(1) May refer to any coding system that uses numeric values to represent something. The depth, or number of bits, determines how many discrete items can be represented.
(2) The number of bits used to hold a pixel. Also called "color depth" and "pixel depth," the bit depth determines the maximum number of colors that can be displayed at one time. True Color (16M colors) is required for photorealistic images and video. Most display adapters today support 65K and 16M colors at their highest resolution without noticeable loss of performance in rendering the images. See indexed color.
Bit depth
Pixel depth
Color depth Number of colors
4-bits 16 (Standard VGA)
8-bits 256 (Super VGA, indexed color)
16-bits 65,536 (High Color)
24-bits 16,777,216 (True Color)
32-bits 16,777,216 + alpha channel
15-bits 32,768 (Custom option sometimes
available on earlier
display adapters)
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