Colors & Bits?! How many colors is 8Bit & what bit is 256 color?

I thought I had these basics covered but I guess I was wrong!

[JAB Creations]

So I trying to make an 8-Bit 256 color color pallet when I realized it ended up being 4096 colors.

#000, #001, ... #ffe, #fff.

So now I'm very confused! Am I getting this 256 color idea from the GIF format and Windows? I thought 256 colors were 8 bit? What bit is 4096 colors?

If 8 Bit and 256 color are not the same thing then what bit is 4096, what is the formula? What bit is 256 and 4096 colors? How many colors is in 4bit, 8bit, 16bit, 32 bit? Etc...

- John

[JAB Creations]

Another one of my self-answered questions (partially at least).

The values 000 through fff = 4096 combinations (12 bit pallet).

I suppose the web safe color pallet discovered by Bruce Heavin was what I ultimately had in mind.

- John

[edited by: JAB_Creations at 12:41 am (utc) on Sep. 30, 2006]