Colour banding

An illustration of colour banding.

Colour banding is a problem of inaccurate colour presentation in computer graphics. While in 24 bit colour modes, 8 bits per channel should be enough to render images in the full visible spectrum, in some cases there is a risk of producing abrupt changes between shades of the same colour. For instance, displaying natural gradients (like sunsets, dawns or clear blue skies) can show minor banding.

Colour banding is more present with relatively low bits per pixel (BPP) at 16–256 colours (4–8 BPP), where not every shade can be shown because there aren't enough bits to represent them.

Possible solutions include the introduction of dithering and increasing the number of bits per colour channel.

See also

• Posterization

External links

• Dynamic range 24 vs 36 bit
• article "Parhelia-512 30-bit color"