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This Won't Hurt a Bit

Many photographers new to the concepts of digital image processing, when they encounter the phrase bit depth their eyes glaze over. They know that it has something to do with image quality, and that more bits are somehow better, but that's about it. Let's look at this relatively simple but often misunderstood topic and see if we can make sense of it.

We should get some basics out of the way first. A bit is the smallest unit of data. It can be 1 or 0, black or white, on or off. 8 bits comprise a byte. A byte (or 8 bits) can therefore represent 256 different states; 2 ^8th power.

Most of the digital world operates on 8 bit images. This includes your inkjet printer and usually your monitor. What this means is that 8 bits of information are used to create the image that you usually see.

A Short Digression

This is why you don't want (for example) to print a B&W image on an inkjet printer using just black ink. The printer would only be able to lay...

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Michael Reichmann
Michael Reichmann
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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.
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