Color depth is also known as "bit depth". This is the number of bits used to represent each pixel. The greater the bit depth, the more colors that can be seen in the image. Bit depths of 24 (equal to about 16 million colors) and higher are considered especially high. 8-bit color is 256 colors, and 16-bit color represents about 65, 000 colors. While 8 is probably low for the average consumer, 24 is probably plenty.