XnView Software

What does this mean?

"This picture will be converted to RGB 8 bits per component"

Why does this message pop up when I load files?

Is this conversion an enhancement or softening of the image?

Or is just the way the software standardizes images?

I searched for an answer but could not find a simple explanation or any description how it affects image quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-bit_color
https://photo.stackexchange.com/questio ... -16bit-rgb

Thanks for any thoughts or directions to an answer.

If you image use more than 8 bits per component (48 or 64 bits for example), XnView needs to convert into 8bits/component, the only internal pixel support..