List of palettes

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Original true-color (24-bit) image
Original true-color (24-bit) image

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, except where noted.

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. Simulations are provided, if available. 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

[edit] Hardware palettes

The different methods to produce a full palette of colors by the display hardware, not the total number of such colors that can be simultaneously displayed in a given text or graphic mode.

Also, the limitations of the display monitor capabilities gives different presentations regarding of the logic's method to produce the colors in some older systems.

[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.

In some systems, as Hercules and CGA PC graphic cards, a bit value of 1 represents white pixels (light on) and a value of 0 the black ones (light off); others, like the Atari ST and Apple Macintosh with monochrome monitors, a bit value of 0 means a white pixel (no ink) and a value of 1 means a black pixel (dot of ink), which it approximates to the printing logic.

The following images illustrates simulations of the image seen over green, amber and creme phosphor CRT monitors, green non-backlighted LCD and blue backlighted LCD displays:

Image:Parrot_mono-green_palette.png Image:Parrot_mono-amber_palette.png Image:Parrot_mono-creme_palette.png Image:Parrot_mono-lcd-green_palette.png Image:Parrot_mono-lcd-blue_palette.png


[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:


[edit] Manufacturer's palettes

Especific hardware-implemented 4, 16 or more colors palette: not bit nor level combinations of RGB primaries, but fixed ROM/circuitry colors selected by the manufacturer.

When see on TV devices, the perception of the colors may be not the correspondent with the value levels for the primaries RGB employed (most noticiable with NTSC TV color system).

Examples of systems with propietary palettes are:

This article includes the specific cases of some of this kind of computers.

[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:

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.

This 4-bits RGBI schema is used in several platforms with variations, so the table given below is a simple reference for the palette richness, and not an actual implemented palette. For this reason, no numbers are asigned to each color, and color order is arbitrary.

black dark gray
dark blue bright blue
dark green bright green
dark cyan bright cyan
dark red bright red
dark magenta bright magenta
dark yellow bright yellow
light gray white

The 4-bits RGBI palettes are used by:


[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:

Image:EGA palette.png

6-bit RGB systems include the following:


[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 as follows:

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:

Image:OCS palette.png

12-bit RGB systems include the following:


[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 (commonly known as Highcolor) as follows:

Image:Highcolor palette.png

15-bit systems include:


[edit] 16-bit RGB

Most modern systems support 16-bit color. It is sometimes referred to as Highcolor (along with the 15-bit RGB), 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 (32 levels each) and 6 bits for the green component (64 levels). This doubles the 15-bit RGB palette.

The 16-bit RGB palette using 6 bits for the green component:

Image:Hicolor64_palette.png‎


[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:

Image:VGA palette.png

18-bit RGB systems include the following:


[edit] 24-bit RGB

188px original image
188px original image

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

This is also the number of colors used in true color image files, like Truevision TGA, TIFF, JPEG (the last internally encoded as YCbCr) and Windows Bitmap, captured with scanners and digital cameras, as well as those created with 3D computer graphics software.

The complete palette needs a squared image of 4,096 pixels wide (50MB in memory), and there is not enough room in this page to show it at full.

You must imagine 256 stacked squares like the following, every of them having the same given value for the red component, from 0 to 255.

The color transitions in these patches must be seen as continuous. If you see color stepping (banding) inside, then probably your display is using a Highcolor (15- or 16- bits RGB, 32,768 or 65,536 colors) mode or lesser.

Image:RGB_24bits_R0_palette.png‎
Red = 0		 Image:RGB_24bits_R85_palette.png‎
Red = 85 (1/3 of 255)
Image:RGB_24bits_R170_palette.png‎
Red = 170 (2/3 of 255)		 Image:RGB_24bits_R255_palette.png‎
Red = 255

24-bit RGB systems include:


[edit] Software palettes

Systems that use an 8-bit pixel depth can display up to 256 colors simultaneously. Many personal computers in the early 1990s displayed at most 8-bits selections of their wider color palette.

Usual selections of colors in limited subsets (generally 16 or 256) of the full palette includes some RGB level arragements commomly used with the 8 bpp palettes as master palettes or universal palettes (i.e., palettes for multipursose uses).

