What is CLUT?

CLUT stands for color look-up table. A CWT is a software palette or set of 256 colors (it’s actually a resource) that resides within the system software and most color-capable applications. On a computer with 8-bit color (those that are only capable of displaying a total of 256 colors), a CWT is a necessary reference to let the computer know which 256 colors out of the available 16.7 million colors (24-bit color) it can use at one time. If you think of all those 16.7 million colors as being a big (ok, very big) box of crayons, you can visualize a CWT as being a small box of handpicked colors that someone has handed you to work with. Many applications give you the option of choosing which 256 colors you want to work with. You often can set up your own palette for each particular file. For instance, if you were painting a picture of a man’s face, a palette of 256 different flesh tones would be more useful than a palette containing 256 colors found in the range between black and burgundy. Take the time to explore your particular application and its documentation for a variable palette feature.