This represents the ‘gradation’ or number of shades between colours or amount of colour found in an image. Colour depth is represented by the number of ‘bits’ used for each pixel, for example ‘8-bit colour’. 8-bit screens have 256 shades of a colour between complete black and complete white. 10-bit screens have 1024 shades of gradation making colour appear more accurate and life-like. The higher the number of bits the greater total number of colours the screen can display. Modern screens’ colour depth can be as high as 24-bit which provides for more than 16 million different colours. The more bits you have, the better the colour display.
Measuring Colour Density & Accuracy
Colour Range is the percentage of visible colours that can be displayed. LCD panels often only cover about 50% of the range that the eye can discern whereas plasma screens cover 100%. Higher-end LCD displays have wide colour range backlights that greatly increase the range of colours and they can often cover the full visible spectrum. This is a very important feature to look out for if you seek the best image quality from an LCD panel.