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

# tiffmedian(1)

apply the median cut algorithm to data in a TIFF file

## NAME

tiffmedian - apply the median cut algorithm to data in a TIFF file

## SYNOPSIS

**tiffmedian** \[ *options* \] *input.tif* *output.tif*

## DESCRIPTION

**tiffmedian** applies the median cut algorithm to an RGB image in *input.tif* to generate a palette image that is written to *output.tif*.  The generated colormap has, by default, 256 entries. The image data is quantized by mapping each pixel to the closest color values in the colormap.

## OPTIONS

- **-c**

  Specify the compression to use for data written to the output file: **-c none** for no compression, **-c  packbits** for PackBits compression, **-c lzw** for Lempel-Ziv & Welch compression, **-c zip** for Deflate compression.

  By default **tiffmedian** will compress data according to the value of the **Compression** tag found in the source file.

  LZW compression can be specified together with a **predictor** value. A predictor value of 2 causes each scanline of the output image to undergo horizontal differencing before it is encoded; a value of 1 forces each scanline to be encoded without differencing. LZW-specific options are specified by appending a **:**-separated list to the **lzw** option; e.g. **-c lzw:2** for LZW compression with horizontal differencing.

- **-C**

  Specify the number of entries to use in the generated colormap. By default all 256 entries/colors are used.

- **-f**

  Apply Floyd-Steinberg dithering before selecting a colormap entry.

- **-r**

  Specify the number of rows (scanlines) in each strip of data written to the output file.  By default, **tiffmedian** attempts to set the rows/strip that no more than 8 kilobytes of data appear in a strip.

## NOTES

This program is derived from Paul Heckbert's **median** program.

## SEE ALSO

*pal2rgb* (1), *tiffinfo* (1), *tiffcp* (1), *tiffcmp* (1), *libtiff* (3tiff),

**"Color Image Quantization for Frame Buffer Display"**, Paul Heckbert, SIGGRAPH proceedings, 1982, pp. 297-307.

## AUTHOR

LibTIFF contributors

## COPYRIGHT

1988-2022, LibTIFF contributors