encode_decode_show_gif.py

import base64
import cStringIO
import PIL.Image

'''
From:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31410525/base64-uri-to-png-python
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3715493/encoding-an-image-file-with-base64
http://effbot.org/imagingbook/image.htm
'''

with open("image.png", "rb") as image_file:
    encoded_string = base64.b64encode(image_file.read())

image_bytes = cStringIO.StringIO(encoded_string.decode('base64'))
img = PIL.Image.open(image_bytes)
img.show()