Apple Color 1.5 - Manual (Page 145)

Tip: Depending on your system's performance, you may find it advantageous to work
at a lower bit depth in order to maximize real-time performance. Then, you can switch
to the desired bit depth prior to rendering your final output to maximize image quality.
However, If you graded your program with the Internal Pixel Format pop-up menu set
to 8- through 16-bit, changing it to Floating Point may alter how certain Color FX
operations work. If you intend to work at a lower bit depth but render at Floating Point,
it’s a good idea to double-check all shots with Color FX corrections applied to them
prior to rendering to make sure that they look the way you intended.
• 8-bit: The lowest bit depth at which Color can operate, and the least
processor-intensive.
• 10-bit: The minimum recommended bit depth for projects incorporating secondary
color correction and vignetting, regardless of the source.
• 12-bit: A higher bit depth supported by some video cards.
• 16-bit: An extremely high-quality bit depth. It has been suggested that 16-bit is the
best linear equivalent to 10-bit log when working on images scanned from film.
• Floating Point: The highest level of image-processing quality available in Color, and
recommended if your graphics card doesn’t support 10- through 16-bit image
processing. Refers to the use of floating-point math to store and calculate fractional
data. This means that values higher than 1 can be used to store data that would
otherwise be rounded down using the integer-based 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, and 16-bit
depths. Floating Point is a processor-intensive bit depth to work with, so plan for
longer rendering times. Floating Point is not available on systems with 128 MB or
less of VRAM.
145 Chapter 5 Configuring the Setup Room