Bit depth refers to the color information stored in an image. The higher the bit depth of an image, the more colors it can store. The simplest image, a 1 bit image, can only show two colors, black and white. That is because the 1 bit can only store one of two values, 0 (white) and 1 (black). An 8 bit image can store 256 possible colors, while a 24 bit image can display about 16 million colors.
Along with an image’s resolution, the bit depth determines the size of the image. As the bit depth goes up, the size of the image also goes up because more color information has to be stored for each pixel in the image.
While an image has a bit depth, so does your display. You can change the bit depth of your monitor by accessing the display properties. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties, then click on the Settings tab. You should then see a Color quality menu where you can change the bit depth. You can also change the resolution of your display using the Settings tab. The bit depth, as well as the resolution, is actually determined by the capabilities of your graphics adapter. If you know you purchased a graphics card capable of displaying high resolutions and a high bit depth but you don’t see them as options in the Settings tab you may need to upgrade your graphics driver by downloading it from your graphics card manufacturer’s website.