Palette Formats
Most of the time NerdConsole operates in true 24-bit RGB888 color. There is one special graphics mode that trades that for 12-bit RGB444 color for the purposes of packing even more colors onto the screen.
RGB888
This format takes 3 bytes of data per color granting access to 16,777,216 possible colors.
| Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte 0 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| Byte 1 | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G |
| Byte 2 | B | B | B | B | B | B | B | B |
R=Red | G=Green | B=Blue
RGB444
This format takes 1.5 bytes of data per color granting access to 4,096 possible colors. This format interleaves 2 colors for every three bytes of palette data.
| Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte 0 | R0 | R0 | R0 | R0 | G0 | G0 | G0 | G0 |
| Byte 1 | B0 | B0 | B0 | B0 | R1 | R1 | R1 | R1 |
| Byte 1 | G1 | G1 | G1 | G1 | B1 | B1 | B1 | B1 |
Even color entrties: R0=Red | G0=Green | B0=Blue
Odd color entrties: R1=Red | G1=Green | B1=Blue
RGB565
Some bitmapped graphics mode use the RGB565 mode to reduce the number of bytes needed per pixel to 2 while still providing 65,536 colors. Human eyes can see varying levels of green better than red or blue, so the extra bit is used for green.
| Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte 0 | R | R | R | R | R | G | G | G |
| Byte 1 | G | G | G | B | B | B | B | B |
R=Red | G=Green | B=Blue
