8-bit lcd panel colors free sample

This is a list of notable 8-bit computer color palettes, and graphics, which were primarily manufactured from 1975 to 1985. Although some of them use RGB palettes, more commonly they have 4, 16 or more color palettes that are not bit nor level combinations of RGB primaries, but fixed ROM/circuitry colors selected by the manufacturer. Due to mixed-bit architectures, the n-bit distinction is not always a strict categorization. Another common mistake is the assumption that a color palette of a given computer is what it can display all at once. Resolution is also a crucial aspect when criticizing an 8-bit computer, as many offer different modes with different amounts of colors on screen, and different resolutions, with the intent of trading off resolution for color, and vice versa.

Systems with a 3-bit RGB palette use 1 bit for each of the red, green and blue color components. That is, each component is either "on" or "off" with no intermediate states. This results in an 8-color palette ((21)3 == 23 == 8) that have black, white, the three RGB primary colors red, green and blue and their correspondent complementary colors cyan, magenta and yellow as follows:

BBC Micro has 8 display modes, with resolutions like 640×256 (max. 2 colors), 320×256 (max. 4 colors) and 160×256 (max. 16 logical colors). No display modes have cell attribute clashes. The palette available has only 8 physical colors, plus a further 8 flashing colors (each being one of the eight non-flashing colors alternating with its physical complement every second), and the display modes can have 16, 4 or 2 simultaneous colors.

On the Sinclair QL two video modes were available, 256×256 pixels with 8 RGB colors and per-pixel flashing, or 512×256 pixels with four colors: black, red, green and white. The supported colors could be stippled in 2×2 blocks to simulate up to 256 colors, an effect which did not copy reliably on a TV, especially over an RF connection.

The 4-bit RGBI palette is similar to the 3-bit RGB palette but adds one bit for intensity. This allows each of the colors of the 3-bit palette to have a variant (on most machines dark or bright, but saturated or unsaturated was also possible) potentially giving a total of 23×2 == 16 colors. Some implementations had only 15 effective colors due to the "dark" and "bright" variations of black being displayed identically. Others generated a grey tone or a different color.

The ZX Spectrum (and compatible) computers use a variation of the 4-bit RGBI palette philosophy. This results in each of the colors of the 3-bit palette to have a basic and bright variant, with the exception of black. This was accomplished by having a maximum voltage level for the bright variant, and a lower voltage level for the basic variant. Due to this, black is the same in both variants.

The attribute byte associated with every 8×8 pixel cell comprises (from LSB to MSB): three bits for the background color; three bits for the foreground color; one bit for the bright variant for both, and one bit for the flashing effect (alternate foreground and background colors every 0.32 seconds). Thus the colors are not independently selectable as indices of a true palette (there are not color numbers 8 to 15, and the bright bit affects both colors within a cell). However, within a single set of 8 colors the BRG order of bits means that the colors appear in increasing order of brightness on a monochrome display.

The original IBM PC launched in 1981 features an Intel 8088 CPU which has 8-bit data bus technology, though internally the CPU has a fully 16-bit architecture. It was offered with a Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) or a Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). The MDA is a text mode-only display adapter, without any graphic ability beyond using the built-in code page 437 character set (which includes half-block and line-drawing characters), and employed an original IBM green monochrome monitor; only black, green and intensified green could be seen on its screen.

The full standard RGBI palette is a variant of the 4-bit RGBI schema. Although the RGBI signals each have only two states, the CGA color monitor decodes them as if RGB signals had four levels. Darker colors are the basic RGB 2nd level signals except for brown, which is dark yellow with the level for the green component halved (1st level). Brighter colors are made by adding a uniform intensity one-level signal to every RGB signal of the dark ones, reaching the 3rd level (except dark gray which reaches only the 1st level), and in this case yellow is produced as if the brown were ordinary dark yellow.

