Number of bits associated to each pixel to define the colour. The number of colours available is based on the 2bit per pixel formula. With 24 bits per pixel (that is 16,777,216 colours) you have a true colour, that is a real colour.
Amount of data used to create colour on a monitor display.
This refers to the maximum number of colours that can be recorded by digital cameras and scanners or that can be displayed by graphics cards. A true colour representation can be achieved at a colour depth of 8 bits per primary colour, that is a 24 bit colour depth. In this case, 256 bits are available for one pixel. With an RGB signal, this value is then multiplied by a factor of three so that a total of 256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216 colours can be displayed. High-end scanners, graphic cards etc. provide a minimum colour depth of 24 bit.
The current number of colours which are available for display. Colours are measured in bits. There is 4-bit (16 colours), 8-bit colour (256 colours), 16-bit (65536 colours, also know as "High Color" or "Thousands of Colors"), and 24-bit (16777216 colours, also know as "True Color" or "Millions of Colors"). 32-bit colour contains the same number of colours as 24-bit, but is 32-bit for memory alignment purposes. 3D acceleration is only able to operate at 16-bit or 32-bit colour. Higher colour depths result in more memory usage and usually slower performance.
Also referred to as bit depth is the number of bits used to describe the colour of each pixel. Greater bit depth allows a greater range of colours or shades of grey to be represented by a pixel, e.g.: - 1 bit is black or white (on or off) - 8-bit grayscale is 256 shades of grey - 8-bit colour is 256 colours - 16-bit colour is 65,536 colours - 24-bit colour resolution is 16.7 million colours - 30-bit or higher colour is billions of colours
These days virtually all computer monitors can display colours. All new PC's tend to be supplied with screens that can display at least 65,000 colours and most can display many more. However for some older computers can still only display 256 colours. When photographs or complicated graphics are displayed on these older monitors the colours of the original image have to be approximated to the nearest available colour. This results in a speckled image called dithering.
256 colour (8 bit) / 16 million colour (24 bit). The greater the colour depth, the better the quality of the colour image. NB. Files sizes also increase markedly.
The possible range of colours that can be used in a movie or image. There are generally four choices with video; Greyscale, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 24-bit. Higher colour depths provide a wider range of colours, but require more space for a given image size.
Digital images can approximate colour realism, but how they do so is referred to as colour depth, pixel-depth, or bit depth. Modern computer displays use 24-bit True Colour. It's called this because it displays 16 million colours, about the same number as the human eye can discern.
The number of possible colours in a graphic image, stored as a given number of bits per pixel. A colour depth of 8 bits provides 256 colours; 16 bits (also known as "High Colour") provides about 65,000 colours; 24 bits (also known as "True Colour") provides about 16,000,000 colours.
Refers to the amount of information held in one pixel of an image, and the amount of file space that information uses. In a one bit image (1 bpp) the pixel is either black or white. A 2 bpp image would have 4 colours. 8bpp images contain up to 256 colours or greys. A 16 bit image can contain 65 536 colours, a 24 bit image 16.7 million colours. Colour Depth is sometimes called COLOUR MODE.
Refers to the amount of memory (and therefore number of simultaneously displayable colours) available to store colour information for each pixel. see 'bit planes'.