BITS PER PIXEL
\bˈɪts pɜː pˈɪksə͡l], \bˈɪts pɜː pˈɪksəl], \b_ˈɪ_t_s p_ɜː p_ˈɪ_k_s_əl]\
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(bpp) The number of bits of informationstored per pixel of an image or displayed by a graphicsadapter. The more bits there are, the more colours can berepresented, but the more memory is required to store ordisplay the image.A colour can be described by the intensities of red, green andblue (RGB) components. Allowing 8 bits (1 byte) percomponent (24 bits per pixel) gives 256 levels for eachcomponent and over 16 million different colours - more thanthe human eye can distinguish. Microsoft Windows [andothers?] calls this truecolour. An image of 1024x768 with24 bpp requires over 2 MB of memory."High colour" uses 16 bpp (or 15 bpp), 5 bits for blue, 5 bitsfor red and 6 bits for green. This reduced colour precisiongives a slight loss of image quality at a 1/3 saving onmemory.Standard VGA uses a palette of 16 colours (4 bpp), eachcolour in the palette is 24 bit. Standard SVGA uses apalette of 256 colours (8 bpp).Some graphics hardware and software support 32-bit colourdepths, including an 8-bit "alpha channel" for transparencyeffects.
By Denis Howe
Word of the day
Dopamine Acetyltransferase
- An enzyme that catalyzes the of groups from acetyl-CoA to arylamines. They have wide specificity for aromatic amines, particularly serotonin, and can also catalyze acetyl transfer between arylamines without CoA. EC 2.3.1.5.