The selection of a palette is a bit complex. There are two BIOS 320×200 CGA graphics modes: modes 4 and 5. Mode 4 has the composite color burst output enabled (in the Mode Control Register at I/O address 3D8H, bit 2 is cleared), and mode 5 has it disabled (the same bit 2 is set). Mode 5 is intended mainly for a monochrome composite video monitor, but because of a specific intentional feature of the CGA hardware, it also has a different palette for an RGBI color monitor. For mode 4, two palettes can be chosen: green/red/brown and cyan/magenta/white; the difference is the absence or presence of the blue signal in all three colors. (The palette is selected with bit 5 of the Color-Select Register at I/O address 3D9h, where the bit value 1 selects the cyan/magenta/white palette [a/k/a "palette #1" because it is the BIOS default] and 0 selects the green/red/brown palette [a/k/a "palette #2"]. This bit can be set using BIOS INT 10h function 0Bh, subfunction 1.) The palette for BIOS video mode 5 is always cyan/red/white: blue is always on, and red and green each are controlled directly by one of the two bits of the pixel color value. For each of these three palette options, a low or high intensity palette can be chosen with bit 4 of the aforementioned Color-Select Register: a value of 0 means low intensity and 1 means high intensity. (No BIOS call exists to switch between the two intensity modes.) The selected intensity setting simply controls the "I" output signal to the RGBI monitor for all colors in the palette. As a result, the green-red-brown palette appears as bright-green/bright-red/yellow when high intensity is selected. The combination of color-burst enable/disable selection, palette selection, and intensity selection yields a total of 6 different possible palettes for CGA 320×200 graphics.

The IBM PCjr features a "CGA Plus" video subsystem, consisting mainly of a 6845 CRTC and an LSI video chip known as the "Video Gate Array", that can show all 16 CGA colors simultaneously on screen in the extended low-res graphic modes. The near-compatible Tandy 1000 series features almost 100% PCjr-compatible video hardware implemented in a Tandy proprietary chip. This graphics adapter is better known by the name

colors in modes with fewer than 16 colors (including the plain CGA modes) and enabling color cycling effects in all modes. The PCjr also offers a graphics blink function which causes 8 colors to alternate between the low and high halves of the 16-color palette at the text blink rate. (A PCjr must be upgraded with a PCjr-specific internal 64 KB memory expansion card in order to use the latter two of these modes or any 80-column text mode. Tandy 1000 base models can use all video modes.)

For Thomson computers, a popular brand in France, the most common display modes are 320×200, with 8×1 attribute cells with 2 colors. Here the intensity byte affects saturation and not only brightness variations.

The Mattel Aquarius computer has only a text mode with 40×24 characters, which graphic mode is obtained from low resolution blocks, providing an 80×72 resolution. The color attribute area is also on this 40×24 characters area, and used from a pixel group of 2×3. The machine uses a TEA1002 graphic chip, with a fixed palette of 8 RGB colors with an intensity variation (reducing brightness and saturation of any given color)

Simulations of actual images on the Amstrad"s color monitor in each of the modes (160×200x16 colors; 320×200x4 colors and 640×200x2 colors) follows. A cheaper green monochrome display was also available from the manufacturer; in this case, the colors are viewed as a 16-tone green scale, as shown in the last simulated image, as it interprets the overall brightness of the full color signal, instead of only considering the green intensity as might, e.g., the Philips CM8833 line.

The number in parentheses means the primary ink number for the Locomotive BASIC PEN, PAPER and INK statements (that is, "(1)" means ink #1 defaults to this color). Inks can also have a secondary color number, meaning they flash between two colors. By default, ink #14 alternates between colors 1 and 24 (blue and bright yellow) and ink #15 alternates between colors 11 and 16 (cyan-blue and pink). In addition, the paper defaults to ink #0 and the pen to ink #1, meaning yellow text on a dark blue background.

The 8-bit RGB palettes (also known as 3-3-2 bit RGB) use 3 bits for each of the red and green color components, and 2 bits for the blue component, due to the lesser sensitivity of the common human eye to this primary color. This results in an 8×8×4 = 256-color palette as follows:

The Tiki 100 uses a 8-bit RGB palette (also described as 3-3-2 bit RGB), with 3 bits for each of the red and green color components, and 2 bits for the blue component.

It supports 3 different resolutions with 256, 512 or 1024 by 256 pixels and 16, 4, or 2 colors respectively (freely selectable from the full 256 color palette).

The Enterprise computer has five graphics modes: 40- and 80-column text modes, Lo-Res and Hi-Res bit mapped graphics, and attribute graphics. Bit mapped graphics modes allow selection between displays of 2, 4,16 or 256 colors (from a 3-3-2 bit RGB palette), but horizontal resolution decreases as color depth increases.

A 256-colour display has a maximum resolution of 80×256. The attribute graphics mode provides a 320×256 pixel resolution with 16 colors, selectable from a palette of 256.

