diff --git a/labelme/utils/__init__.py b/labelme/utils/__init__.py
index 31b12c2430308e84c2793f2c9e6730086c931956..d1dde4d6e6dad827b02b119b0a92c4cb226d3190 100644
--- a/labelme/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/labelme/utils/__init__.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ from ._io import lblsave
 from .image import apply_exif_orientation
 from .image import img_arr_to_b64
 from .image import img_b64_to_arr
+from .image import img_data_to_arr
 from .image import img_data_to_png_data
 
 from .shape import labelme_shapes_to_label
diff --git a/labelme/utils/image.py b/labelme/utils/image.py
index ab7e45dd303cd48d4ccfe43844ce387a48a0cb4b..7bc07cb8bd421a12c6fa9319c9dfa06916cc3987 100644
--- a/labelme/utils/image.py
+++ b/labelme/utils/image.py
@@ -7,13 +7,19 @@ import PIL.Image
 import PIL.ImageOps
 
 
-def img_b64_to_arr(img_b64):
+def img_data_to_arr(img_data):
     f = io.BytesIO()
-    f.write(base64.b64decode(img_b64))
+    f.write(img_data)
     img_arr = np.array(PIL.Image.open(f))
     return img_arr
 
 
+def img_b64_to_arr(img_b64):
+    img_data = base64.b64decode(img_b64)
+    img_arr = img_data_to_arr(img_data)
+    return img_arr
+
+
 def img_arr_to_b64(img_arr):
     img_pil = PIL.Image.fromarray(img_arr)
     f = io.BytesIO()