High color graphics (variously spelled Highcolor, Hicolor, Hi-color, Hicolour, and Highcolour, and known as Thousands of colors on a Macintosh) is a method of storing image information in a computer's memory such that each pixel is represented by two bytes. Usually the color is represented by all 16 bits, but some devices also support 15-bit high color.
More recently, high color has been used by Microsoft to distinguish display systems that can make use of more than 8-bits per color channel (10:10:10:2 or 16:16:16:16 rendering formats) from traditional 8-bit per color channel formats. This is a distinct usage from the 15-bit (5:5:5) or 16-bit (5:6:5) formats traditionally associated with the phrase high color.
Read more about High Color: 15-bit High Color, 16-bit High Color, Other Notes
Famous quotes containing the words high and/or color:
“And since our Daintie age,
Cannot indure reproofe,
Make not thy selfe a Page,
To that strumpet the Stage,
But sing high and aloofe,
Safe from the wolves black jaw, and the dull Asses hoofe.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“Rain falls into the open eyes of the dead
Again again with its pointless sound
When the moon finds them they are the color of everything”
—William Stanley Merwin (b. 1927)