Multiple pages can be displayed simultaneously on the screen, even if their graphics modes are different. Each page has its own palette, which allows more colors to be displayed onscreen simultaneously. The page height can be larger than the screen or the window it is displayed on. Each page is connected to a channel of the EXOS operating system, so it is possible to write on a hidden page.

On the MSX2 screen mode 8 is a high-resolution 256×212-pixel mode with an 8-bit color depth, giving a palette of 256 colors (Fixed RGB mode of the Yamaha V9938 video chip).

The MSX2 series features a Yamaha V9938 video chip, which manages a 9-bit RGB palette (512 colors in Paletted RGB mode) and has some extended graphic modes. Although its graphical capabilities are similar, or even better than of those of 16-bit personal computers, MSX2 and MSX2+ (see below) are pure 8-bit machines.

Screen modes 5 and 7 are high-resolution 256×212-pixel and 512×212-pixel modes, respectively, with a 16-color palette chosen from the available 512 colors. Each pixel can be any of the 16 selected colors.

The MSX2+ series (released in 1988) features a Yamaha V9958 video chip which manages a 15-bit RGB palette internally encoded in YJK (up to 19,268 different colors from the 32,768 theoretically possible)16-bit personal computers, MSX2 (see above) and MSX2+ are pure 8-bit machines. YJK color encoding can be viewed as a lossy compression technique; in the RGB to YJK conversion, the average red and green levels are preserved, but blue is subsampled. As a result of every four pixels sharing a chroma value, in mode 12 it is not possible to have vertical lines of a single color. This is only possible in modes 10 and 11 due to the additional 16-color direct palette. This can be used to mix 16 indexed colors with a rich colorful background, in what can be considered a primitive video overlay technique.

Screen modes 10 & 11 – 12,499 YJK colors plus a 16-color palette. In this mode, the YJK technique encodes 16 levels of luminance into the four LSBs of each pixel and 64 levels of chroma, from −32 to +31, shared across every four consecutive pixels and stored in the three higher bits of the four pixels. If the fifth bit of the pixel is set, then the lower four bits of the pixel points to an index in the 16-color palette; otherwise, they specify the YJK luminance level of the pixel.

Screen mode 12 is similar to modes 10 and 11, but uses five bits to encode 32 levels of luminance for every pixel, thus it does not use an additional palette and, with YJK encoding, 19,268 different colors can be displayed simultaneously with 8-bit color depth.

Fujitsu"s FM-77 AV 40, released in 1986, uses an 18-bit RGB palette. Any 64,000 out of 262,144 colors can be displayed simultaneously at the 320×200 resolution, or 8 out of 262,144 colors at the 640×400 resolution.

This section covers systems that generate color directly as composite video, closely related with display on analog CRT TVs. Many of the colors are non-standard and outside of RGB gamut, and would only display properly on NTSC hardware.

The early Atari 400 and 800 computers use a palette of 128 colors (a bit similar to the one used on the Atari 2600 console, and the Commodore 16 and Plus/4), using 4 bits for chrominance, and 3 for luminance. Screen modes may vary from 320×192 (384x240 with overscan) to 40×24, using 2 or 4 simultaneous colors, or 80×192 (96x240 with overscan) using 16 colors. After 2 years (late 1981) the CTIA graphics chip was replaced with the GTIA chip thus increasing the palette to 256 colors (CTIA and GTIA).

The ANTIC chip in the Atari 8-bit family computers (400, 800, XL and XE models) has an instruction set to run programs (called display list) which permits many more colors on the screen at once. There are a number of possible software-driven graphics modes.

For all the following computers from Commodore, the U and V coordinates for the composite video colors are always the cosine and the sine, respectively, of angles multiple of 22.5 degrees (i.e. a quarter of 90°), as the engineers were inspired by the NTSC color wheel, a radial way to figure out the U and V coordinates of points equidistant from the center of the chroma plane, the gray. Consumers in Europe (which uses PAL) considered the Commodore colors to be more "washed out" and less vivid than those provided by computers such as the ZX Spectrum.

In the 8-color high-res mode, every 8×8 pixels can have the background color (shared for the entire screen) or a free foreground color, both selectable among the first eight colors of the palette. In the 10-color multicolor mode, a single pixel of every 4×8 block (a character cell) may have any of four colors: the background color, the auxiliary color (both shared for the entire screen and selectable among the entire palette), the same color as the overscan border (also a shared color) or a free foreground color, both selectable among the first eight colors of the palette.

