CSS color media query

Question

Can some one explain to me in very simple terms what the color media feature does exactly?

Answer 1

It determines the color bit level based on the device.

If you read through this link, you'll find that an 8-bit device representing Red/Green/Blue as 3/3/2 will return a value of 2, as the lowest value is returned. So it's not always going to be as straight forward as 16-bit.

http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/#color

Off the top of my head I can't think of any real-world "wow" about this one...other than monochromatic vs color, or perhaps offering a better set of color for low end devices that only support the 216 web palette.

Answer 2

The ‘color’ media feature describes the number of bits per color component of the output device. If the device is not a color device, the value is zero.