The Color Cell Compression algorithm processes an image in eight steps, although one of the steps (step #6) is optional. It is assumed here that the input is a 24 bits/pixel image, as assumed in the original journal article, although other bit depths could be used.
Decompression is very easy and straightforward. To reconstruct each compressed 4-pixel by 4-pixel block, the 16-bit luminance bitmap is consulted for each block. Depending on whether an element of the bitmap is 1 or 0, one of the two 8-bit indices into the lookup table is selected and then dereferenced and the corresponding 24-bit per pixel color value is retrieved.
In spite of its very simple mechanism, the algorithm yields surprisingly good results on photographic images, and it has the advantage of being very fast to decode with limited hardware. Although far surpassed in compression ratio by later block-transform coding methods such as JPEG, it has the advantage of very simple decompression and fast random access into the compressed image.
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Wennersten, P.; Ström, J. (2009). "Table-based Alpha Compression" (PDF). Computer Graphics Forum. 28 (2): 687. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8659.2009.01409.x. S2CID 7743813. http://www.jacobstrom.com/publications/alphalineWennerstenStrom09.pdf
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0
Campbell, G.; Defanti, T. A.; Frederiksen, J.; Joyce, S. A.; Leske, L. A. (1986). "Two bit/pixel full color encoding". Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '86. p. 215. doi:10.1145/15922.15910. ISBN 978-0-89791-196-2. S2CID 18392630. 978-0-89791-196-2
Pins, Markus (1991). "Extensions of the Color-Cell-Compression-Algorithm". Computer Animation '91. pp. 241–251. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-66890-9_17. ISBN 978-4-431-66892-3. 978-4-431-66892-3
Lamparter, Bernd Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "EXtended color cell compression — A runtime-efficient compression scheme for software video". Multimedia: Advanced Teleservices and High-Speed Communication Architectures. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 868. pp. 181–190. doi:10.1007/3-540-58494-3_16. ISBN 978-3-540-58494-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link] 978-3-540-58494-0