Re: PNGs with transparency & user's color depth settings

[Chad Mefferd (Morris Publishing)]

on 8/24/01 12:53 PM, Gene Fritzinger at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

> <SNIP>
> I'm not sure it will be possible to display your images at 256 colors with
> out some degradation as they require a 256 color pallette and 8-bit images
> created within the range of that pallette to interpret the color. if you
> intend to display at 256 colors all of your images will need to be converted
> to 8-bit and you will need to create or assign an appropriate pallette. even
> so passing 8-bit images over each other will probably push some of colors
> out of the range of your pallette (hence the awful colors). do you really
> need to be able to display at 256 colors?
> <SNIP>
> 
> Thanks Chad,
> 
> I wish I didn't even need to worry about displaying at 256 colors, it would
> make my job a whole lot easier and I'd feel a lot better knowing my images are
> being displayed accurately.  I'd like to think that most of the users using my
> training CD would be displaying at least 16-bit color, but I've seen even at
> our location, a number of programmers who are quite happy to keep their
> displays at 256.  I realize that I could try to change the end users display
> settings, but I heard some horror stories that make me very reluctant to try.
> Does anyone know of any user statistics websites that don't charge for
> information?  How common is 16 bit  or higher color settings?
> 
> Thanks again,
> g fritzinger
> 
> 
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> 

Sorry I can't direct you to any hard data, however�

I think you would be okay requiring the projector to display at thousands of
colors as long as you aren't making your stage any larger than 640X480. PC's
from the Pentium I and on that I am aware of can display this at the very
least. Our PC programmer assured me before beginning my last project, which
will be distributed solely to PC users, would me more than safe at 16-bit
color. 

At any rate using colorDepth you can check and set the monitor to the
desired color depth OR create a 256 color version of your movie that would
be played instead of your 16-bit movie.  If the monitor is set for 16 or
32-bit color your 16-bit version would play. Although this is more work on
your part. 

You could even use colorDepth to reset the monitor back to it's initial
setting when exiting your projector, so the transition between modes should
be seemless to the end user. I will conceed however that PC's, being what
they are, are open to an unknown variable for potential trouble when making
such adjustments. 


For what it's worth�

chad mefferd
designer
morris publishing



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