Color depth

Color depth
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Color depth or colour depth (see spelling differences), also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bits per pixel (bpp). When referring to a color component, the concept can be defined as bits per component, bits per channel, bits per color (all three abbreviated bpc), and also bits per pixel component, bits per color channel or bits per sample (bps).[1][2][3] Modern standards tend to use bits per component,[1][2][4][5] but historical lower-depth systems used bits per pixel more often.

Color depth is only one aspect of color representation, expressing the precision with which the amount of each primary can be expressed; the other aspect is how broad a range of colors can be expressed (the gamut). The definition of both color precision and gamut is accomplished with a color encoding specification which assigns a digital code value to a location in a color space.

The number of bits of resolved intensity in a color channel is also known as radiometric resolution, especially in the context of satellite images.[6]

  1. ^ a b G.J. Sullivan; J.-R. Ohm; W.-J. Han; T. Wiegand (May 25, 2012). "Overview of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Standard" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  2. ^ a b G.J. Sullivan; Heiko Schwarz; Thiow Keng Tan; Thomas Wiegand (August 22, 2012). "Comparison of the Coding Efficiency of Video Coding Standards – Including High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)" (PDF). IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  3. ^ "After Effects / Color basics". Adobe Systems. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  4. ^ "High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) text specification draft 10 (for FDIS & Consent)". JCT-VC. January 17, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  5. ^ Alberto Dueñas; Adam Malamy (October 18, 2012). "On a 10-bit consumer-oriented profile in High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)". JCT-VC. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  6. ^ Thenkabail, P. (2018). Remote Sensing Handbook - Three Volume Set. Remote Sensing Handbook. CRC Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-4822-8267-2. Retrieved August 27, 2020.