List of palettes

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This is a list of the full color palettes for notable computer graphics hardware. It does not include obscure palettes, such as those available only through special adjustment.

For each unique palette, a sample image (true-color original at right) rendered with that palette (without dithering) is given. These images are not necessarily representative of how the image would be displayed on the original graphics hardware, as the hardware may have additional limitations regarding the maximum display resolution and color placement. Also, many graphics chips output their data for YUV or other color spaces, so the color representations shown in this article, given in RGB, may be inaccurate.

Contents 1 General 1.1 Monochrome (1-bit) 1.2 2-bit Grayscale 1.3 3-bit RGB 1.4 4-bit RGBI 1.5 6-bit RGB 1.6 8-bit RGB 1.7 9-bit RGB 1.8 12-bit RGB 1.9 15-bit RGB 1.10 16-bit RGB 1.11 18-bit RGB 1.12 24-bit RGB 2 Apple 2.1 Apple IIe 3 Commodore 3.1 VIC 3.2 VIC-II 3.3 TED 3.4 8563/8568 4 IBM PC/compatible systems 4.1 CGA 4.2 EGA 5 Nintendo 5.1 PPU 5.2 Game Boy 6 Sega 6.1 Master System 6.2 Game Gear 6.3 Mega Drive/Genesis 7 Sinclair 7.1 ZX Spectrum (and compatibles) 8 Notes 9 See also 10 External links and sources

[edit] General

[edit] Monochrome (1-bit)

Monochrome graphics displays typically have a black background with a white or light grey image, though green or amber was also common. Such a palette requires only one bit per pixel.

[edit] 2-bit Grayscale

In a 2-bit color palette each pixel's value is represented by 2 bits resulting in a 4-value palette.

A 2-bit palette was used on the original Game Boy system.

[edit] 3-bit RGB

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 as follows:

black

blue

green

cyan

red

magenta

yellow

white

The color indices vary between implementations; therefore, index numbers are not given.

The 3-bit RGB palette is used by:

• The ECMA-48 standard for text terminals (sometimes known as the "ANSI standard", although ANSI X3.64 does not define colors)
• Teletext standards since 1976
• Videotex
• TRS-80 Color Computer
• Oric

This 8-color palette is also used as the basis for some 16-color palettes such as that used by MOS Technology VIC.

[edit] 4-bit RGBI

The 4-bit RGBI palette is similar to the 3-bit RGB palette but adds one bit for "intensity". This results in each of the colors of the 3-bit palette to have a "dark" and "bright" variant.

The color indices given are those for CGA. Other systems may use different bit orders and therefore different indices.

0 — black	8 — (dark) gray
1 — blue	9 — bright blue
2 — green	10 — bright green
3 — cyan	11 — bright cyan
4 — red	12 — bright red
5 — magenta	13 — bright magenta
6 — brown	14 — yellow
7 — white (light gray)	15 — bright white

In some systems using 4-bit RGBI, such as the original ZX Spectrum, there is no bright variant for black, so the color "8" is indistinguishable from the color "0".

The 4-bit RGBI palette is used by:

• Color Graphics Adapter (on the IBM PC and compatibles)
• EGA, VGA and Microsoft Windows as their default 16-color palette
• MOS Technology VDC (on the Commodore 128)
• ZX Spectrum

[edit] 6-bit RGB

Systems with a 6-bit RGB palette use 2 bits for each of the red, green, and blue color components. This results in a 64-color palette as follows:

6-bit RGB systems include the following:

• Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)

[edit] 8-bit RGB

Systems that use an 8-bit color palette can display up to 256 colors. Many personal computers in the early 1990s displayed at most 8-bits of color, as did the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

[edit] 9-bit RGB

Systems with a 9-bit RGB palette use 3 bits for each of the red, green, and blue color components. This results in a 512-color palette. This palette is used by the original models of Atari ST, as well as the Sega Genesis.

[edit] 12-bit RGB

Systems with a 12-bit RGB palette use 4 bits for each of the red, green, and blue color components. This results in a 4096-color palette as follows:

12-bit RGB systems include the following:

• Original Amiga chipset (OCS)
• Apple IIgs Video Graphics Chip
• The video hardware of Atari STe

[edit] 15-bit RGB

Systems with a 15-bit RGB palette use 5 bits for each of the red, green, and blue color components. This results in a 32 768-color palette as follows:

[edit] 16-bit RGB

Most modern systems support 16-bit color. It is sometimes referred to as medium color or "thousands of colors." It utilizes a color palette of 65,536 colors. Usually, there are 5 bits allocated for the red and blue color components and 6 bits for the green component.

[edit] 18-bit RGB

Systems with an 18-bit RGB palette use 6 bits for each of the red, green, and blue color components. This results in a 262 144-color palette as follows:

18-bit RGB systems include the following:

• Video Graphics Array (VGA)

[edit] 24-bit RGB

Often known as true color, high color, and "millions of colors," 24-bit color is the highest color depth normally used and is available on most modern systems. Its color palette contains 16,777,216 colors.

24-bit systems include:

• Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) (although it can only display 262,144 colours at once)

[edit] Apple

[edit] Apple IIe

The Apple IIe featured a 16-color YUV palette.^[1]

0 — black	1 — magenta	2 — dark blue	3 — purple
4 — dark green	5 — grey #1	6 — medium blue	7 — light blue
8 — brown	9 — orange	10 — grey #2	11 — pink
12 — green	13 — yellow	14 — aqua	15 — white

[edit] Commodore

[edit] VIC

The MOS Technology VIC was used in the Commodore VIC-20 and featured a 16-color YUV palette.^[2] The table below shows uncorrected RGB colors.