In the Multicolor 160×200, 16-color mode, every cell of 4×8, 2:1 aspect ratio pixels can have one of four colors: one shared with the entire screen, the two background and foreground colors of the corresponding text mode character, and one more color also stored in the color RAM area, all of them freely selectable among the entire palette.

In the High Resolution 320×200, 16-color mode, every cell of 8×8 pixels can have one of the two background and foreground colors of the correspondent text mode character, both freely selectable among the entire palette.

The MOS Technology TED was used in the Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4. It has a palette of 121 YPbPr composite video colorsRGB converted colors at a saturation level of 34%).

In the Multicolor 160×200, 121-color mode, every cell of 4×8, 2:1 aspect ratio pixels can have one of four colors: two shared with the entire screen and the two background and foreground colors of the correspondent text mode character, all of them freely selectable among the entire 121-color palette (hue 0 to 15 and luminance 0 to 7 are set individually for any of them).

In the High Resolution 320×200, 121-color mode, every cell of 8×8 pixels can have one of the two background and foreground colors of the corresponding text mode character, both freely selectable among the entire 121-color palette (again setting both the hue and the luminance).

The MSX series has two graphic modes. The MSX BASIC Screen 3 mode is a low-resolution mode with 15 colors, in which every pixel can be any of the 15 available colors.

Color is generated by the combination of three signals, Y with 6 possible levels, Pr and Pb with 3 possible levels, based on the YPbPr colorspace, and then converted for output into a NTSC analog signal:

The Tandy Color Computer 3 could display all of the modes of the Tandy Color Computer 1 and 2, except the Semigraphics modes, plus resolutions of 160, 256, 320, or 640 pixels wide by 192 to 225 lines from a palette of 64 colors. The 320 mode allowed 16 simultaneous colors, while the 640 mode allowed 4.

The 128 color master palette used by the SAM Coupé is produced via a unique method — it effectively contains 2 groups of 64 "RGB" colors of mildly different intensity, and ultimately derived from a 512 color space.

Two bits are used for each of Red, Green and Blue and give a similar result to a normal 6-bit RGB palette (as seen with the IBM EGA or Sega Master System); the seventh bit encodes for "brightness", which has a similar but more subtle effect to the Spectrum, increasing the output of all three channels by half the intensity of the lower bits of the main six (in this way, it does make a genuine 128 colors — rather than 127 colors with "two blacks" and only a 7-level grayscale). The layout of the byte that encodes each color is complicated and appears like a Spectrum color nybble transferred to a full byte"s width, and an extra RGB bit-triplet then prefixed to it, with the MSB left unused.

All 16 colors can be present in one screen. However, 4 can be present in one 4 x 8 cell in multicolor mode, and three of those colors must be shared. 2 colors can be present in every 8 x 8 cell in high resolution mode.

The color range of a computer is defined by the term color depth, which is the number of colors that the equipment can display, given its hardware. The most common normal color depths you"ll see are 8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (65,536 colors), and 24-bit (16.7 million colors) modes. True color (or 24-bit color) is the most frequently used mode as computers have attained sufficient levels to work efficiently at this color depth.

LCD monitors struggle with color and speed. Color on an LCD has three layers of colored dots that make up the final pixel. To display a color, a current is applied to each color layer to generate the desired intensity that results in the final color. The problem is that to get the colors, the current must move the crystals on and off to the desired intensity levels. This transition from the on-to-off state is called the response time. For most screens, it rates around 8 to 12 milliseconds.

The problem with response time becomes apparent when LCD monitors display motion or video. With a high response time for transitions from off-to-on states, pixels that should have transitioned to the new color levels trail the signal and result in an effect called motion blurring. This phenomenon isn"t an issue if the monitor displays applications such as productivity software. However, with high-speed video and certain video games, it can be jarring.

Because consumers demanded faster screens, many manufacturers reduced the number of levels each color-pixel renders. This reduction in intensity levels allows the response times to drop and has the drawback of reducing the overall range of colors that the screens support.

Color depth was previously referred to by the total number of colors that the screen can render. When referring to LCD panels, the number of levels that each color can render is used instead.

High-speed LCD monitors typically reduce the number of bits for each color to 6 instead of the standard 8. This 6-bit color generates fewer colors than 8-bit, as we see when we do the math:

Why multiply groups of three? For computer displays, the RGB colorspace dominates. Which means that, for 8-bit color, the final image you see on the screen is a composite of one of 256 shades each of red, blue, and green.

