The Long data type is made up of 32 binary digits, 32 bits, which is 4 bytes. One byte is wasted or unused in storing the color as a Long integer. Here is the format, with u meaning unused, and R meaning Red, G meaning Green, and B meaning Blue. wwwwwwwwBBBBBBBBGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRR wasted blue green red Here is what RED looks like: 00000000 00000000 00000000 11111111 Here is what GREEN looks like: 00000000 00000000 11111111 00000000 Here is what BLUE looks like: 00000000 11111111 00000000 00000000 Here is what PURPLE looks like: 00000000 11111111 00000000 11111111 Here is what Yellow looks like: 00000000 00000000 11111111 11111111 0 255 255 Blue Green Red Here is MEDIUM GRAY would be: 00000000 01111111 01111111 10000000 127 127 128 Here is DARKER GRAY: 00000000 01000000 00111111 01000000 64 63 64