Adobe Photoshop CS5 Change Mode

Question

While working in 16bit mode, changing to 8 bit and back to 16 bit again; will this destroy the original 16 bit data?

Answer 1

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
Chris Cox wrote:
3 of those are probably never going to work in 32 bit, and would be really slow in 16 bit.
I don't mean to beat up on you, but you are really not getting it are you, Chris?  If the user can work around the problem by hand, then you could code the workaround into the product.
Even though I don't buy your "it has to be slow if run on 16 bit data" argument...
Considering the requested Texture filters, you would be 99% of the way there if you would just make them directly work on 16 bit data by just using only 8 bits of significance under the covers.  Even if the result was written back to the 16 bit image quantized into 256 discrete values the ease of use of the product would be increased and the conversion could hardly add excessive time (no more time than running Image - Mode - 8 Bit and Image - Mode - 16 Bit in succession).
Think about it for a moment...
These are creative filters designed to do huge "damage" to the values of individual pixels.  Why would it be important for that to be done with 16 bit accuracy?  And if you are adamant that they need 16 bit accuracy, some parts could be left 8 bit (as described above) to keep that all important speed up.  For example, average the colors and brightnesses in 8 bits in the Stained Glass function, then just paint the gradients in 16 bits (better still, have OpenGL do it).
And just imagine that users might do something like Edit - Fade - 10%, which would yield the effect lightly rendered on - drum roll - 16 bit data.  Or they could even use layers!
And regarding your allergy to "slow" operation...  You could write the Texture filters as web apps that send each individual pixel to India to be hand painted and they STILL wouldn't be as slow as Content Aware Fill, Liquify, or Lens Blur. 
-Noel