Rescale intensity of 12 bit image encoded as 16 bit

[dzenanz]

I sometimes work with 12-bit images which are saved into 16-bit files. As file's maximum supported intensity is 65535, and actual brightest pixel has 4095 intensity, the image appears very dark:

12_as_16.png

Such images should be rescaled so they look like this:

12_as_16_rescaled.png

Ideally, this would be configurable via these options:

• Never rescale
• Brightest pixel to 255 (default)
• Increase brightness by whole bit levels

The last option would round the brightest pixel up to the power of 2, and rescale that to 255. E.g. if brightest pixel is 4000, 4095 should be rescaled to 255. If brightest pixel is 30000, then 32767 should be rescaled to 255.

Does this feature request make sense, how likely it is to be implemented, and is there any time estimate?