[edit] Grayscale 256 levels

Doing every triplet RGB primaries having equal values. Used to display pure grayscale TIFF or JPEG images, for example.

[edit] Microsoft Windows default 16-color palette

Used by this platform as a roughly backwards compatible palette for the CGA, EGA and VGA text modes. Also is the default palette for 16 color icons.

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


[edit] 6 level RGB

Having six levels for every primary, with 216 combinations. The index can be addresed by (36×R)+(6×G)+B, with all R,G and B values in a range from 0 to 5. Intended as homogeneous RGB cube, it gives true greys.

Image:RGB_6level_palette.png

Systems that use this software palette are:

  • Web palette
  • Microsoft Windows 256 color default palette (this also contain fixed system colors and other intemediate levels of gray, so RGB simple direct addressing is not possible).
  • Apple Macintosh 256 color default palette, it also contains four gradients of ten shades each for grey, red, green and blue.


[edit] 6-7-6 levels RGB

This palette is constructed with six levels for red and blue primaries and seven levels for the green primary, giving 252 combinations. The index can be addresed by (42×R)+(6×G)+B, with R and B values in a range from 0 to 5 and G in a range from 0 to 6. The same case as the former, but with an added level of green due to the greater sensibility of the normal human eye to this frecuency.

It does not provide true greys, but remaining indexes can be filled with four intermediate greys.

Image:RGB_6-7-6levels_palette.png


[edit] 6-8-5 levels RGB

This palette is constructed with six levels for red, eight levels for green and five levels for the blue primaries, giving 240 combinations. The index can be addresed by (40×R)+(5×G)+B, with R ranging from 0 to 5, G from 0 to 7 and B from 0 to 4. Levels are chosen in function of sensibility of the normal human eye to every primary color.

Also, it does not provide true greys. Remaining indexes can be filled with sixteen intermediate grays or other fixed colors.

Image:RGB_6-8-5levels_palette.png


[edit] Adaptative palettes

Those whose whole number of available indexes are filled with RGB combinations selected from the statistical order of appearance (usually balanced) of a concrete full color original image. There exists many algorithms to select the colors through color quantization; one well known is the Heckbert's median-cut algorithm.

Adaptative palettes only work well with unique images. Trying to display different images with an adaptative palette on an 8bpp display usually results in only one fine image, while the others are ruined until their palettes are dumped, one at a time, on to the hardware registers, which also ruins the previously well displayed image.


[edit] False color palettes

Arbitrary gradient color scales, usually 256 shades, with no relationship with real colors of a given image. They are employed to artificially colorize a grayscale image to reveal details and/or to map the pixel level values to amounts of some physical magnitude (potential, temperature, altitude, etc.)

Note, in the example at right, that new details can be seen as blue over magenta in the background's dark areas of the original photograph.

There exists many false color palettes, some of them standarized, used mainly in scientifical applications: astronomy and radioastronomy, satellite land imaging, thermography, study of materials, tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in medicine, etc.


[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 aproximate corrected RGB colors; the image at right not yet.

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] Sinclair

[edit] ZX Spectrum (and compatibles)

The ZX Spectrum (and compatibles) computers uses a variation of the 4-bit RGBI palette philosophy. This results in each of the colors of the 3-bit palette to have a basic and bright variant, with the exception of black.

The production method to generate the colors is having the eight basic 3-bit RGB combinations at maximum voltage level (the bright right column of the table below), being the black the complete absence (0.0V for red plus 0.0V for green plus 0.0V for blue), and a second repertoire of the former but lowering the voltage levels to give near one-half brightness on screen (the basic left column). Due this, black is the same in both variants. The principle is the same one that in the case of the color test card of the TV broadcasting stations.

The color numbers in the Sinclair BASIC are: 0 for black; 1 for blue; 2 for red; 3 for magenta; 4 for green; 5 for cyan; 6 for yellow and 7 for white. This follows the bit pattern to give the blue primary a weight of 1, the red primary a weight of 2 and the green primary a weight of 4 (see the table below).

The color numbers can be employed with the following statements to choose:

  • BORDER n, the color for surrounding area outside the pixel graphical area.
  • PAPER n, the background (pixel bit value of 0) color for an 8×8 pixels cell.
  • INK n, the foreground (pixel bit value of 1) color for an 8×8 pixels cell.

