The document proposes a new hybrid steganographic method that embeds data in grayscale images while preserving the histogram characteristics. It uses pixel value differencing (PVD) and least significant bit (LSB) substitution. The method divides the pixel range into lower and higher levels and embeds more bits in higher levels. Each 3x3 block has a base pixel where 3 bits are embedded using LSB replacement. Remaining pixels are embedded using PVD. Experiments show it provides higher embedding capacity and image quality than existing methods, while introducing fewer changes to the histogram.