Quantize Image
Reduce image color depth for retro aesthetics, smaller file sizes, and artistic effects. Convert photos to limited color palettes from 2 to 256 colors.
or drop image here or paste
Reduce image color depth for retro aesthetics, smaller file sizes, and artistic effects. Convert photos to limited color palettes from 2 to 256 colors.
or drop image here or paste
Image quantization reduces the number of distinct colors in an image, converting millions of colors to a limited palette. This technique creates retro video game aesthetics, reduces file sizes for GIF animations, and produces artistic posterization effects. The quantizer analyzes all pixels and selects the most representative colors to maintain image recognizability with fewer colors.
Upload your image and adjust the color count from 2 (extreme black and white effect) to 256 (subtle reduction). Lower values create more dramatic, poster-like results. Enable dithering to simulate missing colors through pixel patterns - Floyd-Steinberg dithering produces smooth gradients while ordered dithering creates recognizable pattern textures. The extracted palette displays below the controls showing exact colors used.
No dithering produces clean, solid color blocks ideal for illustrations and graphics. Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion distributes quantization errors to neighboring pixels, creating smooth apparent gradients with limited colors - best for photographs. Ordered (Bayer) dithering applies a fixed pattern matrix creating visible texture patterns reminiscent of retro computer graphics and newspaper printing.
Create GIF images requiring 256 or fewer colors with optimal palettes. Generate retro 8-bit or 16-bit style graphics from modern images. Reduce file sizes for web graphics with acceptable quality loss. Produce artistic effects similar to screen printing or risograph. Prepare images for limited-color display devices or printing processes with restricted ink palettes.
PNG preserves exact quantized colors with lossless compression, supporting transparency. GIF format is ideal for quantized images since it inherently uses indexed 256-color palettes. WebP provides efficient compression for quantized graphics. The color palette displayed can be extracted for use in design applications, ensuring consistent color schemes across projects.