(bpp) The number of bITs of information stored per pixel of an image or displayed by a {graphics adapter}. The more bITs there are, the more colours can be represented, but the more memory is required to store or display the image. A colour can be described by the intensITies of red, green and blue (RGB) components. Allowing 8 bITs (1 byte) per component (24 bITs per pixel) gives 256 levels for each component and over 16 million different colours - more than the human eye can distinguish. Microsoft Windows [and others?] calls this truecolour. An image of 1024x768 wITh 24 bpp requires over 2 MB of memory. "High colour" uses 16 bpp (or 15 bpp), 5 bITs for blue, 5 bITs for red and 6 bITs for green. This reduced colour precision gives a slight loss of image qualITy at a 1/3 saving on memory. Standard VGA uses a palette of 16 colours (4 bpp), each colour in the palette is 24 bIT. Standard SVGA uses a palette of 256 colours (8 bpp). Some graphics hardware and software support 32-bIT colour depths, including an 8-bIT "alpha channel" for transparency effects. (1999-08-01)