The next possibility is that the image you are importing has colours that are different to the Citect palette.

Background:
Citect has been designed to run under Windows in 256 Colour mode. This has been done as Citect uses the hardware to handle flashing colours - this is a standard windows call but is only available in 256 colour (8bit) mode. Running Windows in 65535 colours (16bit) or True colour (24bit) also uses more CPU so everything runs a bit slower. In addition to this a graphics card that supports 24bit colour in 1024 x 768 pixel's requires 4 MB of Video RAM and very few PC's have this because of the price penalty.

When Windows runs in 256 colour mode this means that at any one instant there can only be 256 different colours on the screen - which 256 colours is up to the application software. Now, if you consider a photo of a sunset it may take 160 yellows, 30 reds and 30 grays to accurately represent the photo and the application would set the windows palette according to those colours. To display a photo of a football field would take a different set of colours maybe 120 different greens, 10 yellows, etc (the yellows in this photo may also be different yellows to the sunset photo) the application would then set the windows palette according to this photo and it would display correctly.

Many packages that are used for displaying photos or bitmaps (such as Powerpoint) use one palette per page or they dynamically allocate the palette on a per page basis - this is fine as they only display one page at a time and can swap the palette between pages.

Now, to display a sunset over a football field is obviously going to take more than 256 colours so some sacrifices have to be made (unless you pay the price of more colours). There are a number of ways to handle this - select colours that are the nearest match to what is desired or use Dithering. Dithering is a technique where two pixel's of different colours near each other give the appearance of the desired colour.

In Citect there is one palette for the whole project - this ensures that no matter what combination of pop-up windows are used the palette will always be correct. In addition to this the standard Citect palette has been defined to provide a broad range of commonly used colours with equal changes between each colour.

To get you photos or bitmap images looking good in Citect you need to ensure that the bitmaps use the same colours as Citect otherwise Citect will try and find the nearest colour. The easiest way to do this is to use a graphic editing package such as Paint Shop Pro version 3.0 (or later), Paintshop Pro is shareware that can be used on trial for 30 days after which you pay USD69.00. We recommend Paintshop Pro as it is cheap, easy to use and available worldwide.

Contact Jasc Inc in the USA: 1-800-622-2793 or 612-930-9171 Fax: (612) 930-9172 to Register a shareware version or to Purchase. You can download a shareware version Paint Shop Pro from the Citect Bulletin Board.

PREPARING PHOTOS FOR CITECT USING PAINTSHOP PRO

1. Open Paint Shop Pro
2. Load the photo
3. Select Colours | Load Palette
4. Check Error Diffusion on the Dialog box
5. Select the appropriate Citect Palette (see instructions below on creating the palette).The standard Citect palette for Paint Shop Pro is enclosed below.

On some photos you may notice that the photo now has some dots on it - this is because the dithering algorithm tries to make the image match the original colours by putting two pixel's of different colours next to each other to simulate the original colour. You can often get rid of these dots as follows...

1. Use the magnifying tool to enlarge the offending dots
2. Use the Eye Dropper tool to select the dot colour
3. Use the right mouse button to select a new colour to change this to (a good colour is often a pixel nearby)
4. Use the colour replacement tool to replace the ugly dots (right button on mouse)

TO BUILD A CITECT PALETTE FOR PAINT SHOP PRO

1. Run Graphics Builder
2. Check the List System Pages box under View | Display Options |
3. Open the Page !Printtest in the INCV2
4. Select the Colour Palette test swatch
5. Copy it (Ctrl + C)
6. Close Graphics Builder
7. Open the Project you are working on in Project Editor.
8. Open Graphics Builder
9. Paste in the Colour Swatch Ctrl + V
10. With the Colour Swatch Selected Press Ctrl + C to copy again.
11. Open Paint Shop Pro
12. Paste as New Image
13. Select Colours | Save Palette

If you have not modified the Citect Palette then you can omit steps 6 to 10. If you modify the Citect palette then you must make a matching Paint Shop Pro palette.

Paint Shop Pro Palette for Citect Standard Palette

From the Knowledge base menu select Edit | Copy then use the mouse to select the J below and all the numbers (but no more) then click on the copy button. Open Notepad and paste the selection into Notepad then save as CITSTD.PAL

JASC-PAL
0100
256
0 0 0
128 0 0
0 128 0
128 128 0
0 0 128
128 0 128
0 128 128
192 192 192
192 220 192
166 202 240
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 255
0 255 0
0 255 255
255 0 0
255 0 255
255 255 0
255 255 255
255 255 255
0 239 239
239 0 0
239 0 239
239 239 0
248 248 248
0 0 96
0 96 0
0 96 96
96 0 0
96 0 96
96 96 0
176 176 176
112 112 112
0 0 223
0 223 0
0 223 223
223 0 0
223 0 223
223 223 0
240 240 240
0 0 80
0 80 0
0 80 80
80 0 0
80 0 80
80 80 0
168 168 168
104 104 104
0 0 207
0 207 0
0 207 207
207 0 0
207 0 207
207 207 0
232 232 232
0 0 64
0 64 0
0 64 64
64 0 0
64 0 64
64 64 0
160 160 160
96 96 96
0 0 191
0 191 0
0 191 191
191 0 0
191 0 191
191 191 0
224 224 224
0 0 48
0 48 0
0 48 48
48 0 0
48 0 48
48 48 0
152 152 152
88 88 88
0 0 175
0 175 0
0 175 175
175 0 0
175 0 175
175 175 0
216 216 216
0 0 32
0 32 0
0 32 32
32 0 0
32 0 32
32 32 0
144 144 144
80 80 80
0 0 159
0 159 0
0 159 159
159 0 0
159 0 159
159 159 0
208 208 208
72 72 72
0 0 143
0 143 0
0 143 143
143 0 0
143 0 143
143 143 0
200 200 200
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 255
0 255 0
0 255 255
255 0 0
255 0 255
255 255 0
255 255 255
0 0 0
0 0 112
0 112 0
0 112 112
112 0 0
112 0 112
112 112 0
184 184 184
120 120 120
0 0 239
0 239 0
255 251 240
160 160 164
128 128 128
255 0 0
0 255 0
255 255 0
0 0 255
255 0 255
0 255 255
255 255 255

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