A Wired.com user account lets you create, edit and comment on Webmonkey articles. You will also be able to contribute to the Wired How-To Wiki and comment on news stories at Wired.com.
It's fast and free.
processing...Retrieve Sign In
Please enter your e-mail address or username below. Your username and password will be sent to the e-mail address you provided us.
processing...Welcome to Webmonkey
- edit articles
- add to the code library
- design and write a tutorial
- comment on any Webmonkey article
Sign In Information Sent
Bit Depth
/skill level/
/viewed/
Bit depth describes the file size of an image by orders of magnitude.
When wrangling with file size versus image quality, it's often important to minimize the bit depth of an image while maximizing the number of colors. To calculate the maximum number of colors for an image of a particular bit depth, remember that the number of colors is equal to two to the power of what the bit depth is. For example, a GIF can support up to eight bits per pixel, and therefore can have as a many as 256 colors, since two to the power of eight equals 256.
Back to Glossary
- This page was last modified 00:18, 15 May 2008.
/related_articles/
Special Offer For Webmonkey Users
WIRED magazine:
The first word on how technology is changing our world.
Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (Revised 4/2/2009) and Privacy Policy (Revised 4/2/2009).
Wired.com © 2009 Condé Nast Digital. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Digital.