Color quantization of images

The authors develop algorithms for the design of hierarchical tree structured color palettes incorporating performance criteria which reflect subjective evaluations of image quality. Tree structured color palettes greatly reduce the computational requirements of the palette design and pixel mapping tasks, while allowing colors to be properly allocated to densely populated areas of the color space. The algorithms produce higher-quality displayed images and require fewer computations than previously proposed methods. Error diffusion techniques are commonly used for displaying images which have been quantized to very few levels. Problems related to the application of error diffusion techniques to the display of color images are discussed. A modified error diffusion technique is shown to be easily implemented using the tree structured color palettes developed earlier