"Original colors" and "Current colors"?

[royalewithcheese]

What are "Original colors" and "Current colors" in Image->Information?

And, if not covered in answering the above, why might they be different from one another? (For example, the image I was just viewing had: "Original colors: 48 BitsPerPixel", followed by "Current colors: 16,7 Million (24 BitsPerPixel)".)

[JendaLinda]

Original colors is the actual color depth present in the file. Current colors is the color depth, into which the image was decoded for display.

[royalewithcheese]

Thank you! This answered my questions. ?

Can the display color depth be changed (for example, to match the actual color depth present in the file)?

[JendaLinda]

IrfanView can't display more than 24 bit colors (8 bits per channel). Your pictures are in 16 bits per channel, a wide color range. Most computers can't display such pictures in full color fidelity. You need a special computer screen for that.

However you don't need to worry about it. IrfanView will display your picture pretty well. Most pictures on the web, photos etc. are in fact in 24 bit colors.

The wide color range is useful for archival purposes and editing. But you need a suitable software to edit these files, otherwise the extra color fidelity will be lost. So you can use IrfanView for viewing these files, but not for editing.

[royalewithcheese]

Good to know. Thank you again!