0 — black	1 — white	2 — red	3 — cyan
4 — purple	5 — green	6 — blue	7 — yellow
8 — orange	9 — light orange	10 — light red	11 — light cyan
12 — light purple	13 — light green	14 — light blue	15 — light yellow

[edit] VIC-II

The MOS Technology VIC-II was used in the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 (in 40-column mode), and featured a 16-color YUV palette. The table below is color-corrected to show how the original YUV colors look.^[3]

0 — black	1 — white	2 — red	3 — cyan
4 — purple	5 — green	6 — blue	7 — yellow
8 — orange	9 — brown	10 — light red	11 — dark grey
12 — grey	13 — light green	14 — light blue	15 — light grey

[edit] TED

The MOS Technology TED was used in the Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4. It had a palette of 128 YUV colors (121 of them distinct) comprised of sixteen hues (including black and white) at eight luminance levels.^[4] Black was the same color at every luminance level. On the Plus/4, twelve colors formed a "default" palette of sorts accessible through keyboard shortcuts;^[5] these colors are underlined in the table below.

hue / luminance	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1 — black	1,0	1,1	1,2	1,3	1,4	1,5	1,6	1,7
2 — white	2,0	2,1	2,2	2,3	2,4	2,5	2,6	2,7
3 — red	3,0	3,1	3,2	3,3	3,4	3,5	3,6	3,7
4 — cyan	4,0	4,1	4,2	4,3	4,4	4,5	4,6	4,7
5 — purple	5,0	5,1	5,2	5,3	5,4	5,5	5,6	5,7
6 — green	6,0	6,1	6,2	6,3	6,4	6,5	6,6	6,7
7 — blue	7,0	7,1	7,2	7,3	7,4	7,5	7,6	7,7
8 — yellow	8,0	8,1	8,2	8,3	8,4	8,5	8,6	8,7
9 — orange	9,0	9,1	9,2	9,3	9,4	9,5	9,6	9,7
10 — brown	10,0	10,1	10,2	10,3	10,4	10,5	10,6	10,7
11 — yellow-green	11,0	11,1	11,2	11,3	11,4	11,5	11,6	11,7
12 — pink	12,0	12,1	12,2	12,3	12,4	12,5	12,6	12,7
13 — blue-green	13,0	13,1	13,2	13,3	13,4	13,5	13,6	13,7
14 — light blue	14,0	14,1	14,2	14,3	14,4	14,5	14,6	14,7
15 — dark blue	15,0	15,1	15,2	15,3	15,4	15,5	15,6	15,7
16 — light green	16,0	16,1	16,2	16,3	16,4	16,5	16,6	16,7

[edit] 8563/8568

The MOS Technology 8563/8568 was used in the Commodore 128 in 80-column RGBI mode. The palette was the same as the full CGA palette.

[edit] IBM PC/compatible systems

[edit] CGA

The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) output RGB and supported the 16 colours. However, certain display modes were restricted to fixed palettes containing only four colors.

• The full palette is the 4-bit RGBI palette (see before).

• Fixed palettes

Note: The first color for low-intensity palettes could be chosen among full palette colors 0 through 7; that for high-intensity palettes could be chosen among colors 8 through 15.

Generally, the chosen palette affects the blue and intensity components of the RGBI color, and the pixel values affect the red and green components.

• Palette 1 (low intensity)

0 — [user-defined]

1 — magenta

2 — cyan

3 — white (light gray)

• Palette 1 (high intensity)

0 — [user-defined]

1 — bright magenta

2 — bright cyan

3 — bright white

• Palette 2 (low intensity)

0 — [user-defined]

1 — red

2 — green

3 — brown (orange)

• Palette 2 (high intensity)

0 — [user-defined]

1 — bright red

2 — bright green

3 — yellow

• There are also two monochrome palettes, whose colors are seen as black, (bright) red, (bright) cyan and white in RGBI color monitors.

[edit] EGA

The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) used the 6-bit RGB palette from which the user could select any 16 at a time. It also included 16-color versions of the CGA display modes, where the palette was the same as the full CGA palette.

[edit] Nintendo

[edit] PPU

The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) was used in the Nintendo Entertainment System and had a palette of about 53 colors (sources vary).

[edit] Game Boy

The original Game Boy used a 4-color green-scale palette.

[edit] Sega

[edit] Master System

The Sega Master System had a 64-color palette, with 32 colors on-screen at once.

[edit] Game Gear

The Sega Game Gear had a 4096-color palette, with 32 colors on-screen at once.

[edit] Mega Drive/Genesis

The Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis used a 512-color (1536 including shadow and highlight mode) palette with 61 colors on-screen at once (4 lines of 15 colors plus transparent).

[edit] Sinclair

[edit] ZX Spectrum (and compatibles)

The ZX Spectrum (and compatibles computers used a 4-bit RGBI palette. This results in each of the colors of the 3-bit palette to have a "dark" and "bright" variant, with the exception of black.

0 — black	8 — black
1 — blue	9 — bright blue
2 — red	10 — bright red
3 — magenta	11 — bright magenta
4 — green	12 — bright green
5 — cyan	13 — bright cyan
6 — yellow	14 — bright yellow
7 — white	15 — bright white

[edit] Notes

1. ^ RGB values are taken from Robert Munafo's xapple2 patch.
2. ^ Color names and values are taken from "The 6561 VIC Chip" and the VICE source code.
3. ^ Color-corrected RGB values are taken from "Commodore VIC-II Color Analysis (Preview)".
4. ^ Color values in this table are taken from the YAPE source code.
5. ^ "Color codes." Plus/4 Encyclopedia

[edit] See also

• Color depth
• X11 color names
• Web colors

[edit] External links and sources

• COLOURlovers.com - 25,000+ Color Palettes
• Xona.com - Color List - 2,000+ colors with and without gamma correction; gamma correction required to display actual colors on CRTs, LCDs, etc.