difference between tiff types

Posted by Алексей Малышко on Oct 05, 2010; 11:25am
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/difference-between-tiff-types-tp3686715.html

couldn't find it by myself, please could anyone explain.
i have made some brightness adjustments in ImageJ and saved image (in 16-bit
grayscale). but when i opened it in irfanview (and other image viewers) i
saw that image didn't change (like a switched off layer in photoshop). then
i reopened with imagej and saw changed image. then i converted it in imagej
to rgb and only after that changes became visible in imageviewers.

the question is: what is the practical meaning of
8–bitgrayscale
unsigned and signed 16–bitgrayscale
signed 32–bit floating-point grayscale
and
32–bit RGB color.

or is there a place where i can read about it.
cannot find it in internets.
thanks in advance.