Colour count
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12847
Printed Date: 04 November 2025 at 8:36am
Topic: Colour count
Posted By: ChrisButton
Subject: Colour count
Date Posted: 30 August 2011 at 1:30am
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Hey guys!
So basically I've been studying pixel art here and there when I'm not doing
other stuff. I've taken an interest in color palettes and was wondering if
anyone knew about why you're only allowed such an amount of colours per
game and could explain it to me and how it affects the programming?
(4bit 8bit 16bit etc). I was also wondering if you could recommend the best
amount would be. Any links on the topic would be greatly appreciated as
would any comments etc.
Thank youuu. :)
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Replies:
Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 30 August 2011 at 10:25am
As you know you know, computers are based on the binary-system (1 & 0). Therefore the operations & memory-structure are usually in numbers of 2^n, like 2^0 = 1, 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 4, 2^3 = 8, 2^4 = 16, 2^5 = 32 etc...
Many graphical systems uses Bitplanes that work in the same manner: 1 Bitplane = 2 colors, 2 Bitplanes = 4 colors etc... So the common 8,16 & 32 colorlimits are modes found in popular pre-24bit computers. The highest common mode in more modern (non 24bit displays) computers are 8 Bitplanes = 256 colors. Why I consider that the absolute max for pure pixelart.
Color-values can be a little trickier; You normally count how many shades of each RGB-channel a system can display/set. F.ex the Amiga500 has a 12bit-palette:
Each channel has 4 bits = 16 shades (4 + 4 + 4 = 12 bit)
16 red * 16 green * 16 blue = 4096 possible colors.
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Posted By: ChrisButton
Date Posted: 30 August 2011 at 7:23pm
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Fascinating stuff. I'm doing a course next year on C++ programming for
games development and want to know what I'm getting into. I'm pretty sure
the course revolves around 3d things, but I'll definitely be sure to inquire
about pixel art and stuff. Games like Monster Bash ftw.
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Posted By: Rebel
Date Posted: 21 September 2011 at 9:33pm
Personally I enjoy the challenge of limiting my palette and colourdepth, but I do it also because a lot of my work is used on older systems that actually have these limitations.
If you were going to produce some graphics for an Amiga 500, Atari Lynx or Sega Game Gear for example, your choice of colours are limited to those in the 12bit palette. So your grey scales would need to have 24bit R,G, & B values of exactly: 0, 17, 34, 51, 68, 85, 102, 119, 136, 153, 170, 187, 204, 221, 238, 255. All the colours you make would also have to use those 24bit values if you want to stick to a 12bit colour depth.
If you were making graphics for a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari ST or PC Engine/TG16 which all have a 9bit palette your 24bit values must be: 0, 36, 72, 109, 145, 182, 218, 255.
Each system also has a limit to how many colours can be shown on screen at once, and how many colours are allocated to background and foreground playfields, sprites, tiles and so on.
It might not be what you wanted to know, but maybe someone will find it useful or interesting to know those colour values.
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Posted By: ChrisButton
Date Posted: 25 September 2011 at 12:42am
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That was definitely something interesting to read, however I have
to ask you two quick questions (or anyone who can answer):
Why would those values have to be those numbers?
and
Do you know how to work out how much data you have to work with
given a specific data allocation? (example 16 bit) - your resolution, your
colors and how many there are etc?
That would be awesome! Thank you. :-)
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Posted By: DawnBringer
Date Posted: 25 September 2011 at 3:23am
Ex: Amiga500 (12bit RGB, 16 shades) to 24bit(256 shades):
The 12bit palette has 16 shades of grey but there's only 15 steps from Black(0) to White(255), so: 255 / 15 = 17.
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