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bits per pixel, bpp

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bits per pixel, bpp (In French bits par pixel) data depth with which one pixel per color channel is described; this gives the number of gray shades and color values that can be shown. Examples: 1 bpp = 2¹ = 2 tone values, i.e. line and screen graphics, TIFF-G4 bitmaps (printing form separation data); 8 bpp = 2⁸ = 256 gray levels, i.e. black-and-white images; 24 bpp for RGB = 8 bpp per color channel = 2⁸ × 3 = 16.7 million colors (“True Color”), i.e. JPEG color images, color LUT; 32 bpp for CMYK = 8 bpp per color channel = 2⁸ × 4 = 4.3 billion colors, i.e. images for four-color printing.