Color recovery: true-color 8-bit interactive graphics

For many years, the only practical way to display high-quality true-color images was on a computer having a graphics subsystem with at least 24 color planes. The high cost of color graphics devices with 24 planes led many users to choose 8-, 12-, or 16-plane systems. Unfortunately, using a system with fewer color planes sacrifices some color capabilities to save money. The paper discusses an innovation called color recovery that provides a method for displaying millions of colors within the cost constraints of an eight-plane system. One of the primary design goals for color recovery was to supply the additional color capabilities without giving up interactive performance. Another goal was to be able to work with all types of applications running in a windowed environment. An implementation of color recovery described in this article meets these goals.