MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR Use Manual page 146

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 might 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 mode settings on the Movie
tab of the Property inspector. When you select RGB, all the colors you select from the Color
menu in Director are specified in RGB values. When you select 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:
Display the Movie tab of the Property inspector.
1
Select either RGB or Index.
2
146 Chapter 7: Color, Tempo, and Transitions
Stage color
Color mode settings