---
name: "rgb2ycbcr"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "libtiff-tools"
version: "4.7.0-3+deb13u3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rgb2ycbcr"
---

# rgb2ycbcr(1)

convert non-YCbCr TIFF images to a YCbCr TIFF image

## NAME

rgb2ycbcr - convert non-YCbCr TIFF images to a YCbCr TIFF image

## SYNOPSIS

**rgb2ycbcr** \[ *options* \] *src1.tif src2.tif … dst.tif*

## DESCRIPTION

**rgb2ycbcr** converts RGB color, greyscale, or bi-level TIFF images to YCbCr images by transforming and sampling pixel data. If multiple files are specified on the command line each source file is converted to a separate directory in the destination file.

By default, chrominance samples are created by sampling 2 by 2 blocks of luminance values; this can be changed with the *-h* and *-v* options. Output data are compressed with the **PackBits** compression scheme, by default; an alternate scheme can be selected with the *-c* option. By default, output data are compressed in strips with the number of rows in each strip selected so that the size of a strip is never more than 8 kilobytes; the *-r* option can be used to explicitly set the number of rows per strip.

## OPTIONS

- **-c compress**

  Specify a compression scheme to use when writing image data: **-c none** for no compression, **-c packbits** for the PackBits compression algorithm (the default), **-c jpeg** for the JPEG compression algorithm, **-c zip** for the deflate compression algorithm, and **-c lzw** for Lempel-Ziv & Welch.

- **-h size**

  Set the horizontal sampling dimension to one of: 1, 2 (default), or 4.

- **-r striprows**

  Write data with a specified number of rows per strip; by default the number of rows/strip is selected so that each strip is approximately 8 kilobytes.

- **-v size**

  Set the vertical sampling dimension to one of: 1, 2 (default), or 4.

## SEE ALSO

*tiffinfo* (1), *tiffcp* (1), *libtiff* (3tiff)

## AUTHOR

LibTIFF contributors

## COPYRIGHT

1988-2022, LibTIFF contributors