In the Sinclair BASIC, the BRIGHT statement selects the repertorie to be used for any 8×8 pixels cell (a color attribute area). BRIGHT 0 selects the basic variants and BRIGHT 1 selects the bright one. Both basic and bright variants cannot be selected for two colors in a single 8×8 pixels cell at a time, due only one bit in the attribute byte are devoted to this task. Also, the BRIGHT statement does not affect the border color, thus only the basic darker variants can be selected for this element.

The attribute byte assocciated to every 8×8 pixels cell dedicates (from LSB to MSB): three bits for the background color; three bits for the foreground color; one bit for the bright variant for both, and one bit for the flashing effect (alternate foreground and background colors evenly in time). So the colors are not selectable as indexes of a true palette (there are not color numbers 8 to 15).

Color number Binary value BRIGHT 0 BRIGHT 1
0 000 black black
1 001 basic blue bright blue
2 010 basic red bright red
3 011 basic magenta bright magenta
4 100 basic green bright green
5 101 basic cyan bright cyan
6 110 basic yellow bright yellow
7 111 basic white bright white

The following image simulates the parrot sample seen on a ZX Spectrum screen. No effort had been made to avoid the heavy attribute clash color square artifacts, and also it is not dithered (to see a better adaptation of the parrot image to the ZX Spectrum display, please visit the article ZX Spectrum graphic modes.)

Image:Parrot_ZXSpectrum_palette.png‎


[edit] Amstrad

[edit] CPC series

The Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128 series of computers generate the available palete with 3-levels (not bits) for every RGB primary. Thus, there are 27 different RGB combinations, from which 16 can be simultaneously displayed in low resolution mode, four in medium resolution mode and two in high resolution mode.[6]

0 – Black (5) 1 – Blue (0,14) 2 – Bright blue (6) 3 – Red 4 – Magenta 5 – Violet 6 – Bright red (3) 7 – Purple 8 – Bright magenta (7)
9 – Green 10 – Cyan (8) 11 – Sky blue (15) 12 – Yellow (9) 13 – Grey 14 – Pale blue (10) 15 – Orange 16 – Pink (11) 17 – Pale magenta
18 – Bright green (12) 19 – Sea green 20 – Bright cyan (2) 21 – Lime green 22 – Pale green (13) 23 – Pale cyan 24 – Bright yellow (1) 25 – Pale yellow 26 – Bright white (4)


The number in parentheses means the primary ink number for the Locomotive BASIC PEN statement. A secondary ink number also exist, which only changes 14 for bright yellow and 15 for pink (both repeated).

Simulations of actual images (without dither) over the Amstrad's color monitor in every of the modes (160×200, 16 colors; 320×200, 4 colors and 640×200, 2 colors) following. A cheaper green monochrome display was also available from the manufacturer; in this case, the colors are viewed as a 16-tone green scale, as in the simulation shown at right.

Image:Parrot_AmstradCPC_16_palette.png Image:Parrot_AmstradCPC_4_palette.png Image:Parrot_AmstradCPC_2_palette.png Image:Parrot_amscpc_green_palette.png


[edit] MSX systems

[edit] Original MSX

The MSX compatible computers features a Texas Instruments TMS9918 chip which uses a YUV propietary 15 color palette plus a transparent color, intended to be used by the hardware sprites. When used as a ordinary background color, it renders simply black.[7]

The following table shows corrected colors; the image at right not yet.

0 – Transparent 1 – Black 2 – Medium green 3 – Light green
4 – Dark blue 5 – Light blue 6 – Dark red 7 – Cyan
8 – Medium red 9 – Light red 10 – Dark yellow 11 – Light yellow
12 – Dark green 13 – Magenta 14 – Gray 15 – White


[edit] MSX2

The MSX2 series features a Yamaha V9938 video chip which manages a 9-bits RGB palette (512 colors) and have some extended graphic modes. The SCREEN 8 consist in a 256×212 pixels resolution with 8bpp depth. Bits in every byte are mapped (LSB to MSB): two for blue (four levels), three for red (eight levels) and three for green (again, eight levels). The higher order bits contain the brighter primary color (green) and the lower order bits contain the darker (blue).[8]

Image:MSX2_palette.png


[edit] IBM PC/compatible systems

[edit] CGA

The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) outputs what IBM called "digital RGB"[9] (that is, RGBI signals from card to the monitor can only have two on/off states) and supports 16 colors. However, 320×200 graphic mode is restricted to fixed palettes containing only four colors, and the 640×200 graphic mode is only two colors.