There is another level of display that is used by professionals called a 10-bit display. In theory, it displays more than a billion colors, more than the human eye discerns.

Even though the graphics card renders upwards of a billion colors, the display"s color gamut—or range of colors it can display—is considerably less. Even the ultra-wide color gamut displays that support 10-bit color cannot render all the colors.

Professional displays often tout 10-bit color support. Once again, you have to look at the real color gamut of these displays. Most consumer displays don"t say how many they use. Instead, they tend to list the number of colors they support.

The amount of color matters to those that do professional work on graphics. For these people, the amount of color that displays on the screen is significant. The average consumer won"t need this level of color representation by their monitor. As a result, it probably doesn"t matter. People using their displays for video games or watching videos will likely not care about the number of colors rendered by the LCD but by the speed at which it can be displayed. As a result, it is best to determine your needs and base your purchase on those criteria.

Even though the difference between the two of them doesn’t seem huge, there are some things a video editor can’t live without. In the past years, technology experienced a huge jump, and if 5 years ago we were limited to filming at 8-bit at most, some of the newest cameras can even provide 16-bit recordings.

While 10-bit reaches 1024 colors per channel, 8-bit will only reach 256 per channel. This means that 8-bit files will display 16.7 million colors, while 10-bit will display about 1.07 billion, which is a lot more! Then we get to 16-Bit that"s used in RED Cameras, which reaches 65,536 colors per channel, which totals to around 281 Trillion possible colors!

Think about it this way. Instead of having a flawless transition and seeing all the color variations on a 10-bit monitor, you will see the approximate colors on an 8-bit monitor, meaning that it won’t be as accurate. If you’re a professional, then you can’t be working on an 8-bit monitor, as you need to have the best color grading process, with the most accurate colors.

Now, something that’s very important about the color grading process, is the calibration of your monitor. It’s important that you see the colors correctly, as you may color grade a video or photo and then it shows much different on peoples mobiles, laptops and print.

It"s important to calibrate your monitor if you are color grading, editing photos, graphic design or anything to do with editing colors. Especially being a professional, you want the client or person viewing to see the correct colors you intended to show. If your monitor isn"t calibrated, then the colors aren"t going to be the same as what the other person is seeing. Especially if they have a calibrated iPhone or mobile.

When using LUTs it"s really important to have a calibrated monitor to see the correct colors that the creator intended. It"s as simple as that. So we highly recommend to calibrate your monitor if you have an external monitor.

If you"re a Filmmaker or Photographer, then you should 100% get a 10-Bit monitor. Most cameras shoot 10-Bit or higher now, especially Photography DSLR cameras averaging around 12-Bit. So why not experience the most potential out of your cameras colors? Using an 8-Bit monitor you will only be seeing around 5% at most of what the camera is producing.

A 10-bit monitor right now is the standard, as the 8-bit is getting old and we’re set to embrace the 12-bit monitors in the near future. When you make such an investment, you need to think about what the future will bring, and right now, 8-bit monitors are a little outdated.

When looking for monitors on the market, there are some leading brands right now with awesome monitors. Just make sure you find a true 10-bit monitor as there are many that claim 10-bit but they are actually 8-bit + FRC.

Also color checker cards are amazing on set, so the colorist can accurately sync up the white balance and colors in the color grading suite. You can find a few great color checker cards which are compatible with DaVinci Resolve below.

Get a 10-Bit monitor if you are a content creator and also want to appreciate viewing movies, series and everything in 10-Bit. Remember 8-Bit is only 16.7million colors while 10-Bit is 1.07billion!

This 320x240 resolution LCD TFT is a standard display with 8-bit parallel interface and a 12:00 optimal view. This Liquid Crystal Display has a built-in SSD1963 controller. It is RoHS compliant and has a 4-wire resistive touchscreen.

Enhance your user experience with capacitive or resistive touch screen technology. We’ll adjust the glass thickness or shape of the touch panel so it’s a perfect fit for your design.

To perform a check on the soft proofing capabilities, you have to provide a CGATS reference file containing XYZ or L*a*b* data, or a combination of simulation profile and testchart file, which will be fed through the display profile to lookup corresponding device (RGB) values, and then be sent to the display and measured. Afterwards, the measured values are compared to the original XYZ or L*a*b* values, which can give a hint how suitable (or unsuitable) the display is for softproofing to the colorspace indicated by the reference.

