Answer 1

Disabling Windows Desktop Composition speeds pixel up reading A LOT.

Computer -> Properties -> Advanced system settings -> Performance -> desktop composition [ ] (warning this disables Windows's transparency effects)

Python 2.7 (Should be same for 3.x)

win32gui.GetPixel()     #1.75s => 20ms
windll.gdi32.GetPixel() #1.75s => 3ms (fastest)
image.getpixel()        # 0.1s => 50ms
px[]                    # 0.1s => 50ms

AutoIt for comparison

$timer = TimerInit()

For $x = 0 To 100 Step 10
    For $y = 0 To 100 Step 10
        PixelGetColor($x,$y) ;slow => 1ms
    Next
Next

ConsoleWrite("Time: " & TimerDiff($timer)/1000 & @CRLF)