The full palette is a variant of the 4-bit RGBI schema. Although the RGBI signals have only two states, the CGA color monitor decodes them as if RGB signals have three levels. Darker colors are RGB basic signals except for brown, which is dark yellow with the level for the green component halved. Brighter colors are made by adding an uniform intensity signal to every RGB signal of the dark ones, and in this case yellow is produced as if the brown were ordinary dark yellow.

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

A few earlier non-IBM compatible CGA monitors lack the circuitry to decode color numbers of three levels internally, and they cannot show brown and dark grey. The above palette is displayed in such monitors as follows:

0 — black 8 — black
1 — low blue 9 — high blue
2 — low green 10 — high green
3 — low cyan 11 — high cyan
4 — low red 12 — high red
5 — low magenta 13 — high magenta
6 — low yellow 14 — yellow
7 — light gray 15 — white
  • 2-color palette mode
In the 640×200 graphic mode (BIOS mode number 6), every pixel has only a single bit. A value of 0 is always black, while a value of 1 is the color set in the bits 0 to 3 (bit3=I, bit2=R, bit1=G, bit0=B) of the CRT Color Selector Register (in 3D9h). The foreground color can be set with a call to the function 0Bh of the BIOS's INT 10h. The default foreground color is white.
An example of the parrot image seen with the foreground color set as bright blue
An example of the parrot image seen with the foreground color set as bright blue
0 — black
1 — [user-defined]
The sixteen combinations are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
  • 4-color palette modes
In the 320×200 graphic mode, every pixel has two bits. A value of 0 is always a selectable background-plus-border color (with the same register and/or BIOS call used for the foreground color in the 640×200 graphic mode; black by default), and the three remaining values 1 to 3 are indexes to a one of the predefined color palettes entries.
The selection of a given fixed palette is a bit complex. There are two BIOS 320×200 graphic modes. The mode number 4 has enabled the composite color burst output (CRT Mode Control Register in 3D8H has cleared the bit 2), and the mode number 5 has it disabled (bit 2 set on the register). This gives two sets of palettes, one for "digital RGB" color monitors and one for monochrome composite video monitors, but the last has its own colors when viewed in a color monitor.
The desired video mode, 4 or 5, can be set with the function 0h of the BIOS's INT 10h.
For the BIOS mode 4, two palettes can be chosen: green-red-yellow and cian-magenta-white (that is, the former plus the blue signal). The palette is selected with the bit 5 of the CRT Color Selector Register in 3D9h. A value of 1 means the cyan-magenta-white palette (known as the "palette #1" because is the default for the mode 4), and 0 is the green-red-yellow (known as the "palette #2"). It can be set with the function 0Bh, subfunction 1, of the BIOS's INT 10h.
The palette for the BIOS mode 5 is always cyan-red-white.
In every of the 4 and 5 mode palettes, a low or high intensity can be chosen with the bit 4 of the CRT Color Selector Register in 3D9h. A value of 0 means the low intensity, and 1 means the high. No BIOS call exist to switch between the two intensity modes.
  • Mode 4, palette #1, low intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — cyan
2 — magenta
3 — light grey
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 *
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.


  • Mode 4, palette #1, high intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — bright cyan
2 — bright magenta
3 — bright white
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 *
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.


  • Mode 4, palette #2, low intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — green
2 — red
3 — brown
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.


  • Mode 4, palette #2, high intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — bright green
2 — bright red
3 — yellow
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.


  • Mode 5, low intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — cyan
2 — red
3 — light grey
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 *
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.


