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Copyright (c) 2008 Tom Jackson
With the advent of very high resolution ink jet printers, the ability to be able to produce high quality photographs in your home, is easier and faster than ever. However, in some situations, the gamut, or the number of colors that can be reproduced, may be a limiting factor in getting the ultimate quality from your images. The Apple macintosh computer OS has now built 16 bit printing into the Operating System, and using Lightroom or Aperture, one can produce stunning prints
However, you do need to ensure that you have a consistent 16 bit workflow from the image capture, through to image editing, and finally to the print output. This means that you need to capture your images in the RAW format. It is only with the RAW format that the image will have the required image data to make a difference on the printed output.
Of course, when making a decision to purchase a digital camera, you need to look at the number of pixels the sensor will capture. Most low end digital cameras, the consumer models, will not take RAW images, so those cameras cannot even be considered. You need either a very high end prosumer model or preferably, a DSLR. The minimum number of pixels needs to be at least 6, but more is better.
Currently, only the Macintosh operating system supports 16 bit printing. This may change in the future, but for now it is Mac only. And of course, you will need to be using the latest versions of Lightroom and Aperture. If you do not shoot in the RAW format, but instead shoot TIFF or JPEG, then you will only be able to capture 8 bit image files. What does that mean?
Here is the math formula which allows you to figure the number of colors possible; for an 8 bit image, this means you are capturing up to 256 possible variations in the brightness of each of the Red, Green and Blue pixels, so you would multiply 256*256*256 for a possible maximum number of colors of 16.8 million. The human eye can see approximately 11-12 million colors. However, if we look at 16 bit images, each pixel has a possible brightness value of 65,536 values. So, if we multiply 65,536*65,536*65,536 and get about 280 trillion colors, a little more than what the eye can perceive.
So, will all these extra colors really make a big difference on the final print. In most situations, it will probably not make a lot of difference between 8 or 16 bit printing, but when you need to show off your best work, the 16 bit offers smoother gradations, especially in subtle areas such as sunsets. 16 bit printing offers unique advantages, and where there is a large color gamut in the image 16 bit printing offers the advantage of better gradations.