Patent ID: 8805069

Claim:
A method comprising: a computing device obtaining an m×n pixel cell from an input image, wherein the input image contains more than m×n pixels, and each of the m×n pixels in the m×n pixel cell has a respective color value; the computing device determining a characterization of the m×n pixel cell, wherein determining the characterization comprises determining a lowest color value and a highest color value of the pixels in the m×n pixel cell; the computing device calculating a difference between the highest color value and the lowest color value; if the difference is less than or equal to a threshold difference, the computing device selecting an output color value inclusively between the highest color value and the lowest color value, and writing a first representation of the output color value to an output medium, wherein the first representation includes a single-color opcode and an indication of the output color value; and if the difference is greater than the threshold difference, the computing device selecting multiple output color values, and writing a second representation of the multiple output color values to the output medium.