MedianschnittAlgorithmus

MedianschnittA... is an incomplete term that appears to reference the concept of a median cut, a method used in color quantization for digital images. The phrase "Medianschnitt" is German for "median cut" and is used in German-language discussions of the same technique. In standard references, the term denotes a space-partitioning algorithm that produces a palette of representative colors by repeatedly splitting the color space along median boundaries.

Overview: The algorithm takes a set of colors from an image and partitions the three-dimensional color space (R, G, B) into regions of similar color. Each region is represented by a single color, usually the average of its colors. The process repeats until a palette of the desired size is obtained.

Algorithm outline: Begin with the full color set. At each step, choose the channel with the largest range, sort by that channel, and split at the median value into two subsets. Recurse until the target palette size is reached. The final palette is the average color of each subset.

Applications and limitations: Median cut is widely used for color quantization in formats such as GIF and in tools that reduce color depth. It is simple and fast but can yield palettes with uneven luminance distribution and may not minimize perceptual error as well as some optimization methods such as k-means.

History: The technique was popularized in computer graphics by Paul Heckbert in the 1980s. While variants exist, the core idea remains splitting color space along the axis with the greatest spread at median values.