Contrast Preserving Decolorization with Perception-Based Quality Metrics

Converting color images into grayscale ones suffer from information loss. In the meantime, it is one fundamental tool indispensable for single channel image processing, digital printing, and monotone e-ink display. In this paper, we propose an optimization framework aiming at maximally preserving color contrast. Our main contribution is threefold. First, we employ a bimodal objective function to alleviate the restrictive order constraint for color mapping. Second, we develop an efficient solver that allows for automatic selection of suitable grayscales based on global contrast constraints. Third, we advocate a perceptual-based metric to measure contrast loss, as well as content preservation, in the produced grayscale images. It is among the first attempts in this field to quantitatively evaluate decolorization results.