A wide range of texture pixel formats are supported by the HEL. The following table shows these formats. The Masks column contains the red, green, blue, and alpha masks for each set of pixel format flags and bit depths.
| Pixel format flags | Bit depth | Masks |
| DDPF_RGB | | 1 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED1 | G: 0x00000000 | |
| B: 0x00000000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 1 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED1 | | G: 0x00000000 | |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXEDTO8 | B: 0x00000000 | |
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 2 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED2 | G: 0x00000000 | |
| B: 0x00000000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 2 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED2 | | G: 0x00000000 | |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXEDTO8 | B: 0x00000000 | |
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 4 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED4 | G: 0x00000000 | |
| B: 0x00000000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 4 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED4 | | G: 0x00000000 | |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXEDTO8 | B: 0x00000000 | |
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 8 | R: 0x00000000 |
| DDPF_PALETTEINDEXED8 | G: 0x00000000 | |
| B: 0x00000000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 8 | R: 0x000000E0 |
| G: 0x0000001C | ||
| B: 0x00000003 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 16 | R: 0x00000F00 |
| DDPF_ALPHAPIXELS | G: 0x000000F0 | |
| B: 0x0000000F | ||
| A: 0x0000F000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 16 | R: 0x0000F800 |
| G: 0x000007E0 | ||
| B: 0x0000001F | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 16 | R: 0x0000001F |
| G: 0x000007E0 | ||
| B: 0x0000F800 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 16 | R: 0x00007C00 |
| G: 0x000003E0 | ||
| B: 0x0000001F | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 16 | R: 0x00007C00 |
| DDPF_ALPHAPIXELS | G: 0x000003E0 | |
| B: 0x0000001F | ||
| A: 0x00008000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 24 | R: 0x00FF0000 |
| G: 0x0000FF00 | ||
| B: 0x000000FF | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 24 | R: 0x000000FF |
| G: 0x0000FF00 | ||
| B: 0x00FF0000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 32 | R: 0x00FF0000 |
| G: 0x0000FF00 | ||
| B: 0x000000FF | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | 32 | R: 0x000000FF |
| G: 0x0000FF00 | ||
| B: 0x00FF0000 | ||
| A: 0x00000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 32 | R: 0x00FF0000 |
| DDPF_ALPHAPIXELS | G: 0x0000FF00 | |
| B: 0x000000FF | ||
| A: 0xFF000000 | ||
| DDPF_RGB | | 32 | R: 0x000000FF |
| DDPF_ALPHAPIXELS | G: 0x0000FF00 | |
| B: 0x00FF0000 | ||
| A: 0xFF000000 |
The HEL can create these formats in system memory. The DirectDraw device driver for a 3-D–accelerated display card may create textures of other formats in display memory. Such a driver exports the DDSCAPS_TEXTURE flag to indicate that it can create textures.