Click here

palette

(1) In computer graphics, a palette is the set of available colors. For a given application, the palette may be only a subset of all the colors that can be physically displayed. For example, a SVGA system can display 16 million unique colors, but a given program would use only 256 of them at a time if the display is in 256-color mode. The computer system's palette, therefore, would consist of the 16 million colors, but the program's palette would contain only the 256-color subset.

A palette is also called a CLUT (color look-up table).

On monochrome systems, the term palette is sometimes used to refer to the available fill patterns.

(2) In paint and illustration programs, a palette is a collection of symbols that represent drawing tools. For example, a simple palette might contain a paintbrush, a pencil, and an eraser.



Top Terms

Connect with Webopedia

  • What is 250 GB Data Usage?

    What is 250 GB (250 gigabytes) and why is this phrase so popular? Webopedia explains what the phrase 250 GB means in reference to data storage...

    Read More »

Did You Know? Archive »

  • Quick Reference Archive »