What would be a good TRUE black and white colormatrix?

Question

I want to convert an image from color to B/W (i.e. no grayscale, just black and white). Does anyone have a good colormatrix to achieve this?

Answer 1

I've finally found a solution to my problem:

1. Transform the image to grayscale, using well a known colormatrix.
2. Use SetThreshold method of the ImageAttributes class to set the threshold that separates black from white.

Here is the C# code:

using (Graphics gr = Graphics.FromImage(SourceImage)) // SourceImage is a Bitmap object
        {                
            var gray_matrix = new float[][] { 
                new float[] { 0.299f, 0.299f, 0.299f, 0, 0 }, 
                new float[] { 0.587f, 0.587f, 0.587f, 0, 0 }, 
                new float[] { 0.114f, 0.114f, 0.114f, 0, 0 }, 
                new float[] { 0,      0,      0,      1, 0 }, 
                new float[] { 0,      0,      0,      0, 1 } 
            };

            var ia = new System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageAttributes();
            ia.SetColorMatrix(new System.Drawing.Imaging.ColorMatrix(gray_matrix));
            ia.SetThreshold(0.8); // Change this threshold as needed
            var rc = new Rectangle(0, 0, SourceImage.Width, SourceImage.Height);
            gr.DrawImage(SourceImage, rc, 0, 0, SourceImage.Width, SourceImage.Height, GraphicsUnit.Pixel, ia);                
        }

I've benchmarked this code and it is approximately 40 times faster than pixel by pixel manipulation.

Answer 2

VB.NET version:

Using gr As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(SourceImage) 'SourceImage is a Bitmap object'
  Dim gray_matrix As Single()() = {
    New Single() {0.299F, 0.299F, 0.299F, 0, 0},
    New Single() {0.587F, 0.587F, 0.587F, 0, 0},
    New Single() {0.114F, 0.114F, 0.114F, 0, 0},
    New Single() {0, 0, 0, 1, 0},
    New Single() {0, 0, 0, 0, 1}
  }
  Dim ia As New System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageAttributes
  ia.SetColorMatrix(New System.Drawing.Imaging.ColorMatrix(gray_matrix))
  ia.SetThreshold(0.8)
  Dim rc As New Rectangle(0, 0, SourceImage.Width, SourceImage.Height)
  gr.DrawImage(SourceImage, rc, 0, 0, SourceImage.Width, SourceImage.Height, GraphicsUnit.Pixel, ia)
End Using

Answer 3

If you want it to look halfway decent, you'll probably want to apply some form of dithering.

Here's a full discussion, if a bit dated:

http://www.efg2.com/Lab/Library/ImageProcessing/DHALF.TXT

Answer 4

You dont need a color matrix to achive this, just simply change encoding to CCITT! That only Black & White. Result remains correct and result file size is very small. Also much more efficient and faster than System.DrawImage.

This is the perfect solution:

public void toCCITT(string tifURL)
{
    byte[] imgBits = File.ReadAllBytes(tifURL);

    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(imgBits))
    {
        using (Image i = Image.FromStream(ms))
        {
            EncoderParameters parms = new EncoderParameters(1);
            ImageCodecInfo codec = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageDecoders()
                                                 .FirstOrDefault(decoder => decoder.FormatID == ImageFormat.Tiff.Guid);

            parms.Param[0] = new EncoderParameter(Encoder.Compression, (long)EncoderValue.CompressionCCITT4);

            i.Save(@"c:\test\result.tif", codec, parms);
        }
    }
}