(bpp) The number of bits of infORmation stORed per pixel of an imageOR 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)