A method of decoding video data using palette coding for a video coding system, comprising: receiving a video bitstream associated with the video data; parsing a color-format syntax element to identify whether the video data is monochrome or non-monochrome; determining whether the video data is monochrome or non-monochrome; if the video data is monochrome: from the video bitstream, parsing one or more single-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for a single color component of input monochrome video data; and applying 3-component palette decoding to the single color component of input monochrome video data using said one or more palette coding parameters; and if the video data is non-monochrome: from the video bitstream, parsing one or more multi-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for multiple color components of input non-monochrome video data; and applying 3-component palette decoding to the multiple color components of input non-monochrome video data using said one or more palette coding parameters, wherein said one or more palette coding parameters correspond to one or more palette entries for a palette table and wherein the color-format syntax element is used to determine whether a corresponding single-component value or corresponding multi-component values are parsed for each palette entry, characterized in that, if the video data is monochrome, a suggested padding value N for the chroma components is used to reconstruct each palette entry as a three-component pixel. receiving a video bitstream associated with the video data; parsing a color-format syntax element to identify whether the video data is monochrome or non-monochrome; determining whether the video data is monochrome or non-monochrome; if the video data is monochrome: from the video bitstream, parsing one or more single-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for a single color component of input monochrome video data; and applying 3-component palette decoding to the single color component of input monochrome video data using said one or more palette coding parameters; and if the video data is non-monochrome: from the video bitstream, parsing one or more multi-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for multiple color components of input non-monochrome video data; and from the video bitstream, parsing one or more single-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for a single color component of input monochrome video data; and applying 3-component palette decoding to the single color component of input monochrome video data using said one or more palette coding parameters; and if the video data is non-monochrome: from the video bitstream, parsing one or more multi-component values corresponding to one or more palette coding parameters for multiple color components of input non-monochrome video data; and applying 3-component palette decoding to the multiple color components of input non-monochrome video data using said one or more palette coding parameters, wherein said one or more palette coding parameters correspond to one or more palette entries for a palette table and wherein the color-format syntax element is used to determine whether a corresponding single-component value or corresponding multi-component values are parsed for each palette entry, characterized in that, if the video data is monochrome, a suggested padding value N for the chroma components is used to reconstruct each palette entry as a three-component pixel.