What is the Difference Between Boundary Fill and Flood Fill?

The main difference between boundary fill and flood fill algorithms lies in their application and how they process images with different boundary colors. Here are the key differences between the two algorithms:

• Flood-fill Algorithm:
• Also known as seed fill algorithm.
• Determines the area connected to a given node in a multi-dimensional array.
• Works by filling or recoloring a selected area containing different colors.
• Can process images with more than one boundary color.
• Memory consumption is relatively high.
• Comparatively slower than the boundary-fill algorithm.
• Boundary-fill Algorithm:
• Works by checking the default color of the pixel before filling, and if the color is not the boundary color, it fills the pixel with the fill color and moves to the next pixel, repeating the process until it encounters the boundary-colored pixel.
• Can only process images with a single boundary color.
• Memory consumption is relatively low.
• Faster and more complicated than the flood-fill algorithm.

In summary, the flood-fill algorithm is more suitable for objects with no uniformly colored boundaries and can process images with multiple boundary colors, while the boundary-fill algorithm is better for arbitrarily shaped regions with a single boundary color and requires less memory.

Comparative Table: Boundary Fill vs Flood Fill

The main difference between boundary fill and flood fill algorithms lies in the way they process and fill the regions in an image. Here is a table comparing their key differences:

In summary, the flood fill algorithm is better suited for filling large contiguous areas with a single color, while the boundary fill algorithm is more effective for regions with a single boundary color.