On Jan 6, 2020, at 12:58 PM, Roger Breton via colorsync-users <colorsync-users@lists.apple.com> wrote:
Is anyone able to discriminate between the 16.7 million colors in this 24-bit RGB image?
It's all one color. That color's name? Plaid. And (not that I'm trying to prove a point, just musing) if you change the surround light, the color illuminating the area around the display you're observing, or place the display in front of a green wall vs a red wall, the colors you'll be able to differentiate between will be different. That is, the subset of #SomeHugeNumberOfColors between which you could accurately A/B distinguish when viewed against a bright green wall will be a different subset than the subset of colors you could A/B distinguish against a dark red wall. As has been pointed out, in practice one of the most visible reasons that a 10 bit system (display/operating system/app/content) is better than a 8 bit system is in gradients between similar colors. Ever see a sunset in a movie during a scene fade to black? Sure. Ever seen that without banding in the gradients around the sun? Eh...probably not, that's a tough scene to pull off well. More bits of precision means smaller bands. So basically yeah, more is better, but not because you'll be able to see all the colors at the same time.