4 Shade Grayscale Dithering

Two bits of grey.

Unprocessed source photograph — Original

Photograph converted to the Grayscale 4 palette with Atkinson dithering — Grayscale 4 · Atkinson

Convert your image to Grayscale 4

Four evenly spaced levels from black to white. Adding just two mid greys to a 1-bit image transforms how much structure survives, while keeping the reduced, deliberately limited feel.

This is roughly what early greyscale handhelds offered, and it is a good middle ground when pure black and white loses too much.

When 1-bit is too harsh but full greyscale is too ordinary.

Other palettes

Game Boy NES Commodore 64 CGA Apple II ZX Spectrum PICO-8 Black and White (1-bit)Grayscale 8 Grayscale 16

Pick a dithering algorithm

Floyd-Steinberg Atkinson Ordered (Bayer)Jarvis-Judice-Ninke Stucki Burkes Sierra-3

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