toonemaping

Toonemapping is a term occasionally used in computer graphics and digital art to describe a stylization process that maps a real-world image or 3D render into a cartoon-like representation by combining toon shading with tone-mapping-inspired control of luminance and contrast. The expression is not standardized, and definitions vary: some sources treat toonemapping as a procedural pipeline that applies edge-preserving toon shading and then applies perceptual luminance mapping to produce bold highlights and flat shaded regions; others use it to describe learning-based stylization that preserves overall brightness while producing cartoon-like colors and outlines.

Typical approaches combine edge detection to generate outlines with color quantization to reduce the palette, and luminance remapping to control brightness nonlinearly. Some pipelines use gradient-domain processing to maintain shading fidelity while simplifying colors; more recent methods employ neural networks trained to produce cartoon-like outputs with controlled tonal range.

Applications include digital art production, animation, video games, film post-production, and scientific visualization where clear figure-ground separation is desired. The term is often used interchangeably with toon shading, cartoonization, or stylized tone mapping, but many researchers treat toonemapping as a hybrid or a subclass within non-photorealistic rendering. Evaluation typically considers edge fidelity, color consistency, brightness preservation, and user preference.

See also: toon shading; tone mapping; non-photorealistic rendering; cartoonization.