16 Colors

This is a tutorial on how I take normal images and make them 16 color dithered images. Setting it up is surprisingly annoying but once you've set it up it is easy as pie.

By which I mean I've done the hard work for you of figuring out how I needed to export the swatch and the physical process of making the swatch and now you can be lazy and load it in.

  1. Download 16CGA.act from the File Repository.
  2. In Photoshop go to "Save for Web and Devices" - that's what it's called in CS5 and CS6. I think this is one of the older features but your milage may vary on the name.
  3. Now use the following export settings...
    • GIF
    • Custom
    • Pattern (you may play with this option)
    • Turn off transparency for authenticity.
    • Convert to sRGB can be left off (it will not make a difference in the end)
    • The preview does not matter, though Internet Standard RGB is probably the most useful.
    • Include any metadata you like.
    • For the color table click the little lines... the "blnds" and choose "Load color Table"
    • Load the color table you downloaded in step 1
  4. You can manually set the colors to 16 if you wish but I like to keep the colors lower if the image will allow for it to save space.


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