16color

16color refers to a color display or image that uses 4-bit color depth, allowing up to 16 distinct colors per pixel. This term is common in discussions of early computer graphics, terminals, and image formats where hardware or software limited the color spectrum to a small fixed palette. In practice, 16color systems map color indices to RGB values defined by the particular hardware or software, rather than using true color.

Historically, 16-color modes were widespread in 1980s and early 1990s personal computers and video terminals. Graphics in these environments typically relied on fixed palettes with a combination of base colors and their brighter variants. Some systems allowed palette changes, enabling a limited form of recoloring, but the total number of displayable colors remained 16. The exact composition of the palette varied between platforms such as CGA, EGA, and VGA, which influenced software design and aesthetic.

In contemporary contexts, 16color is studied for retrocomputing, emulation, and artistic effect. It is also encountered in color quantization tasks, where images are reduced to a small palette for performance or stylistic purposes. Many terminal emulators provide a 16-color ANSI palette, representing eight standard colors and eight bright variants, facilitating legacy-style text rendering.

See also: 4-bit color, color depth, VGA palette, ANSI color codes, hardware palette.