Quantization of color images based on uniform color spaces

Abstract

Digital devices for display or printing of color images may be characterized by their ability to generate colored spots centered at points on a fixed spatial lattice. Each spot may be assigned one of a finite number of color values. For reasons of economy in hardware design and data representation, it is desirable to use as small a set of different color values as possible. We investigate algorithms for selecting this set of output colors in alternate color spaces chosen on a perceptual basis. These algorithms utilize quantizers that range in complexity from being separable, uniform, and image independent, to being nonseparable, nonuniform, and image dependent