Dither-Pro

Overview

Dither-Pro is a high-performance image dithering toolkit designed for digital artists, game developers, and retro aesthetic enthusiasts. Built with a responsive PySide6 interface and accelerated by Numba's JIT compilation, it provides real-time processing of advanced error-diffusion and ordered dithering algorithms.

Dither-Pro goes beyond standard image converters by offering granular control over pixel distribution, palette quantization, and post-processing, allowing you to easily achieve precise, high-fidelity vintage effects.

Key Features

Advanced Dithering Engine

• Error Diffusion: Includes Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson, Jarvis-Judice-Ninke (JJN), and Stucki algorithms.
• Ordered Dithering: Supports structured patterns like Bayer Matrix (8x8) and Clustered Dot Halftoning.
• Stochastic Dithering: Uses controlled randomness to minimize banding and generate organic textures.
• Variable Strength: Blend original and dithered images for precise intensity control.

Dynamic Palette Management

• Smart Quantization: Auto-generate optimized color palettes directly from source images while preserving fidelity.
• Retro Presets: Built-in classic palettes including Game Boy, PICO-8, and CGA.
• Color Control: Fine-tune outputs with adjustable color counts (ranging from 2 to 256 colors) and dedicated grayscale support.

Real-Time Post-Processing

• HSV Tuning: Non-destructive adjustments to Hue, Saturation, and Value directly on the dithered output.
• LUT Support: Apply Look-Up Tables (LUTs) for sophisticated, immediate color grading.
• Optimized Pipeline: Instant visual feedback powered by vectorized NumPy operations and Numba acceleration.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• pip

Setup

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/dovvnloading/Dither-Pro.git
   cd Dither-Pro

2. Create and Activate a Virtual Environment

   # Windows
   python -m venv venv
   .\venv\Scripts\activate
   
   # macOS/Linux
   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install Dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the Application

   python Dither_app/Dither_app/Dither_app.py

Usage Workflow

The UI is divided into three primary panels for efficient image manipulation:

1. Dithering Workspace: The core hub. Select your preferred algorithm, set the dithering strength, dictate the color count, and apply either smart-generated or preset palettes.
2. Color Adjustment Panel: Fine-tune your result using real-time sliders to globally shift Hue, adjust Saturation levels, and control overall Value (brightness/contrast).
3. Grading Suite: Load and apply LUTs to completely transform the mood and stylistic aesthetic of your final image with a single click.

Technical Architecture

Dither-Pro is built with a focus on non-blocking performance and maintainability:

• UI Layer: Built with PySide6 for a native, cross-platform graphical user interface.
• Concurrency: Utilizes QThread workers to offload computationally heavy processing from the main UI thread, ensuring the interface never freezes.
• High-Performance Computation: Core dithering algorithms (located in algorithms.py) are strictly optimized with numba (JIT) and vectorized NumPy operations, achieving near-C speeds for high-resolution asset processing.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.