lenna

Lenna, also known as Lena, is a standard test image used in image processing and computer vision. The image originated from a Playboy magazine centerfold of model Lena Söderberg (often spelled Lenna in some sources), published in 1972. It was later adopted by researchers as a benchmark for evaluating compression, denoising, restoration, and other image-analysis techniques, becoming one of the most widely used test images in the field.

The picture is a portrait of a young woman with long dark hair, wearing a leopard-print top, posed against a red drapery background. The most common version is a 512×512 color image, though grayscale variants and numerous cropped or resampled versions exist. The image appears in many software libraries and academic papers, with variations in resolution and color space.

Over time, Lenna’s status has become intertwined with copyright and consent concerns. Because the image is derived from a Playboy centerfold, its continued use has sparked debate about privacy and copyright. Some researchers have called for alternatives or synthetic test images, and modern benchmarks increasingly rely on non-identifying or royalty-free data. Nevertheless, Lenna remains a historically significant artifact in the development of image-processing techniques and a useful reference for comparative evaluation.