Editing Enhanced Graphics Adapter (section)

=== Color palette ===
With the EGA, all [[List of 16-bit computer hardware palettes#EGA|16 CGA colors]] can be used simultaneously, and each can be mapped in from a larger palette of 64 colors (two bits each for red, green and blue). The [[Color Graphics Adapter#With an RGBI monitor|CGA's alternate brown]] color is included in the larger palette, so it can be used without any additional display hardware. The later VGA standard built on this by mapping each of the 64 colors in from a larger, customizable, palette of 256.

Standard EGA monitors do not support use of the extended color palette in 200-line modes, because the monitor cannot distinguish between being connected to a CGA card or being connected to an EGA card outputting a 200-line mode. EGA redefines some pins of the connector to carry the extended color information. If the monitor were connected to a CGA card, these pins would not carry valid color information, and the screen might be garbled if the monitor were to interpret them as such. For this reason, standard EGA monitors will use the CGA pin assignment in 200-line modes, so the monitor can also be used with a CGA card.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

Some EGA monitors are ''switchable'', meaning that they can be set up to use the full palette even in 200-line modes, often through a mechanical switch. Only a few commercial games were released with support for the extended color palette in {{resx|320×200}} or {{resx|640×200}} (including the DOS version of ''[[Super Off Road]]'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=swarmik |date=November 2018 |title=EGA 64-color 320x200 mode on switchable monitors |url=https://swarmik.tumblr.com/post/179660020524/ega-64-color-320x200-mode-on-switchable-monitors |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=Tumblr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=RetroArchivesFr |date=2018-12-16 |title=Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road |url=https://retroarchives.fr/ivan-ironman-stewarts-super-off-road/ |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=Retro Archives |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

When selecting a color from the EGA palette, two bits are used for the red, green and blue channels to signal values of 0, 1, 2 or 3. For instance, to select the color magenta, the red and blue values would be medium intensity (2, or 10 in binary) and the green value would be off (0).

The table below displays an example palette matching the standard 16 CGA colors, with their representations in rgbRGB binary (internal card bit order), where the lowercase letters are the low-intensity bits, and uppercase letters are high-intensity bits. Decimal and hexadecimal values (converted to equivalent [[Color depth#True color (24-bit)|24-bit]] [[sRGB]] [[web colors]]) are also shown.

[[File:Screen color test EGA 16colors CGA.png|thumb|Screen color test with standard 16-color palette]] 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Default EGA 16-color palette, matching [[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]] colors
|-
! Index
! Default palette number
! Default palette color
! rgbRGB
! Hexadecimal
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#000000"
| 0
| 0 || align="left" | Black || 000000 
| #000000
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#0000AA"
| 1
| 1 || align="left" | Blue || 000001 
| #0000AA
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#00AA00"
| 2
| 2 || align="left" | Green || 000010 
| #00AA00
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#00AAAA"
| 3
| 3 || align="left" | Cyan || 000011 
| #00AAAA
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#AA0000"
| 4
| 4 || align="left" | Red || 000100 
| #AA0000
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#AA00AA"
| 5
| 5 || align="left" | Magenta || 000101 
| #AA00AA
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#AA5500"
| 20
| 6 || align="left" | Brown || 010100 
| #AA5500
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"
| 7
| 7 || align="left" | White / light gray || 000111 
| #AAAAAA
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#555555"
| 56
| 8 || align="left" | Dark gray / bright black || 111000 
| #555555
|- style="color: white;" bgcolor="#5555FF"
| 57
| 9 || align="left" | Bright Blue || 111001 
| #5555FF
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#55FF55"
| 58
| 10 || align="left" | Bright green || 111010 
| #55FF55
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#55FFFF"
| 59
| 11 || align="left" | Bright cyan || 111011 
| #55FFFF
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#FF5555"
| 60
| 12 || align="left" | Bright red || 111100 
| #FF5555
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#FF55FF"
| 61
| 13 || align="left" | Bright magenta || 111101 
| #FF55FF
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#FFFF55"
| 62
| 14 || align="left" | Bright yellow || 111110 
| #FFFF55
|- style="color: black;" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
| 63
| 15 || align="left" | Bright white || 111111 
| #FFFFFF
|}

The following images illustrate the full EGA palette in detail.
[[File:EGA Table.svg|left|thumb|Full 64-color EGA palette table]]
<gallery mode="packed" widths="240" heights="160">
File:EGA64 Full Palette.png|Full 64-color EGA palette illustration
File:Ega palette color test chart.png|Full 64-color EGA palette test card
File:Screen color test EGA 16colors.png|Screen color test with custom EGA palette
</gallery>
{{clear}}