Traditional spectral imagers require 2-dimensional detectors. We present a new method to implement spectral imagers with linear detector imager systems based on spectrum compressed. Using 1-dimension detectors instead of 2-dimension detectors to get 3-dimensional data cubes, the spectral imagers could get both the spectral information and the spatial information of each ground object. By the method of characteristics decoupling, we make high precision reconstruction of compressed data. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that it not only ensures the imaging quality but also reduces the dimension of the detectors and complexity of imaging system greatly.