2-bit color

4 grays are displayed by default on a classic Mac, in color or grayscale mode.

4-bit color is a color depth that can allow for up to 4 grays, or 4 colors assigned by a color lookup table (CLUT). This is referred to as "4 colors" on classic Macintosh systems, and the CGA standard by PC users.

Color palettes

When the cost of video RAM was high, early computers used color palettes to improve the appearance of graphics with a limited number of colors.

Apple Computer

Though Apple Computer's early Macintosh systems supported a 4-color or grayscale mode, most were capable of displaying more colors. The only system to ship with a maximum 2-bit display configuration was the PowerBook 150. In classic Mac OS set to 4-color mode, 1 gray value can be substituted with a Highlight Color of the user's choice in the Appearance control panel.

IBM

IBM implemented the Color Graphics Adapter standard on their first IBM Personal Computer.

NeXT

NeXT's first NeXTcube computer implemented support for a 2-bit grayscale megapixel display.

See also

• 2-bit

External links

• 2-bit color at the Adobe Wiki
• Color depth at Wikipedia

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