Checking how well a display can simulate another colorspace (evaluating softproofing capabilities, 3D LUTs, DeviceLink profiles, or native display performance)

Enable 3D LUT (if using the madVR display device/madTPG under Windows, or a Prisma video processor). This allows you to check how well the 3D LUT transforms the simulation colorspace to the display colorspace. Note this setting can not be used together with a DeviceLink profile.

DeviceLink profile. This allows you to check how well the DeviceLink transforms the simulation colorspace to the display colorspace. Note this setting can not be used together with the “Enable 3D LUT” setting.

If you want to know how well your profile can simulate another colorspace (softproofing), select a reference file containing L*a*b* or XYZ values, like one of the Fogra Media Wedge subsets, or a combination of a simulation profile and testchart. Be warned though, only wide-gamut displays will handle a larger offset printing colorspace like FOGRA39 or similar well enough.

Note that both tests are “closed-loop” and will not tell you an “absolute” truth in terms of “color quality” or “color accuracy” as they may not show if your instrument is faulty/measures wrong (a profile created from repeatable wrong measurements will usually still verify well against other wrong measurements from the same instrument if they don"t fluctuate too much) or does not cope with your display well (which is especially true for colorimeters and wide-gamut screens, as such combinations need a correction in hardware or software to obtain accurate results), or if colors on your screen match an actual colored object next to it (like a print). It is perfectly possible to obtain good verification results but the actual visual performance being sub-par. It is always wise to combine such measurements with a test of the actual visual appearance via a “known good” reference, like a print or proof (although it should not be forgotten that those also have tolerances, and illumination also plays a big role when assessing visual results). Keep all that in mind when admiring (or pulling your hair out over) verification results :)

Bit depth refers to the color information stored in an image. The higher the bit depth of an image, the more colors it can store. The simplest image, a 1 bit image, can only show two colors, black and white. That is because the 1 bit can only store one of two values, 0 (white) and 1 (black). An 8 bit image can store 256 possible colors, while a 24 bit image can display over 16 million colors. As the bit depth increases, the file size of the image also increases because more color information has to be stored for each pixel in the image.

When you save (or export) an image as a GIF or a PNG, you can select the bit depth of the resulting file. With certain types of images that naturally have few colors such as logos or simple designs, you may be able to drastically reduce the size of the image file without degrading the quality of the image. With other images (especially those with gradients) reducing the number of colors in an image will severly degrade the image quality.

You’ve probably heard about the difference between shooting RAW vs JPEG, right? But have you heard about the difference between an 8-bit image vs a 16-bit one?

Now that I’ve hopefully piqued your interest, let me give you a deeper explanation so that you understand more about 8-bit vs 16-bit images, including the pros and cons of each and when to use them.

So, an 8-bit image doesn’t have 8 colors. Instead, it can hold 256 tonal values in three different channels (red, green, and blue). That equals 16.7 million colors.

When you’re photographing, you can choose between shooting in JPEG, which generates 8-bit images, or RAW, which will give you images from 12 to 14 bits depending on the camera that you’re using.

In Photoshop, you can choose to work in 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit and this will determine how extreme you can make your edits before you lose quality or get artifacts like banding.

This is OK in many cases as the human eye can’t actually see all the 16.7 million colors these types of images have. The problem is in the editing process. If you need to make changes – for example, correcting a very under (or over) exposed image – then you’ll start to lose quality.

When you open them in 16-bit mode, then you’ll have enough ‘room’ to work with all the colors, tones, details and quality that comes in your RAW image.

8-Bit color is good as it delivers excellent color and tonal values per color channel in a JPEG image. It’s more accurate to call it an 8-Bit per channel image as the three channels equates to 24-Bit.

Where an 8-Bit file contains 16.7 million colors, a 16-Bit file contains 281 trillion colors. A typical digital camera captures between 12 and 14-Bit color converted to 16-Bit as a RAW file.

That’s why 8-Bitit JPEG works just fine for most printing applications. 16-Bit is the best format for editing photos in software without losing image detail and color depth.