  • Mode 5, high intensity:
0 — [user-defined]
1 — bright cyan
2 — bright red
3 — white
The sixteen combinations with the background color are:
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 * 0 1 * 0 1 _ 0 1 _ 0 1 *
2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _ 2 3 _
(*) Unuseful due to the duplication of one of the colors.
When viewed in a monochrome composite monitor, the mode 5 palettes above are shown as a (more or less brighter) 2-bit grayscale palette:
Image:Parrot_CGA_noburst-mono_palette.png‎


  • 16-color palette modes
The only full 16-color BIOS modes of the CGA are the text mode 0 (40×25) and mode 2 (80×25). Disabling the flashing attribute effect and using the IBM 437 codepage block characters 220 (DCh) ▄ (bottom half) or 223 (DFh) ▀ (upper half), the mode 2 screen buffer provides an 80×50 quasi-graphic mode.
Also, a tweak mode can be set in the CGA to give an extra, non-standard 160×100 pixels 16 color graphic mode.
In this modes, the sample image would render approx. like those, respectively:
Image:Parrot_CGA_16-80x50_palette.png‎‎ Image:Parrot_CGA_16-160x100_palette.png‎‎


[edit] EGA

The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) supports all CGA modes and adds three more: two 320×200 and 640×200 graphic modes, both with the full CGA 16-color palette (intended to be used with the same "digital RGB" CGA color monitor of 200 scan lines) and an extra 640×350 graphic mode with 16 colors chosen from a 6-bit (64 colors) RGB palette, for an "analog RGB" type monitor. The word analog means here that the RGB signals can have more than two possible levels (as the CGA "digital RGB" type has); despite its name, colors are produced digitally through a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), so there exists binary (quantized) steps for every primary RGB signal (two bits, four levels per primary, in this case).

Also, "analog" monochrome monitors exist for EGA. The colors are then mapped to the correspondent luminance grey (the sum of the 30% of the red signal, the 59% of the green and the 11% of the blue), giving 16-shades from a 64-grayscale palette. "Positive" class monitors invert the signal, providing that the default EGA colors for text modes (black background and white foreground) display reversed (white background and black foreground), as if it were a printed document.

Some early EGA cards shipped with only 64KB of video memory (the nominal was 128KB), so the 640×350 graphic mode provides only four colors. This was never a proper mode by itself, and therefore was not popular.

The output of the sample image with the 16-colors CGA palette and 16-colors of the exclusive EGA palette (the last in both color and monochrome monitors) looks, without dither, like:

Image:Parrot_EGA_CGA_palette.png Image:Parrot_EGA_palette.png Image:Parrot_EGA_monochrome_palette.png


[edit] MCGA and VGA

The Multicolor Graphics Adapter (MCGA) and Video Graphics Array (VGA) use a 6-bits per channel, 64 levels DAC to give an 18-bit RGB palette (262,144 colors), from which can be selected any two (in MCGA 640×480 graphic mode), 16 (in VGA 320×200, 640×200, 640×350 and 640×480 graphic modes) or 256 (in MCGA 320×200 graphic mode) at a time. They also include full compatibility with CGA and EGA modes, while the VGA includes all the MCGA modes.

When connected to analog monochrome monitors, they can offer 64 levels of grey.

The output of the sample image with the 16- and 256-colors modes with the MCGA/VGA palette (the last in both color and monochrome monitors) looks, without dither, like:

Image:Parrot_VGA_16_palette.png Image:Parrot_VGA_256_palette.png Image:Parrot_VGA_mono_palette.png


[edit] 8514/A and XGA

The IBM 8514/A uses the 18-bit RGB palette from which the user could select any 256 at a time in both 640×480 and 1024×768 graphic modes. It does not support compatibility with VGA modes, but a VGA card is usually already installed and bridged to the 8514/A to provide a single output cable for a single monitor which can display any of the VGA and 8514/A possible modes.

The eXtended Graphics Array (XGA) supports all 8514/A modes plus a 800×600 16-bits RGB high color mode, with 65,536 simultaneous colors on screen.

[edit] Super VGA (SVGA)

Enhanced clones of the IBM VGA, known as Super VGA (SVGA), supports 256 simultaneous colors in 640×480, and higher pixel resolutions (800×600, 1024×768) in both 16 and 256 picked colors, depending of the model and the manufacturer. Also, some SVGA cards supports 15- and 16- bits RGB high color modes, with 32,768 or 65,536 simultaneous colors on screen in 640×480 and higher resolutions. Some of later models reach the 24-bits RGB true color modes.

