bittisyvyyttä

Bittisyvyyttä, often translated as bit depth, refers to the number of bits used to represent the color or grayscale value of a single pixel in a digital image or video. A higher bit depth allows for a greater range of colors and finer gradations between them, resulting in more realistic and nuanced visuals.

For example, an 8-bit image can represent 2^8 = 256 distinct shades for each color channel (red, green, blue). This typically results in a total of 16.7 million colors (256 x 256 x 256). In contrast, a 16-bit image can represent 2^16 = 65,536 shades per channel, leading to a vastly larger palette and smoother transitions, which is crucial for professional photography, video editing, and graphic design where subtle color variations are important.

Lower bit depths, such as 1-bit (black and white) or 4-bit (16 colors), are used in applications where file size is a primary concern and the visual fidelity is less critical, like early computer graphics or simple icons. The choice of bit depth is a trade-off between image quality and file size or processing power requirements.