As has been commented before, GD doesnt do a very good translation to 2-colours, especially for photos. The following routine converts to two colours, I believe using error diffusion (the algorithm's nicked off news). It's slow, but just about adequate for small images and low load. I suspect it can be made much more efficient :-)
function ImageColorFloydSteinberg($dst_img, $src_img) {
ImageColorAllocate($dst_img, 0,0,0);
ImageColorAllocate($dst_img, 255,255,255);
$grey_img = ImageCreate(ImageSX($src_img), ImageSY($src_img));
for ($a = 0; $a <= 255; $a++) ImageColorAllocate($grey_img, $a,$a,$a);
for($x = 0; $x <= ImageSX($src_img); $x++) {
for($y = 0; $y <= ImageSY($src_img); $y++) {
$color = ImageColorsForIndex($src_img, ImageColorAt($src_img, $x, $y));
$greyscale = .299 * $color["red"] + .587 * $color["green"] + .114 * $color["blue"];
ImageSetPixel($grey_img, $x, $y, ImageColorClosest($grey_img, $greyscale, $greyscale, $greyscale));
}
}
for($x = 0; $x <= ImageSX($src_img); $x++) {
for($y = 0; $y <= ImageSY($src_img); $y++) {
$color = ImageColorsForIndex($grey_img, ImageColorAt($grey_img, $x, $y));
if ($color["red"] > 128) {
ImageSetPixel($dst_img, $x, $y, ImageColorClosest($dst_img,255,255,255));
$err = $color["red"] - 255;
} else {
ImageSetPixel($dst_img, $x, $y, ImageColorClosest($dst_img,0,0,0));
$err = $color["red"];
}
if ($x != ImageSx($src_img)) {
$color2 = ImageColorsForIndex($grey_img, ImageColorAt($grey_img, $x+1, $y));
$newgrey = $color2["red"] + $err * 7 / 16;
ImageSetPixel($grey_img, $x+1, $y, ImageColorClosest($grey_img,$newgrey, $newgrey, $newgrey));
}
if ($x != 0) {
$color2 = ImageColorsForIndex($grey_img, ImageColorAt($grey_img, $x-1, $y));
$newgrey = $color2["red"] + $err * 3 / 16;
ImageSetPixel($grey_img, $x-1, $y, ImageColorClosest($grey_img,$newgrey, $newgrey, $newgrey));
}
if ($y != ImageSy($src_img)) {
$color2 = ImageColorsForIndex($grey_img, ImageColorAt($grey_img, $x, $y+1));
$newgrey = $color2["red"] + $err * 5 / 16;
ImageSetPixel($grey_img, $x, $y+1, ImageColorClosest($grey_img,$newgrey, $newgrey, $newgrey));
}
if ($x != ImageSx($src_img) && $y != ImageSy($src_img)) {
$color2 = ImageColorsForIndex($grey_img, ImageColorAt($grey_img, $x+1, $y+1));
$newgrey = $color2["red"] + $err / 16;
ImageSetPixel($grey_img, $x+1, $y+1, ImageColorClosest($grey_img,$newgrey, $newgrey, $newgrey));
}
}
}
imagedestroy($grey_img);
}
To output your WBMP, use
ImageWBMP($final_img, "", ImageColorClosest(255,255,255));