The reason why some people saw one color, while some saw the other comes down to the science of our brains. Colors can appear different based on:1)How you perceive light

Lupkin, S. (2015, February 27). White and Gold or Black and Blue: Why People See the Dress Differently. Retrieved from, https://abcnews.go.com/Health/dress-people-viral-outfit-colors-differently/story?id=29268831

Sci Tech Daily. (2012, October 2). Females Distinguish Colors Better While Men Excel at Tracking Fast Moving Objects. Retrieved from, https://scitechdaily.com/females-distinguish-colors-better-while-men-excel-at-tracking-fast-moving-objects/

In this article, we"ll look at the gradations that result from the maximum number of colors that can be displayed and the look-up table (LUT). While these factors are a step beyond what average users consider when choosing products, they have a significant impact on color reproduction. Users are well-advised to understand these factors, especially when choosing an LCD monitor for color-intensive applications like photo retouching or design work.

Note: Below is the translation from the Japanese of the ITmedia article "Maximum Display Colors and Look-Up Tables: Two Things to Consider When Choosing a Monitor" published February 18, 2009. Copyright 2011 ITmedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While most LCD monitor catalogs show the maximum number of colors each model can display, few people pay much attention to this figure. That"s because most products today can display a staggering number of colors—more than 16 million. Users are unlikely to be dissatisfied because the product displays too few colors. However, the figure for maximum number of colors is associated with some unexpected pitfalls.

The LCD monitors currently available for PC use need to accurately display full-color video signals in the number of colors generated when using eight bits for each RGB color (for a total of 24 bits) input from the PC. Using eight bits for each RGB color, we can generate roughly 16.77 million colors, based on the following calculations:

We need to keep two points in mind: First, not all leading LCD monitors can reproduce the entire full color range of approximately 16.77 million colors. Second, this full color range of 16.77 million colors can be achieved in different ways. The LCD monitors currently available generally fall into the following three categories with respect to the maximum number of colors and method of color reproduction.

Only the Type 1 LCDs in the table above achieve full color in the true sense of the term, reproducing each RGB color at eight bits on an LCD panel operating at eight bits. Products that fall into Types 2 or 3 offer so-called virtual full color. Virtual full color products cost less to implement, but generally offer inferior capacity to express gradation than true eight-bit LCD panels.

When we look at monitor specs, it"s easy to identity a Type 3 model: The number of colors will be specified as 16.19 or 16.20 million. However, since both types 1 and 2 show approximately 16.77 million colors it can be difficult to identify the applicable type from a catalog. An LCD panel operating at eight bits is superior in some ways with respect to picture quality, and users are advised to be careful when choosing monitors for graphics applications. (Note that in some cases, the figure of 24 bits—eight for each RGB color—is used instead.)

Certain LCD televisions and LCD monitors for commercial use are based on LCD panels that reproduce each RGB color at 10 bits. In theory, these monitors can generate 1,073,741,824 (or approximately 1.073 billion) colors; but they also require graphics accelerators and software capable of handling 10-bit color. For these reasons, they are not yet common in the PC industry.

Let"s consider at a simple description of frame rate control (FRC). FRC is a system for increasing the number of apparent colors by manipulating the frame rate, taking advantage of afterimage effects in the human eye. Switching rapidly between white and red, for example, will create what the human eye perceives as pink.

An LCD panel with six-bit operation plus FRC can actually generate just 262,144 colors (six bits [26 = 64] to the third power [for each RGB color]). We can apply FRC to each RGB color and change the display interval between each of the LCD panel"s original colors (in the case of four-bit FRC) to generate three simulated colors between each pair of individual colors. For each RGB color, this adds the following number of simulated colors: (6 bits – 1) * 3 = 189 colors. We obtain the total number of colors by calculating (6 bits + 189 = 253) to the third power (each RGB color) = 16,194,277 colors (≈ approximately 16.19 or 16.20 million colors).

More and more recent products feature technologies that take FRC one step further. These technologies make it possible to reproduce approximately 16.77 million colors by operating the number of bits exceeding those with traditional FRC to generate even more stimulated colors, then taking from these the eight-bit (256-gradation) scale needed to achieve full color on an LCD monitor.

Under real-life conditions, factors other than the panel, such as quality of ICs for image control, can also significantly affect picture quality. The difference in picture quality between eight bits and six bits plus FRC is often not apparent on visual inspection. Minimizing environmental lighting (for example, by dimming lights) can make such differences easier to spot. Displaying gradation patterns that change linearly, one going from shadow to highlight, can also highlight such differences. Such display tendencies apply equally to still images, moving images, games, and other applications.

