Does LR Classic 8.2 support 10-bit color output or otherwise provide for use of a wide gamut monitor?

photo7734  wrote It appears to me that wide gamut monitors require the use of 10-bit color. An answer to a question as to an earlier version of Lightroom says that it does not support the use of 10-bit color. Has LR Classic 8.2 been updated to support the use of 10 bit color? Am I wrong in thinking that 10-bit color is necessary for display of wide gamut color space? What is the hardware recommendation for use of a wide gamut monitor in Lightrooom?

There are two areas of bit depth here; the document's encoding (bit depth) as well as the processing of that data OR the bit depth of the display system which is totally independent of the first (document/processing).

LR can deal with high bit data and processes that in high bit. It isn't necessarily 16-bit or 12, 10 etc, but high bit depending on the data for one and the internal processing (probably much like Photoshop, it's actually 15+1 bits used for processing).

For video to to the display, you need a fully high bit path for this to be truly high bit. Otherwise there's a conversion from high bit to 8-bit per color and back again; not ideal. For a fully high bit video path, the display, the video card, the application and the OS all must support this high bit path. This is absolutely the case in Photoshop on both Mac and Windows with modern OS's. Your video card and display are iffy. You'll have to check.

ONLY Develop module would support high bit previews. It should do so if everything else above is in line. You can test this by downloading and unzipping the document and it MUST be viewed at 1:1 (100%). It should show NO banding whatsoever. If so, it's a high bit video path:

http://digitaldog.net/files/10-bit-test-ramp.zip

Gamut and bit depth are mostly unrelated. Gamut defines the range of colors that may be possible when contained in a color space.

Bit depth is the math, the encoding used to divide up numbers of possible colors. This PDF outlines the vast differences between color, color gamut and bit depth:

http://digitaldog.net/files/ColorNumbersColorGamut.pdf

Another thing that most 10-bit capable monitors do that actually does help with Lightroom display, even though Lightroom does not support 10-bits directly (but of course as already noted supports wide gamut just fine) is that it generally can use a hardware internal LUT table in the monitor itself to exactly reproduce the desired gamma curve. This will minimize banding because of 8-bit math for gamma correction in the graphics card. This makes a 10-bit monitor worthwhile for Lightroom even without direct support. Do note that to get this advantage you absolutely have to calibrate it using compatible calibration hardware that can write the hardware LUT to the monitor.

Yes, you're reading it wrong. Bit depth and gamut are different and unrelated things. You can have one and not the other, both ways.

With a standard 8 bit display system, you have 256 discrete steps per channel. With 10 bit, you have 1024. Whether your monitor is wide or standard gamut, the full range of colors will be represented in that number of discrete steps.

The advantage of 10 bit color is less visible banding. That's all.

Theoretically, a wider color space increases the distance between those fixed steps and could increase the risk of visible banding. In practice, this isn't significant for monitors. Other factors are much more important. But as a color space gets really big, like ProPhoto, it becomes a consideration.

No version of Lightroom supports 10 bit color.

You can use a wide gamut monitor with LR, it will show you a wider selection of colors than a normal monitor.