--- a/COPYING
+++ b/COPYING
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@
 inst/imabsdiff.m                        GPLv3+
 inst/imadd.m                            GPLv3+
 inst/imadjust.m                         GPLv3+
+inst/imattributes                       GPLv3+
 inst/imbothat.m                         GPLv3+
 inst/imcast.m                           GPLv3+
 inst/imclose.m                          GPLv3+

--- a/INDEX
+++ b/INDEX
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@
 Utilities
  checkerboard
  getrangefromclass
+ imattributes
  iptcheckconn
  iptcheckmap
  iptnum2ordinal

--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
       bwareafilt
       bwpropfilt
+      imattributes
       imcast
 
  ** The implementation of normxcorr2 has been changed. The new method is

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inst/imattributes.m
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2014 Carnë Draug <carandraug@octave.org>
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+## modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
+## published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
+## License, or (at your option) any later version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with this program; if not, see
+## <http:##www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn  {Function File} {} imattributes ()
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} imattributes (@var{himage})
+## Get information about image attributes.
+##
+## Return attributes for the image in the current figure or in the image
+## handle @var{himage}.  Returns a struct with the fields:
+##
+## @table @asis
+## @item @qcode{"Width"}
+## Number of columns.
+##
+## @item @qcode{"Height"}
+## Number of rows.
+##
+## @item @qcode{"Class"}
+## Note that some classes are converted to double for display.
+##
+## @item @qcode{"Image type"}
+## One of @qcode{"binary"}, @qcode{"truecolor"}, @qcode{"intensity"}, or
+## @qcode{"indexed"}.
+##
+## @item  @qcode{"Minimum intensity"}
+## @itemx @qcode{"Maximum intensity"}
+## These values are not returned for images of type @qcode{"truecolor"}
+## and @qcode{"binary"}.
+##
+## For indexed images, the returned values are the lowest and highest index
+## for the colormap, @emph{not} the used index for the lowest or highest
+## intensity or their values.  This weird behaviour is kept for Matlab
+## compatibility.
+## @end table
+##
+## This function is meant to be used in an interactive session, and not
+## programatically.  The properties of an image should be measured from the
+## image variavle itself not from the figure object.  In addition this
+## function is purposedly Matlab incompatible on their return value which
+## returns a cell array of strings which is only useful for display.
+##
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function attr = imattributes (imgh = gcf ())
+
+  if (nargin > 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  elseif (isa (imgh, "imagemodel"))
+    ## FIXME we don't even have a imagemodel class yet but when we do, this
+    ##       is already here
+    error ("imattributes: support for imagemodel objects not yet implemented");
+  endif
+
+  while (! isempty (get (imgh, "children")))
+    imgh = get (imgh, "children");
+  endwhile
+  cdata = get (imgh, "cdata");
+  cdatamapping = get (imgh, "cdatamapping");
+
+  if (isbool (cdata))
+    img_type = "binary";
+  elseif (ndims (cdata) == 3)
+    img_type = "truecolor";
+  elseif (strcmpi (cdatamapping, "direct"))
+    img_type = "indexed";
+  else
+    img_type = "intensity";
+  endif
+
+  ## Implementation note: this function returns a struct while Matlab returns
+  ## a cell array of strings (even for the numeric values).  It is completely
+  ## useless in programs, so I can only assume it is meant to be used
+  ## interactively.  If so, a cell array is useless for us because Octave does
+  ## not display cell arrays columns aligned but a struct looks good.
+
+  attr = struct (
+    "Width (columns)", columns (cdata),
+    "Height (rows)", rows (cdata),
+    "Class", class (cdata),
+    "Image type", img_type
+  );
+
+  ## Matlab compatibility: for indexed images, we still give the lowest
+  ## and highest index to the colormap.
+  if (! any (strcmp (img_type, {"binary", "truecolor"})))
+    attr = setfield (attr, "Minimum intensity", min (cdata(:)));
+    attr = setfield (attr, "Maximum intensity", max (cdata(:)));
+  endif
+
+endfunction
+
+%!shared x, map, img, rgb, bw
+%! [x, map] = imread ("default.img");
+%! rgb = ind2rgb (x, map);
+%! img = ind2gray (x, map);
+%! bw = im2bw (img);
+
+%!test
+%! h = imshow (img);
+%! a = imattributes (h);
+%! assert ([a.Height a.Width], [53 40]);
+%! assert (a.Class, "uint8");
+%! assert (a.("Image type"), "intensity");
+%! assert (a.("Minimum intensity"), uint8 (28));
+%! assert (a.("Maximum intensity"), uint8 (250));
+
+## FIXME this is a bug upstream, the original class is not always preserved
+%!xtest
+%! h = imshow (rgb);
+%! a = imattributes (h);
+%! assert ([a.Height a.Width], [53 40]);
+%! assert (a.Class, "uint8");
+%! assert (a.("Image type"), "truecolor");
+%! assert (isfield (a, "Minimum intensity"), false);
+%! assert (isfield (a, "Maximum intensity"), false);
+
+%!test
+%! h = imshow (bw);
+%! a = imattributes (h);
+%! assert ([a.Height a.Width], [53 40]);
+%! assert (a.Class, "logical");
+%! assert (a.("Image type"), "binary");
+%! assert (isfield (a, "Minimum intensity"), false);
+%! assert (isfield (a, "Maximum intensity"), false);
+
+%!test
+%! h = imshow (x, map);
+%! a = imattributes (h);
+%! assert ([a.Height a.Width], [53 40]);
+%! assert (a.Class, "uint8");
+%! assert (a.("Image type"), "indexed");
+%! assert (a.("Minimum intensity"), uint8 (0));
+%! assert (a.("Maximum intensity"), uint8 (55));
+
+%!test
+%! h = imshow (img);
+%! a1 = imattributes ();
+%! a2 = imattributes (h);
+%! assert (a1, a2);
+