So, let's say we have all these 16-bit TIFFs for an Image / Frame Sequence, but we know that this is the final master, color grading is done, and so anything over 10, 12, or 14 bits will be a waste of space, right? So why not have an option to quantize those final 16-bit-per channel (48-bit RGB) mastered images to 10-bit (30-bit RGB, 1024 levels per channel), 12-bit (36-bit RGB, 4096 levels per channel), or 14-bit (42-bit RGB, 16384&*8236; levels per channel) before converting to 16-bit PNG? That way the color quantize is already done, we get to store a lossless backup in the smallest space possible since PNG will only store the actual bit depth in a 16-bit PNG image (or at least from my tests in Photoshop that is indeed what seems to happen), and when newer video compression schemes come out you have a lossless-but-highly-compressed source.
I used ximagic on a TIFF file from an image sequence, used kMeans quantization to 8-bit (24-bit RGB, 256 levels per channel), 10-bit (30-bit RGB, 1024 levels per channel), and 12-bit (36-bit RGB, 4096 levels per channel)
kMeans for Color Quantization: https://lmcaraig.com/color-quantization-using-k-means
Results with file size are shown below. I used LZW compression on the TIFF files and Mixed Prediction Method on the PNG files.
Per one frame
| Filetype | 8-bit result (KB) | 10-bit result (KB) | 12-bit result (KB) | 16-bit result (KB) |
| TIFF [1080p] | 2,533 | 3,807 | 4,556 | 10,613 |
| PNG [1080p] | 2,202 | 3,002 | 3,352 | 8,166 |
| TIFF [2160p] | 8,431 | 13,301 | 16,388 | 45,853 |
| PNG [2160p] | 4,519 | 7,344 | 9,014 | 27,550 |
Based on size differences and current folder of Frame Sequence Images
| Sequence Type | 8-bit archive (TB) | 10-bit archive (TB) | 12-bit archive (TB) | 16-bit archive (TB) |
| TIFF - HD | 0.34 | 0.52 | 0.62 | 1.44 |
| PNG - HD | 0.3 | 0.41 | 0.46 | 1.11 |
| TIFF - HD @ 60fps | 0.86 | 1.29 | 1.55 | 3.61 |
| PNG - HD @ 60fps | 0.75 | 1.02 | 1.14 | 2.78 |
| TIFF - 4K | 1.15 | 1.81 | 2.23 | 6.23 |
| PNG - 4K | 0.62 | 1 | 1.23 | 3.74 |
| TIFF - 4K @ 60fps | 2.86 | 4.52 | 5.57 | 15.58 |
| PNG - 4K @ 60fps | 1.53 | 2.5 | 3.06 | 9.36 |
Per average of the total folder size of all rendered frames. For 12-bit video you are talking cutting your archive of the original frames by 2/3
Is this a solid idea or am I way off base?
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P.S. Image converter does not seem to be optimized to handle large sets of images such as these. When I clicked on the folder to select all the images, dBpoweramp Image Converter starting using the hard drive for about 5 hours before I finally ended the process and split things up into smaller batches[/SIZE]