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RGB2PCT(1)			      GDAL			      RGB2PCT(1)

NAME
     rgb2pct - Convert a 24bit RGB image to 8bit paletted.

SYNOPSIS
	rgb2pct [--help] [--help-general] [--creation-option OPTION]
		   [-n colors | -pct palette_file] [-of format] <source_file> <dest_file>

DESCRIPTION
     This utility will compute an optimal pseudo-color table for a given RGB im-
     age  using a median cut algorithm on a downsampled RGB histogram.	 Then it
     converts the image into a pseudo-colored image using the color table.  This
     conversion utilizes Floyd-Steinberg dithering (error diffusion) to maximize
     output image visual quality.

     NOTE:
	rgb2pct is a Python utility, and is only available if GDAL Python  bind-
	ings are available.

     --help
	    Show this help message and exit

     --help-general
	    Gives a brief usage message for the generic GDAL commandline options
	    and exit.

     -n <color>
	    Select  the number of colors in the generated color table.	Defaults
	    to 256.  Must be between 2 and 256.

     --creation-option OPTION
	    Optional creation parameters for the  GeoTIFF  driver,  for  example
	    "COMPRESS=LZW". Can be specified multiple times.

     -pct <palette_file>
	    Extract the color table from <palette_file> instead of computing it.
	    Can  be  used  to  have a consistent color table for multiple files.
	    The <palette_file> must be either a raster file in a GDAL  supported
	    format  with  a  palette or a color file in a supported format (txt,
	    qml, qlr).

     -of <format>
	    Select the output format. Starting with GDAL 2.3, if not  specified,
	    the format is guessed from the extension (previously was GTiff). Use
	    the  short	format name. Only output formats supporting pseudo-color
	    tables should be used.

     <source_file>
	    The input RGB file.

     <dest_file>
	    The output pseudo-colored file that will be created.

EXAMPLE
     If it is desired to hand create the palette, likely the simplest text  for-
     mat  is the GDAL VRT format.  In the following example a VRT was created in
     a	text  editor  with  a  small  4  color	palette  with  the  RGBA  colors
     238/238/238/255, 237/237/237/255, 236/236/236/255 and 229/229/229/255.

	$ rgb2pct -pct palette.vrt rgb.tif pseudo-colored.tif
	$ more < palette.vrt
	<VRTDataset rasterXSize="226" rasterYSize="271">
	    <VRTRasterBand dataType="Byte" band="1">
		<ColorInterp>Palette</ColorInterp>
		<ColorTable>
		<Entry c1="238" c2="238" c3="238" c4="255"/>
		<Entry c1="237" c2="237" c3="237" c4="255"/>
		<Entry c1="236" c2="236" c3="236" c4="255"/>
		<Entry c1="229" c2="229" c3="229" c4="255"/>
		</ColorTable>
	    </VRTRasterBand>
	</VRTDataset>

AUTHOR
     Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT
     1998-2025

				  Oct 29, 2025			      RGB2PCT(1)

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