CPC Palette

Firmware Number	Hardware Number	Colour Name	R %	G %	B %	Hexadecimal	RGB values	Colour
0	54h	Black	0	0	0	#000000	0/0/0
1	44h (or 50h)	Blue	0	0	50	#000080	0/0/128
2	55h	Bright Blue	0	0	100	#0000FF	0/0/255
3	5Ch	Red	50	0	0	#800000	128/0/0
4	58h	Magenta	50	0	50	#800080	128/0/128
5	5Dh	Mauve	50	0	100	#8000FF	128/0/255
6	4Ch	Bright Red	100	0	0	#FF0000	255/0/0
7	45h (or 48h)	Purple	100	0	50	#FF0080	255/0/128
8	4Dh	Bright Magenta	100	0	100	#FF00FF	255/0/255
9	56h	Green	0	50	0	#008000	0/128/0
10	46h	Cyan	0	50	50	#008080	0/128/128
11	57h	Sky Blue	0	50	100	#0080FF	0/128/255
12	5Eh	Yellow	50	50	0	#808000	128/128/0
13	40h (or 41h)	White	50	50	50	#808080	128/128/128
14	5Fh	Pastel Blue	50	50	100	#8080FF	128/128/255
15	4Eh	Orange	100	50	0	#FF8000	255/128/0
16	47h	Pink	100	50	50	#FF8080	255/128/128
17	4Fh	Pastel Magenta	100	50	100	#FF80FF	255/128/255
18	52h	Bright Green	0	100	0	#00FF00	0/255/0
19	42h (or 51h)	Sea Green	0	100	50	#00FF80	0/255/128
20	53h	Bright Cyan	0	100	100	#00FFFF	0/255/255
21	5Ah	Lime	50	100	0	#80FF00	128/255/0
22	59h	Pastel Green	50	100	50	#80FF80	128/255/128
23	5Bh	Pastel Cyan	50	100	100	#80FFFF	128/255/255
24	4Ah	Bright Yellow	100	100	0	#FFFF00	255/255/0
25	43h (or 49h)	Pastel Yellow	100	100	50	#FFFF80	255/255/128
26	4Bh	Bright White	100	100	100	#FFFFFF	255/255/255

• Note : Actually both RGB's 127 (#7F) or 128 (#80) values can be used to generate the CPC palette's half tones on a true colour modern computer.

CPC6128 R,G,B signals (measured by nocash)

• 

  Test

• 

  Green

• 

  Red

• 

  Blue

The pictures are showing the RGB outputs on a CPC6128 with classic (non-cost-down) mainboard (measured between the monitor connector and R126,R128,R130). Each divider is 100mV in height.

The CPC is connected to the RGB input of a Philips Philetta TV Set (this is important for the test, as the monitor does pull-down the signals, without monitor connected both "max" and "half" signals are around 4.0V, with monitor connected they drop to circa 1.0V and 0.5V, as seen in the pictures).

Stretching the Palette

• CPC palette is a 3x3x3 RGB cube that can be stretched into 5x5x5 RGB cube via ditherings or fast colour swap (flashouille).

• While some mixes of colours are supposed to produce the same colour (in theory), the properties of pixels and the variation of their percieved size depending on their intensity or the number of luminophores used to produce a colour may give actual slight and subtle differences. May also vary from one machine or screen to another, or between PLUS range and CPC classic range.

Related Pages

• Video modes

Other systems using the same palette

• The Toshiba PASOPIA 7 is known to feature the same 3-values RGB palette as the Amstrad CPC, its video modes are different than Amstrad CPC's ones though and the colours may be produced via fine ditherings.

• Many Japanese machines had some 640x200(x8colours) video modes with the basic RGB 8 colour palette that would actually display some 320x200(x27 colours) video mode on real screen via ditherings, the 27colours being the 3x3x3 RGB cube from AmstradCPC. Check NEC PC80xx machines.

Weblink

• http://grimware.org/doku.php/documentations/devices/gatearray - describes the intensities in great detail