1. bits per pixel graphics> bpp The number of bits of information stored per pixel of an image or displayed by a graphics adapter. The more bits there are, the more colours can be represented, but the more memory is required to store or display the image. A colour can be described by the intensities of red, green and blue RGB components. Allowing 8 bits 1 byte per component 24 bits per pixel gives 256 levels for each component and over 16 million different colours - more than the human eye can distinguish. Microsoft Windows [and others?] calls this truecolour. An image of 1024x768 with 24 bpp requires over 2 MB of memory. "High colour" uses 16 bpp or 15 bpp, 5 bits for blue, 5 bits for red and 6 bits for green. This reduced colour precision gives a slight loss of image quality at a 1/3 saving on memory. Standard VGA uses a palette of 16 colours 4 bpp, each colour in the palette is 24 bit. Standard SVGA uses a palette of 256 colours 8 bpp. Some graphics hardware and software support 32-bit colour depths, including an 8-bit "alpha channel" for transparency effects.
bits per pixel |
