Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 v.14.xx - Manual (Page 170)

Transparency
Image Resolution
Printer resolution and screen frequency
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how it will look in its final medium (whether commercially printed, printed on a desktop printer, or viewed on the web). The following factors
influence the quality of your final artwork:
Many effects add partially transparent pixels to your artwork. When your artwork contains transparency, Photoshop performs a
process called flattening before printing or exporting. In most cases, the default flattening process produces excellent results. However, if your
artwork contains complex, overlapping areas and you require high-resolution output, you will probably want to preview the effects of flattening.
The number of pixels per inch (ppi) in a bitmap image. Using too low a resolution for a printed image results in pixelation—
output with large, coarse-looking pixels. Using too high a resolution (pixels smaller than what the output device can produce) increases the file size
without increasing the quality of the printed output, and slows the printing of the artwork.
The number of ink dots produced per inch (dpi) and the number of lines per inch (lpi) in a halftone
screen. The relationship between image resolution, printer resolution, and screen frequency determines the quality of detail in the printed image.
Color channels
Every Photoshop image has one or more channels, each storing information about color elements in the image. The number of default color
channels in an image depends on its color mode. By default, images in Bitmap, Grayscale, Duotone, and Indexed Color mode have one channel;
RGB and Lab images have three; and CMYK images have four. You can add channels to all image types except Bitmap mode images. For more
information, see Color modes.
Channels in color images are actually grayscale images that represent each of the color components of an image. For example, an RGB image
has separate channels for red, green, and blues color values.
In addition to color channels, alpha channels, can be added to an image for storing and editing selections as masks, and spot color channels can
be added to add spot color plates for printing. For more information, see Channel basics.
Bit depth
Bit depth specifies how much color information is available for each pixel in an image. The more bits of information per pixel, the more available
colors and more accurate color representation. For example, an image with a bit depth of 1 has pixels with two possible values: black and white.
An image with a bit depth of 8 has 2 , or 256, possible values. Grayscale mode images with a bit depth of 8 have 256 possible gray values.
RGB images are made of three color channels. An 8-bit per pixel RGB image has 256 possible values for each channel which means it has over
16 million possible color values. RGB images with 8-bits per channel (bpc) are sometimes called 24-bit images (8 bits x 3 channels = 24 bits of
data for each pixel).
In addition to 8-bpc images, Photoshop can also work with images that contain 16-bpc or 32-bpc. Images with 32-bpc are also known as high
dynamic range (HDR) images.
Photoshop support for 16-bit images
Photoshop provides the following support for working with 16-bpc images:
Working in Grayscale, RGB Color, CMYK Color, Lab Color, and Multichannel, modes.
All tools in the toolbox, except the Art History Brush tool, can be used with 16-bpc images.
Color and tonal adjustment commands are available
You can work with layers, including adjustment layers, in 16-bpc images.
Many Photoshop filters can be used with 16-bpc images.
To take advantage of certain Photoshop features, such as some filters, you can convert a 16-bpc image to an 8-bpc image. It’s best if you do
a Save As and convert a copy of the image file so the original file retains the full 16-bpc image data.
Understanding bit depth
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