This is a supplement to the main 32 KiB image dither post where almost every copy of the shoes picture (we skipped the CGA and PICO-8 ones) is displayed at 1045 width, 784 height - the size of the largest image in the original post - with lightly edited versions of their original image descriptions but otherwise without commentary.

Full color:
A full-color photograph of two pairs of feet in shoes standing on a concrete slab next to a pillar. At the top of the image is a pair of running shoes with red toes fading to black along their length, sticking out of a blue skirt with an abstract pattern. On the right are a filthy pair of white running shoes with bright red-orange trim sticking out of dark pants, standing on a chain that's wrapped around the pillar. Scaled up, it's pretty blurry.
8 colors, optimized, no dither:
The shoes picture, reduced to areas of black, grays, two blues, and one dull red. A touch blurry.
8 colors, optimized, no dither, auto-level:
The shoes picture, reduced to areas of black, grays, off-white, two rich blues, and a glowing dull red. Still a touch blurry.
7 colors, optimized, no dither, auto-level:
The shoes picture, reduced to areas of black, dirty grays, off-white, one bold blue, and one glowing dull red. Again, a touch blurry.
8 colors, optimized, auto-level, Floyd-Steinberg dither:
The shoes picture, rendered in smooth dithered blends between grays, black, off-white, one warm red, and a dark and a light blue. The pixels are very obvious, particularly where discordant like the white on the skirt, but not obnoxious.
7 colors, optimized, auto-level, Floyd-Steinberg dither:
The shoes picture, rendered in smooth dithered blends between grays, black, off-white, one warm red, and a medium blue. Like the last picture, the pixels are obvious but not obnoxious.
8 colors, optimized, auto-level, Riemersma dither:
The shoes picture, rendered in blobby splotches of grays, black, off-white, glowing dull red, and blues. The blurriness from being zoomed in just amplifies the impressionistic effect.
7 colors, optimized, auto-level, Riemersma dither:
The shoes picture, rendered in blobby splotches of grays, black, off-white, glowing dull red, and bold medium blue. Again, the blurriness from zooming enhances the effect.
3-bit RGB:
The shoes picture, rendered in eye-searing harsh colors and looking both blown-out in the highlights and crushed in the shadows. Slightly pixellated, but who cares?
3-bit RGB, Floyd-Steinberg:
The shoes picture, captured with fairly high fidelity, but with gigantic grainy pixels.
3-bit RGB, Riemersma:
The shoes picture, captured as a mess of huge colored blobs.
Ordered dither, 2x2 diffused pixel (Bayer):
The shoes picture. A clear grid pattern fills the image, and while there is clear color banding and, thanks to rescaling, a subtle Moiré effect, the resultant colors are subtly heightened by the limited number of possibilities.
Ordered dither, 3x3 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture. A prominent and slightly messy grid pattern fills the image, but through it you can see colors and details clearly.
Ordered dither, 4x4 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture. A reasonably-fine mesh crisscrosses the image, overlaying all the colorful details with patterns of dots.
Ordered dither, 8x8 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture. Again, a reasonably-fine mesh crisscrosses the image, although now there are some additional stray dots from time to time.
Full grayscale:
The shoes picture, now in grayscale. Now there is simply a dark skirt and dark shoes versus black pants and white shoes caked in mud. It's still really blurry.
Threshold dither:
The shoes picture. The whole picture has been blown out to pure black and white, great blocks with scatterings of pixels at some edges. The red shoes are almost pure black, and the white shows stark white. Contrasted with the image directly before, it is shockingly crisp.
Monochrome, optimized Floyd-Steinberg:
The shoes picture, in smoothly dithered grayscale with moderately heightened contrast. The pixels are more noticeable, but not obnoxious.
Monochrome, optimized Riemersma:
The shoes picture, in dramatic messy black-and-white, again with heightened contrast. A touch blurrier than the threshold dither, but it serves the effect.
Monochrome, 1-bit Floyd-Steinberg:
The shoes picture, in kinda flat dithered grayscale. The messy dot pattern is very visible.
Monochrome, 1-bit Riemersma:
The shoes picture, rendered in splotches of black and white. It feels hard to see what's going on, even if most of the details are present.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 2x2 diffused pixel (Bayer):
The shoes picture. The spectrum of colors have been posterized into a handful of grays, dithered with a neat grid that's somewhat marred by the Moiré pattern, but the details of shoelaces, chain links, and so forth are clear.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 3x3 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture, still in black and white. While there is clear 'color' banding, you can feel the variety of shades and gradients throughout. The grid is not quite so tidy as the 2x2 ordered dither - you still get all those circles on the pillar - but in the scope of the picture it is not distracting.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 4x4 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture. The fine mesh pattern of the dither captures smooth gradients along the red shoes and subtleties in the wrinkles of the skirt, but is very present. And a little Moiré'd.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 8x8 diffused pixel:
The shoes picture. Like the 4x4, the 8x8 captures the fine details of the grayscale color well in its fine mesh, but suffers a little from Moiré patterns.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 4x4 angled halftone:
The shoes picture. There's brightness differentiation enough to capture the gradients in the red shoes, and image details are clear enough. There is a grid pattern, set at an angle on the screen, but the dots tend larger than the diffused-pixel dithers. Still Moiré'd, though.
Monochrome, ordered dither, 4x4 orthogonal halftone:
The shoes picture. There's a very clear square grid of dots, switching from black dots on white in light areas to white on black in dark areas, that is just beginning to overwhelm the fine details of the image, but the color fidelity is superb - very little banding. (And it happens to get lucky on the Moiré pattern.)
Monochrome, ordered dither, 6x6 angled halftone:
The shoes picture. The grid of dots is now at an angle, but a similar story: very good color fidelity, details are beginning to be lost in the dots, lucky on the Moiré pattern.
Random Dither with Threshold, B&W:
The shoes picture. The dark parts are crushed to black, the light parts are blown out, and between there's a mess of chunky noise which does just barely manage to capture some differentiations between the lightest 'grays' and the darkest ones. Gradient in the red shoes, not really.
Random Dither with Threshold, Color:
The shoes picture, back in color. The colors are generally heightened - the skirt is a vibrant, almost glowing blue, the red shoes have a magenta sheen, the trim on the white shows is glowing - and all the gradients and the intermediate colors (e.g. the pillar) are a riot of bright but blurry noise.

Back to main 32 KiB image dither post.