Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) GCSE Computer Science Paper 2 Practice

A 16-bit color depth refers to the amount of data used to represent the color of a single pixel in a digital image. With 16 bits, typically 5 bits are allocated for red, 6 bits for green, and 5 bits for blue in the RGB color model. This specific distribution allows for a greater range of green shades, which correlates with human vision sensitivity.

To calculate the total number of colors that can be displayed, you take the number of possible values for each color channel and multiply them together:

- The red channel can represent \(2^5\) (32) different values.

- The green channel can represent \(2^6\) (64) different values.

- The blue channel can represent \(2^5\) (32) different values.

Therefore, the total number of colors is calculated as follows:

\[

32 \text{ (red)} \times 64 \text{ (green)} \times 32 \text{ (blue)} = 65,536

\]

This total indicates that a 16-bit color depth can display 65,536 different colors, making it suitable for a wider variety of images compared to lower bit depths.