We"ve noted that six-bit operation plus FRC is inferior to eight-bit operation in terms of gradation display capability. However, this doesn"t mean eight-bit operation is always superior with respect to color reproduction and gradation. The look-up table (LUT) is a key factor in an LCD monitor"s ability to display tonal grades and transitions.

In the context of LCD monitors, the term LUT refers to a component that calculates input signals from the PC (at eight bits per RGB color) and maps them to output signals suited to the LCD monitor (also at eight bits per RGB color). An inexpensive LCD monitor will employ an LUT table with eight bits per RGB color; an LCD monitor designed for color reproduction applications will incorporate an LUT with more than eight bits (i.e., 10 or 12 bits) per RGB color and employ internal calculations at 10 or more bits to map input signals to output signals.

Diagram of procedural flow from the input of a video signal to display on screen for an LCD monitor with LUT and internal precision exceeding eight bits. Target gamma attributes (i.e., 1.8 or 2.2) are determined in advance based on calculations assuming no difference between individual LCD panels. Since determining target gamma attributes alone will not result in correct color temperatures, the color space is calculated at a precision greater than eight bits, and a color gamut covering the color temperature of white is configured. Corrections on the output side offset differences between individual LCD panels and result in a smooth tone curve. An LUT of more than eight bits allows color displays with more subtle tonal variations.

How does an LUT with more than eight bits improve display quality? If a catalog says an LCD monitor is capable of displaying "approximately 16.77 million (of 1,064,330,000)" colors, the unit incorporates an LUT of 10 bits per RGB color (1024 gradations to the third power = 1,064,330,000 colors). Specifically, the input signal from the PC, with eight bits per RGB color, is subjected to multi-gradation within the LCD monitor at 10 bits per RGB color, then output at the optimal display colors at eight bits per RGB color. This results in significantly smoother tonal transitions and improves hue divergence by improving the gamma curve of each RGB color in the output. A 12-bit LUT generates approximately 16.77 million optimal colors from roughly 68 billion, improving color reproduction and gradation beyond even a 10-bit LUT.

Next, let"s look at calculations for multi-gradation of an eight-bit per RGB color input signal at 10 or more bits per RGB color within an LCD monitor. Even if we use a 10- or 12-bit LUT, calculating multi-gradation at 14 or 16 bits will result in even more precise final tonal transitions. The need for 16-bit precision when the final output is only eight bits may not be obvious, but particularly when we seek to depict subtle differences between colors at a low-gradation gamut (shadow gamut), the precision of internal calculations is extremely important. In essence, the higher the number of bits used in the internal calculations, the closer the gamma curve in a low-gradation gamut to the theoretical curve.

A look at the current range of LCD monitors shows that even in lower-cost categories, growing numbers of products offer 10-bit LUTs. Nevertheless, only products at the top of their class have bit counts greater than LUT bit counts. In particular, models that process colors to the most stringent requirements, using 12-bit LUTs and 14- or 16-bit internal calculations, are ideal for color management use, targeting applications that require high-performance color.

Some high-end LCD monitors use a 3D-LUT, which takes the LUT concept even further. A traditional LUT system has one LUT for each RGB color and refers to the LUT for each RGB color when displaying a certain color and calculating the target color using the three RGB colors from each LUT.

Let"s use EIZO"s widescreen LCD monitors as examples. Model CG242W in the ColorEdge series features a 3D-LUT. The difference between theoretical values and actual measured values in intermediate gradations is smaller than with traditional LUTs.

3D-LUTs also shine when converting color gamuts in a color-management environment. They make it possible to reallocate the approximately 16.77 million colors allocated to one color gamut to another color gamut with high precision, minimizing the loss of information from the original color gamut. In addition, since the 3D-LUT offers improved color reproduction from RGB blending, the user"s manipulations and color adjustments generally have the expected results with respect to parameters such as brightness, chroma, and hue. Perhaps this is the most important aspect of performance for an LCD monitor used in color management, which above all else requires accurate color reproduction.

The number of bits at which the LCD panel operates, its LUT, and the precision of the internal calculations all significantly affect the color reproduction capabilities of an LCD monitor. In not a few cases, even products with specs that look similar at first glance can diverge unexpectedly in display tendencies. Assessing monitor picture quality from catalog specs alone is unrealistic; users should inspect an actual monitor unit with their own eyes before purchasing.