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Definition
Color depth (also called bit depth) specifies how many bits are used to represent the color of each pixel in an image. Higher color depth means more possible colors: 8-bit allows 256 shades per channel (16.7 million total colors), while 16-bit allows 65,536 shades per channel.
Most web images and consumer displays use 8-bit color per channel, also called 24-bit color (8 bits x 3 channels = 24 bits, producing 16.7 million colors). This is sufficient for photographs and web graphics. Professional editing workflows often use 16-bit per channel (48-bit total) to preserve tonal detail during heavy adjustments like exposure correction and color grading. RAW camera files typically capture 12-14 bits per channel.
When you adjust the brightness or color of an 8-bit image, the limited number of tonal values can produce banding — visible steps between shades in smooth gradients (like blue skies or skin tones). Working in 16-bit provides 256 times more tonal values per channel, so the same adjustments produce smooth gradients without banding. The difference is invisible in the final output (which is typically exported as 8-bit for the web) but critical during the editing process.
JPEG supports only 8-bit color. PNG supports 8-bit and 16-bit. AVIF and JPEG XL support 8, 10, and 12-bit, enabling HDR content on the web. WebP supports 8-bit. For web delivery, 8-bit is standard and sufficient. Higher bit depths are used in photography editing, medical imaging, scientific visualization, and HDR content. When converting between bit depths, dithering (adding subtle noise) can disguise banding artifacts in the lower bit depth output.