32 bit colour

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peach
  • Start date Start date
Peach said:
im aware that 32 bit relates to the cpu but can someone tell me how it
relates to colour?
Click to expand...

Where colour is concerned, the number of bits directly relates to the number
of colours that can be displayed at any one time. This is not related at all
to whether your processor is 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit or whatever.

For example:
With 16-bit colour, 16-bits are used to store the colour information for
every pixel displayed, allowing 65536 different colours on screen at any one
time (including black) .
Similarly 24-bit colour allows for 16777216 different colours on screen.
 
Peach said:
im aware that 32 bit relates to the cpu but can someone tell me how it
relates to colour?
Click to expand...

Data for each pixel on the screen has to be held in the video card's
memory. This can allow 8 16 24 or 32 bits for each pixel - 8 and 16
working via a look up table, giving up to 256 (poor) or 65536 (usually
enough) individual color possibilities per pixel. Above that 'True
color' uses one byte each for the red green and blue brightnesses,
respectively, which is reckoned to be as fine a level of distinction as
the human eye can manage, That is 24 bit - 32 bit then has a spare byte
that can be used for special effect purposes. With cheaper RAM, cards
tend to use 32 rather than 24, as it makes for easier addressing and
hence speeds operation
 
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