Hello everybody,
Can anybody explain me how to save a render result with dithering? I have tried to do it with compositing and sequencer (though I don’t know how to work with it), but got no results.
How do you save it? I get correct results.
In Render Result window: Image –> Save as Image.
Korchy, thank you. I hope an easier way does exist 
I have similar problems, and have been seeking an answer for quite some time. The dithering is applied in the viewport, but not in the saved image. The link shared above mentions nothing of this problem, only how to add more if this dithering is insufficient.
So the question is: how do you export the image with dithering applied? I can take a screenshot of the viewport, and it has dithering applied in the resulting png. But the saved-as png does not.
Seems that this option is of no use at the present time 
Seems to work perfectly fine here…
Top: Without dither / Bottom: Dithered, both saved via Image > Save as Image.
What OS and what version of Blender is used?
OS: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS x64
Blender 2.78c
Rndering on CPU: Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz × 2
I’m on Windows 10 (Blender 2.78c).
Let’s wait for a feedback from KernelA, who also reports problems with saving the dithered image.
Could this be a Linux only issue?
@IkariShinji, could you share the scene?
With this scene I am getting similar result in Windows and Linux:
http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=46247
That is, there are just minimal changes comparing dither and no dither images (Windows and Linux).
Image is saved in jpg with much compression, I do not really see bands with png in this scene.
Sorry, no: I didn’t keep my scene…
Just tried your file - and to be honest, I don’t see any banding in the render even without dithering…
I can see bands in both if I saved as jpg (I can not see them if it saved as png). But I’m not sure when this is due to monitor settings or problems in the jpg. I do not know much about this.
Yafu, I don’t see bands in your file. I think it’s better to check it with something like emission shader with a gradient texture because a simple diffuse surface isn’t smooth (so it gives some dithering noise). Check my file: Dither.blend (91.5 KB)
Wow!, I was referring to the problem of banding when you save 8 bits images and more if it is lossy compression. I see the bands in my example after save it as jpg, not in viewport.
Very good sample file! I did not think that banding problem could be so obvious in raw image in viewport.
But… On my system (Kubuntu Linux 64 bit) Dither is working well on saved images with your sample file!
I always use Official Blender (tar.bz2, extract and run “blender” file). Do you use official Blender or from distro repositories?
I use official Blender downloaded from its site.
Weird…
Here’s what I get with your sample file (no dither vs dither=2:
http://pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=114646
Hmmm… really weird 
Same problem here. Will continue my search through the forums, but if ANYONE has a fix for this that’d be great. I have a tight deadline for this indie film, and this is a real buggeroo.
Hi Earendil18,
I have just tried Blender 2.79 and found that there is no problem if saving an image as JPEG.