What is High color?

High color graphics is a method of storing image information in a computer's memory such that each pixel is represented by two bytes. Usually the color is represented by all 16 bits, but some devices also support 15-bit high color.

More recently, the term high color has been used by Microsoft to identify display systems that can make use of more than 8-bits per color channel from traditional 8-bit per color channel formats. This is a different and distinct usage from the 15-bit or 16-bit formats traditionally associated with the phrase high color.