Using Director > Color, Tempo, and Transitions > Controlling color > Specifying palette index and RGB color |  |

Specifying palette index and RGB color

Director can use either palette index values or RGB values to specify colors. RGB values are much more reliable and accurate for specifying colors than palette index values. RGB is the system that most Web pages use.

Director identifies a palette index color by the number of its position in a set of colors called a color palette. Color number 12, for example, might be blue. If a different palette is active, color number 12 might be red. When a computer is set to display 256 colors or fewer, it can display only the colors in the palette currently active in the system. This means that images created to display with the colors of one palette do not appear correctly when a different palette is active. If you use palette index color in a movie and then switch palettes during the movie, or never make sure that the correct palette is active, the images in your movie may appear with the wrong colors.

Director identifies an RGB color as a set of hexadecimal numbers that specify the amounts of red, green, and blue required to create the color. When a computer is set to display thousands or millions of colors, Director always displays RGB colors accurately. When a computer is set to 256 colors, Director finds the closest color in the current color palette to approximate the RGB color.

To choose the color mode for the current movie, you use the Color Selection options in the Movie tab of the Property Inspector. When you choose RGB, all the colors you choose from the Color menu in Director are specified in RGB values. When you choose Palette Index, the colors you choose are specified according to their position in the current palette. The Color menu indicates which method is being used.

To change the color mode of a movie:

1 | Display the Movie tab of the Property Inspector.
2 | For Color Selection, choose either RGB or Palette Index.