Does 16 bit per channel display card exist ?

Meaning that it has at least 16 bit for each of R,G,B channels and can actually send them to the display device as opposed to 8 bit that consumer level cards have.

And to continue this question - what about display device ? My uneducated guess would be that regular CRT tube based monitor with analog input would actually display all that information. I don't know enough about how LCD displays with digital inputs work to speculate about them.

As a conclusion - if such device exist, does PhotoShop support it ? Can it actually display 65,536 (or even 32,768) shades of R,G,B on the screen, not just use 16 bit per channel for the internal image repersentation and manipulation ?

John Doe wrote:

Meaning that it has at least 16 bit for each of R,G,B channels and can actually send them to the display device as opposed to 8 bit that consumer level cards have.

And to continue this question - what about display device ? My uneducated guess would be that regular CRT tube based monitor with analog input would actually display all that information.

I'm not sure: I think that the CRT's circuitry would probably be noisy enough to eliminate all of that extra detail, since it isn't designed for it.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

John Doe wrote:

Meaning that it has at least 16 bit for each of R,G,B channels and can actually send them to the display device as opposed to 8 bit that consumer level cards have.

CT and other medical data has a tremendous dynamic range. To support this, there are 12 bit per channel displays that work in grayscale mode, though to view them it's normal to have an adjustable "level and window" control, similar to the levels command in Photoshop.. I've worked with linear gamma 10 bit per channel color equipment. As for 16 bit - none that I've heard of.

And to continue this question - what about display device ? My uneducated guess would be that regular CRT tube based monitor with analog input would actually display all that information. I don't know enough about how LCD displays with digital inputs work to speculate about them.

Probably not. The main advantage would be that you could display linear gamma images with no banding in the shadows. Worth it? Probably not.

As a conclusion - if such device exist, does PhotoShop support it ? Can it actually display 65,536 (or even 32,768) shades of R,G,B on the screen, not just use 16 bit per channel for the internal image repersentation and manipulation ?

No - and it probably will not do so in the near future. I suspect that 9 or 10 bits might improve things, particularly with one of the newer Adobe RGB capable monitors, but for most work you'll never see the difference, unless you work in linear gamma.
--

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

Not at this time.

For one thing, the OS display APIs are limited to 8 bits/channel.

OpenGL should provide for greater depth - but I haven't managed to get it through the drivers yet. (I keep trying)

Also, most displays are only accurate to about 8 bits (CRTs would need better electronics, and LCDs would need a lot of work to do more).

Chris

In article , John Doe
wrote:

Meaning that it has at least 16 bit for each of R,G,B channels and can actually send them to the display device as opposed to 8 bit that consumer level cards have.

And to continue this question - what about display device ? My uneducated guess would be that regular CRT tube based monitor with analog input would actually display all that information. I don't know enough about how LCD displays with digital inputs work to speculate about them.

As a conclusion - if such device exist, does PhotoShop support it ? Can it actually display 65,536 (or even 32,768) shades of R,G,B on the screen, not just use 16 bit per channel for the internal image repersentation and manipulation ?

"Mike Russell" wrote in message

No - and it probably will not do so in the near future. I suspect that 9 or 10 bits might improve things, particularly with one of the newer Adobe RGB capable monitors, but for most work you'll never see the difference, unless you work in linear gamma.

Oh Dear God, here comes Timo. Run for your lives.

Rick

I'd take an 8-bit non-linear system over a 10-bit linear system - *14* bits of linear encoding is required to match 8-bits non-linear, roughly.

Greg.

Chris Cox ...

Not at this time.

For one thing, the OS display APIs are limited to 8 bits/channel.

You are right !!! Why didn't I think of that ? It's so obvious... So even if the hardware existed, nothing would probably happen without major OS rework

OpenGL should provide for greater depth - but I haven't managed to get it through the drivers yet. (I keep trying)

I am not sure what you mean. I've done a lot of software development using OpenGL and don't see how OpenGL is relevant here (even if it was - the OpenGL API is also 8bits/channel). Photoshop has nothing to do with OpenGL

OpenGL has APIs for 16 bit/channel images.
And in theory a graphics card with more than 8 bits/channel in the framebuffer could use those APIs to get better than 8 bits/channel display.

There are some cards with 10bit/channel framebuffers - but I can't get the drivers to do the right things yet. But I'm still pursuing it.

Chris

In article , John Doe
wrote:

Chris Cox wrote in message
news:<160520041713001883%>...

Not at this time.

For one thing, the OS display APIs are limited to 8 bits/channel.

You are right !!! Why didn't I think of that ? It's so obvious... So even if the hardware existed, nothing would probably happen without major OS rework

OpenGL should provide for greater depth - but I haven't managed to get it through the drivers yet. (I keep trying)

I am not sure what you mean. I've done a lot of software development using OpenGL and don't see how OpenGL is relevant here (even if it was - the OpenGL API is also 8bits/channel). Photoshop has nothing to do with OpenGL