Color depth overview

Windows icons should include 4-bit (16 color), 8-bit (256-color), and 32-bit (Windows XP) images in multiple sizes.

Here are some other important facts about icon color depth:

Without a utility like Microangelo, original Windows 95 installations are limited to the 16-color default windows palette when displaying icons, no matter how many colors the Windows video configuration supports.
Microangelo's support for 24-bit color (True Color) provides advantages to authors even when their final releases do not include these images. (See, When to use True Color images.)
A common misconception is that more system resources are used for icons whose source images are larger than others. Windows uses the same amount of resources for every icon it displays, no matter what the size of the image is on disk. Windows converts all image formats it processes to the size and color depth that the system is configured to display.

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