RGB

RGB (truecolor) PNGs, like grayscale with alpha, are supported in only two depths: 8 and 16 bits per sample, corresponding to 24 and 48 bits per pixel. This is the image type most commonly used by image-editing applications like Adobe Photoshop. Note that pixels are stored in RGB order. (BGR is the other popular format, especially on Windows-based systems.)

Truecolor PNG images may also include a palette (PLTE) chunk, though the specialized suggested-palette (sPLT) chunk described in Chapter 11, "PNG Options and Extensions" is often more appropriate. But if present, the palette encodes a suggested set of colors to which the image may be quantized if the decoder cannot display in truecolor; the suggestion is presumed to be a good one, so decoders are encouraged to use it if they can. Of course, multi-image viewers such as web browsers often resort to a fixed palette for simplicity and rendering speed.

Baseline TIFF requires support only for 24-bit RGB, but libtiff supports 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 bits per sample. Ordinary JPEG stores only 24-bit RGB,[65] though 36-bit RGB is possible with the seldom-supported 12-bit extension. The also seldom-supported lossless flavor of JPEG can, in theory, store any sample depth from 2 to 16 bits, thus 6 to 48 bits per RGB pixel.

[65] Technically, color JPEGs are almost always encoded internally in the YC_bC_r color space and converted to or from RGB by the decoder or encoder software.