A. When evaluating color bit depths to use for various technologies, such as a Remote Desktop Connection or mobile platform, it may be useful to actually look at a picture and see what the difference in quality would be between 16-, 18-, 12- and the original 24-bit.
A neat application is available at http://windowsmobile.members.winisp.net/colordepths.zip that opens and displays the picture in all the different color depth versions, as shown below (my new puppy makes a great test subject).
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Note that while the 12-bit image looks significantly degraded in quality, there's little difference between the 16- and 18-bit images. I have another example below with more colors (Cookie Monster was shielding my eyes from a 60-year-old lady in a nurse's uniform that was way too short at a Halloween party).
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Related Reading:
Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.