(/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.

com/cs/)

(/bael-search)

Calculate the Output Size of a

Convolutional Layer
FEATURED VIDEOS

The New State of OAuth2 in Sprin…

Last updated: March 18, 2024

Written by: Panagiotis Antoniadis

(https://www.baeldung.com/cs/author/panagiotisantoniadis)

Reviewed by: Michal Aibin (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/editor/michal-author)

Computer Vision (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/category/ai/computer-vision)

Deep Learning (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/category/ai/deep-learning)
Convolutional Neural Networks (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/tag/cnn)
Neural Networks (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/tag/neural-networks)
1. Overview (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

In this tutorial, we’ll describe how we can calculate the output size of(/bael-search)
a
convolutional layer. First, we’ll briefly introduce the convolution operator and the
convolutional layer. Then, we’ll move on to the general formula for computing the
output size and provide a detailed example.

2. Convolution Operation
Generally, convolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution) is a
mathematical operation on two functions where two sources of information are
combined to generate an output function. It is used in a wide range of applications,
including signal processing, computer vision, physics, and differential equations. While
there are many types of convolutions like continuous, circular, and discrete, we’ll focus
on the latter since, in a convolutional layer, we deal with discrete data.
In computer vision, convolution is performed between an image and a filter that
is defined as a small matrix. First, the filter passes successively through every pixel of
the 2D input image. In each step, we perform an elementwise multiplication
between the pixels of the filter and the corresponding pixels of the image. Then, we
sum up the results into a single output pixel. After repeating this procedure for every
pixel, we end up with a 2D output matrix of features.
Now let’s describe the above procedure again using a simple example. We have a
image and a filter that we want to convolve. Below, we can see in bold
which pixels of the input image are used in each step of the convolution:
 (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

(/bael-search)

As mentioned earlier, in each step, we multiply the values of the selected pixels (in
bold) with the corresponding values of the filter, and we sum the results to a single
output. In the example below, we compute the convolution in the central pixel
(step=5):
 (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

(/bael-search)

First, we compute the multiplications of each pixel of the filter with the corresponding
pixel of the image. Then, we sum all the products:

So, the central pixel of the output activation map is equal to 129. This procedure is
followed for every pixel of the input image.

3. Convolutional Layer
The convolutional layer is the core building block of every Convolutional Neural
Network (/cs/ai-convolutional-neural-networks). In each layer, we have a set of
learnable filters. We convolve the input with each filter during forward propagation,
producing an output activation map of that filter. As a result, the network learns
activated filters when specific features appear in the input image. Below, we can see
an example with the Prewitt operator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prewitt_operator),
a clear filter used for edge detection:

4. Hyperparameters
To formulate a way to compute the output size of a convolutional layer, we should first
discuss two critical hyperparameters.
 (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

(/bael-search)

4.1. Stride
During convolution, the filter slides from left to right and from top to bottom until it
passes through the entire input image. We define stride as the step of the filter. So,
when we want to downsample the input image and end up with a smaller output, we
set .
Below, we can see our previous example when :

4.2. Padding
In a convolutional layer, we observe that the pixels located on the corners and the
(/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)
edges are used much less than those in the middle. For example, in the below
example, we have a input image and a filter:
(/bael-search)

Below we can see the times that each pixel from the input image is used when
applying convolution with :

We can see that the pixel is used only once while the central pixel is used
nine times. In general, pixels located in the middle are used more often than pixels on
edges and corners. Therefore, the information on the borders of images is not
preserved as well as the information in the middle.
 (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

(/bael-search)

A simple and powerful solution to this problem is padding, which adds rows and
columns of zeros to the input image. If we apply padding in an input image of size
, the output image has dimensions .
Below we can see an example image before and after padding with . As we can
see, the dimensions increased from to :

By using padding in a convolutional layer, we increase the contribution of pixels at

the corners and the edges to the learning procedure.

5. Formula
Now let’s move on to the main goal of this tutorial which is to present the formula for
computing the output size of a convolutional layer. We have the following input:
An image of dimensions .
 A filter of dimensions .
(/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)
Stride and padding .
The output activation map will have the following dimensions: (/bael-search)

If the output dimensions are not integers, it means that we haven’t set the stride
correctly.
We have two exceptional cases:
When there is no padding at all, the output dimensions are
.
In case we want to keep the size of the input unchanged after the convolution
layer, we apply same padding where and . If s=1, we set
.

6. Examples
Finally, we’ll present an example of computing the output size of a convolutional
layer. Let’s suppose that we have an input image of size , a filter of size ,
padding P=2 and stride S=2. Then the output dimensions are the following:

So,the output activation map will have dimensions .

7. Conclusion (/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

(/bael-search)
In this tutorial, we talked about computing the outputs size of a convolutional layer.

Comments are open for 30 days after publishing a post. For any issues past this date,
use the Contact form on the site.

CATEGORIES
ALGORITHMS (/CS/CATEGORY/ALGORITHMS)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (/CS/CATEGORY/AI)
CORE CONCEPTS (/CS/CATEGORY/CORE-CONCEPTS)
DATA STRUCTURES (/CS/CATEGORY/DATA-STRUCTURES)
GRAPH THEORY (/CS/CATEGORY/GRAPH-THEORY)
LATEX (/CS/CATEGORY/LATEX)
NETWORKING (/CS/CATEGORY/NETWORKING)
SECURITY (/CS/CATEGORY/SECURITY)

ABOUT
ABOUT BAELDUNG (HTTPS://WWW.BAELDUNG.COM/ABOUT)
THE FULL ARCHIVE (/CS/FULL_ARCHIVE)
EDITORS (HTTPS://WWW.BAELDUNG.COM/EDITORS)
(/cs/) (https://www.baeldung.com/cs/)

TERMS OF SERVICE (HTTPS://WWW.BAELDUNG.COM/TERMS-OF-SERVICE) (/bael-search)

PRIVACY POLICY (HTTPS://WWW.BAELDUNG.COM/PRIVACY-POLICY)
COMPANY INFO (HTTPS://WWW.BAELDUNG.COM/BAELDUNG-COMPANY-INFO)
CONTACT (/CONTACT)