#Photoshop 64 bit vs 32 bit 32 bit
If an image is CMYK, it could be 8 bit per channel and 32 bit per pixel, with 8 bits for cyan, magenta, yellow and black channels. RGB or CMYK?Īll the above information assumes you’re working with RGB or RGBA images. 16 bits per channel means 281,474,976,710,656 total colours - well beyond human perception, but handy for processing. 16 bits per pixel works out to be 65,536 possible colours, and it definitely looks worse than 24 bits per pixel. “16 bit” can typically mean two different things: 16 bits per pixel or 16 bits per channel. That might sound excessive, but it’s often used for VFX and rendered material, where heavy processing or colour correction may be involved, and large files are less of a concern. The OpenEXR format supports 32 bit float channels. (I’m happy to add more detail on floating point vs integer, if you’d like.) And, a lot of the time 32 bit per channel uses floating point numbers, rather than integers. 32 bit per channelĪlso, 32 bit occasionally means 32 bits per channel (128 bits total per pixel). It’s also worth noting that transparency doesn’t need to be sent to your display, because displays are opaque (you can’t see through your display to what’s behind it, unless you’re Tony Stark). This is sometimes referred to as 32 bit RGBA.Ģ4 bit and 32 bit can mean the same thing, in terms of possible colours. “32 bit” also usually means 32 bits total per pixel, and 8 bits per channel, with an additional 8 bit alpha channel that’s used for transparency. This is sometimes referred to as 24 bit RGB.
“24 bit” usually means 24 bits total per pixel, with 8 bits per channel for red, green and blue, or 16,777,216 total colours. You have to be a little careful with the definitions.