Image processing systems and methods are presented for encoding 8-bit color image data to 4-bit data using an encoding table by assigning a pixel type value to each 8-bit pixel according to a 9×3 tiling pattern with 9 unique pixel type values in each 3×3 window of the 9×3 tiling pattern, and for decoding the 4-bit image data based on the pixel type value and the encoded data values for neighboring pixels.