On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 20:18:05 -0600, Don Sanderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > (Warning to scientific types: Some numbers are rounded to keep me reasonably > sane) > > A .PEF (12bit) file is ~12MB or ~2B per pixel. > A .TIF file (16bit) is ~36MB or ~6B per pixel. > A .TIF file (8bit) is ~18MB or ~3B per pixel. > > **If this is correct so far continue, if not stop and correct me.
from the PEFs I've seen, they really are 16 bit files for 12 bit data (they just pad the missing bits) > Without further processing: > 8 bits can describe 256 colors. > 12 bits can describe 4096 colors. > 16 bits can describe 65536 colors. > > **If this is correct so far continue, if not stop and correct me. 8 bits can describe 2^8 = 256 levels of *something*. this *something* may be distinct colors, like, e.g., in GIF or shades of a single color, like in JPEG or TIFF. i think there's a bit of confusion in what people call "n-bit" something. "8bit" TIFF is really "24 bit" tiff, it stores 256 shades of each of three colors. "12bit" RAW file is really 12 bit per color, and one color per pixel "32bit" monitor means just that: 2^32 colors. you have pretty much answered your own questions :) best, mike
