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Color Bit Depth and Why It Matters

Bit depth is a way to describe how much color information is available about each pixel in an image. It's also called color depth or pixel depth and, as with so many other things, more is better. Greater bit depth (more bits of information per pixel) means more available colors and more accurate color representation in your digital pictures. Consider this: a pixel with a bit depth of 1 has only 2 possible values, either black or white. A grayscale pixel with a bit depth of 8 has 2 to the 8th power, or 256 possible values. And a pixel with a bit depth of 24 has 2 to the 24th power, or about 16 million, possible values. Common values for bit depth range from 1 to 64 bits per pixel. You will find that your Photoshop ...