16 bit really benefits Photographers (camera shots) and gaming. For gaming, it improves color art/shadows mostly and in digital form, you can easily take advantage of this. This is why Adobe has been offering CAMRA RAW files and is where you will see and benefit from 16 bit files (on your computer).
A bit has 2 values or switches. On or Off, Black or white. This is where the 1 bit (black and white) tiffs come into play when converted to halftones and why printers can read and print black and white seps so well. 1 color, of a space that is either on, or off (black or white). A single channel in grey tone (greyscale), not no longer 1 bit, but rather is 256 shades of grey in that one channel.
Convert to RGB and you get 256x256x256 to get 16.7 million colors available in 8-bit files. Since we "print", these RGB files get converted to CMKY and within the color space used, get reduced greatly.
This is why some images look dull when converted from RGB to CMYK. Adding trillions of color (16 bit) doesn't benefit us in print. and converting a file from 8 bit to now 16 bit, is like converting a 72ppi file to a 300ppi file. It adds data, but does not improve the quality. Junk in, junk out. To benefit from the 16 bit, you have to START with a new file at 16 bit or have your camera set to save with (camera RAW) mode. It does benefit those who are working a digital world of Photography and gaming.
at 16 bit, there are 65,536 shades in each channel of Red, Green and Blue. (65,536 x 65,536 x 65,536 = 281 trillion shades of color.
One thing is for sure. Your screen print files can get screwed if you happen to accidentally switch from 8 bit to 16 bit. You can accidentally open and create a new file under 16 bit somehow, and never know it....until you need to save. Some file formats you normally use and love, will not be available in 16 bit. When this happens, you can open the file back up again, and go to IMAGE, MODE, and look for the BIT depth and change back to 8 bit. You can go down in bit depth, but it does not benefit you to go up unless you start there.
I had read up on this several times over, and had known about it, but never need to keep it in mind to put to practical use, so it was a good refresher course for me too.