In the 1990's, mostly of the manufactures adheres the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE), used for enabling standard support for advanced video modes (at high resolutions and color depths).

They are the direct precedents, not the IBM 8514/A nor XGA, of actual graphic display PC hardware.

[edit] Atari

[edit] ST series

The Atari ST series have a Digital-to-Analog Converter of 3-bits, eight levels per RGB channel, featuring a 9-bit RGB palette. Depending on the (proprietary) monitor type attached, it displays one of the 320×200, 16 colors and 640×200, four colors modes with the color monitor, or the 640×400 black and white mode with the monochrome monitor.

The output of the sample image with the 16-, 4-colors and the monochrome modes with the Atari ST video hardware looks, without dither, like:

Image:Parrot_AtariST_16_palette.png Image:Parrot_AtariST_4_palette.png Image:Parrot_AtariST_Mono_palette.png


[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] Original Game Boy

The original Game Boy uses a monochrome 4-shades palette. Due to the fact that the non-backlighted LCD display background is greenish, this results in a green-scale graphic display, as it is shown in the simulated image (at Gameboy display resolution), below.

Image:Parrot_GB_palette.png‎


[edit] Game Boy Color

The Gameboy Color systems uses a 15-bits RGB (32,768 colors) palette.

When an older monochrome original Gameboy game catridge is pluged-in, if certain combinations of the controls are hold during startup, the games are colorized with one of the factory 12 false color palettes. In this mode, games can have from 4 to 10 colors, due 4 are for the background plane palette and there are two more hardware sprite planes palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each.

The following shows these tricky startup palettes (background plus the first sprite plane) and the combination of controls used (the names are taken from the Gameboy user's manual; the colors are simulated):

Image:Parrot_GB-1_up_brown_palette.png
UP (Brown)		 Image:Parrot_GB-2_up-A_red_palette.png
UP+A (Red)		 Image:Parrot_GB-3_up-B_darkbrown_palette.png
UP+B (Dark brown)
Image:Parrot_GB-4_dw_paleyellow_palette.png
DOWN (Pale yellow)		 Image:Parrot_GB-5_dw-A_orange_palette.png
DOWN+A (Orange)		 Image:Parrot_GB-6_dw-B_yellow_palette.png
DOWN+B (Yellow)
Image:Parrot_GB-7_lf_blue_palette.png
LEFT (Blue)		 Image:Parrot_GB-8_lf-A_darkblue_palette.png
LEFT+A (Dark blue)		 Image:Parrot_GB-9_lf-B_gray_palette.png
LEFT+B (Gray)
Image:Parrot_GB-10_rg_green_palette.png
RIGHT (Green)		 Image:Parrot_GB-11_rg-A_darkgreen_palette.png
RIGHT+A (Dark green)		 Image:Parrot_GB-12_rg-B_reverse_palette.png
RIGHT+B (Reverse)

The specific Gameboy Color game catridges presents up to 56 colors from the full 32,768. From these, 32 are for a background palette, plus 8 hardware sprite palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each. Typically, the sprite palettes shares some colors (black, white or anothers), so the total colors displayed are less than 56.

Here is the sample image shown in the non-backlighted color LCD display of the Gameboy Color (the colors are simulated):

Image:Parrot_GBC_palette.png‎


[edit] Game Boy Advance/SP/Micro

The Gameboy Advance/SP/Micro systems also uses a 15-bits RGB palette, and along with the original and Color modes, they have also a specific Highcolor 32,768 colors mode.

Their color LCD displays are backlighted, giving brighter images.

Here are the sample image shown in the backlighted color LCD display of the Gameboy Advance/SP/Micro, in both Gameboy Color compatible mode and Gameboy Advance 32K color mode:

Image:Parrot_GBA_palette.png‎ Image:Parrot_GBA-32K_palette.png‎


[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] 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
  6. ^ "The Amstrad CPC Firmware Guide"
  7. ^ VDP Registers 00h-07h: Basic MSX1/MSX2 Video Registers from "Portar MSX Tech Doc".
  8. ^ Bits M1-M5 of VDP Register 0 and 1: Video Screen modes, Screen 8 from "Portar MSX Tech Doc".
  9. ^ Richard Wilton, Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 VIDEO SYSTEMS, 1987, Microsoft Press.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links and sources

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