: Difference between 8 bit and 16 bit in Photoshop I have been working on Photoshop for quite some time now, but there is one thing that has got me confused till now. Is it better to be working

@Nimeshi706

A 16 bits/channel image is roughly twice the size of an 8 bits/channel image, similar to a CMYK file being 33% larger than an RGB image. What I have not heard in any of the above discussions is the final output device. Although RGB files have a larger color gamut than CMYK files, most printers cannot accurately print the RGB gamut. It is a physical impossibility. Similarly, I would think that any advantages gained in using a 16 bit image would be negated by most printers. If anyone is old enough to remember hi-fi stereo components, think of it as having a turntable with the very best cartridge/needle, but then using crappy speakers. If the final output is intended for multi-media, then perhaps use the 16 bit image, keeping in mind that it is twice as large and will take longer to process.

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@Berumen635

Simply 16 bit image quality is quite better than 8 bit, because it contain more color that enhance the output Result/image. But the file/image size will be heavier than 8 bit, also it will use more memory (May be hang ur PC if file is large..... Some option may be disable in 16/32 bit.
8 bit is almost OK in every prospect & I will suggest u to not go for 16/32 bit till the time u don't need it.

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@Sims5801359

A friend of mine who is a photographer told me once that he converts his images to 16-bit while editing to reduce a loss of quality. I always wondered if this really had a visible effect, so i tried the following:

I started out with a 8-bit gradient.



In the first image I adjusted the Levels in 8-bit mode. The second image was converted to 16-bit, edited and then converted back to 8-bit.






You can see a slight difference with the gradients, but I really don’t know if it would be worth the effort (and the disadvantages joojaa already mentioned) in a real world scenario.

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@Kimberly620

It depends on what you do. There are some advantages to 16 bits per channel images, as well as some disadvantages.

Some of the advantages are:


If you need to do a lot of color correction/other color based image manipulation you lose less data in transit.
If your data source has more than 8 bits of color then you can gain benefit from that.


Some of the disadvantages are:


Not all filters work in 16-bit mode
You use twice the amount of memory with all problems associated with this.


Basically as a rule of thumb if you do not have any specific reason to use 16 bit color, then you do not need to use it. There's no real advantage for the final image to be 16-bit unless you expect your client to do extensive color manipulation.

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