Palette (computing)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Color depth |
|---|
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8-bit color |
| Related |
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RGB color model |
A palette, in computer graphics, is a designated subset of the total range of colors supported by a computer graphics system. Each color in the palette is assigned a number, and for each pixel, one of these numbers is stored. This number determines the color of the pixel.
Graphics modes with low color depths (generally, from 4 to 8 bits) usually have a modifiable palette, also referred to as pseudocolor palette, that contains indices to the full palette of the display hardware. For instance, in the 256-color modes of the original VGA, each of the colors can be chosen from a total palette of 262,144 colors. Pseudocolor allows images comprising a small number of colours to be stored using a relatively modest amount of graphics memory.
Notable computer graphics systems extensively (or even exclusively) using pseudocolor palettes include EGA and VGA (for the IBM PC) and OCS and AGA (for the Amiga).
