recent hardware or file format using them. If instead the color can be directly figured out from the pixel values, it is "direct color". Palettes were rarely used for depths greater than 12 bits per pixel, as the memory consumed by the palette would exceed the necessary memory for direct color on every pixel. List of common depths 1-bit color 2 colors, often black and white (or whatever color the CRT phosphor was) direct color. Sometimes 1 meant black and 0 meant white, the inverse of modern standards. Most of the first graphics displays were of this type, the X window system was developed for such displays, and this was assumed for a 3M computer. In the late 80's there were professional displays with resolutions up to 300dpi (the same as a contemporary laser printer) but color proved more popular. 2-bit color 4 colors, usually from a selection of fixed palettes. The CGA, gray-scale early NeXTstation, color Macintoshes, Atari ST medium resolution. 3-bit color 8 colors, almost always all combinations of full-intensity red, green, and blue. Many early home computers with TV displays, including the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. 4-bit color 16 colors, usually from a selection of fixed palettes. Used by the EGA and by the least common denominator VGA standard at higher resolution, color Macintoshes, Atari ST low resolution, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC. 5-bit color 32 colors from a programmable palette, used by the Original Amiga chipset. 8-bit color 256 colors, usually from a fully-programmable palette. Most early color Unix workstations, VGA at low resolution, Super VGA, color Macintoshes, Atari TT, Amiga AGA chipset, Falcon030, Acorn Archimedes. Both X and Windows provided elaborate systems to try to allow each program to select its own palette, often resulting in incorrect colors in any window other than the one with focus. Some systems placed a color cube in the palette for a direct-color system (and so all programs would use the same palette). Usually fewer levels of blue were provided than others, as the normal human eye is less sensitive to the blue component than to the red or green (two thirds of the eye's receptors process the longer wavelengths) Popular sizes were: 6×6×6 (web-safe colors), leaving 40 colors for a gray ramp or programmable palette entries. 8×8×4. 3 bits of R and G, 2 bits of B, the correct value can be computed from a color without using