CGA
Short for color graphics adapter, CGA was an early IBM video adapter that replaced monochrome and was introduced in 1981. CGA has the highest resolution of 640 x 200, color depth of 4-bit, and supports 16 colors (24 = 16).
In the picture shown on this page, you can get a good example of the quality of what CGA could produce using its limited 16 colors compared to the original image. In our example, we have converted the original image to use the 16 colors shown in the below color palette.
Today, CGA is rarely found or used after being replaced by more advanced technologies like EGA (enhanced graphics adapter) and VGA (video graphics array).
Microsoft Windows only supported CGA up to Windows 3.0, but Windows 3.1 can use Windows 3.0 CGA drivers.
CGA 16 color palette
| Code | Color |
|---|---|
| #000000 | Black |
| #0000AA | Blue |
| #00AA00 | Green |
| #00AAAA | Cyan |
| #AA0000 | Red |
| #AA00AA | Magenta |
| #AA5500 | Brown |
| #AAAAAA | Light Gray |
| #555555 | Gray |
| #5555FF | Light Blue |
| #55FF55 | Light Green |
| #55FFFF | Light Cyan |
| #FF5555 | Light Red |
| #FF55FF | Light Magenta |
| #FFFF55 | Yellow |
| #FFFFFF | White |
Color, Color terms, Computer acronyms, EGA, Obsolete, SVGA, VGA, Video terms