Reducing Color Usage and Improving Display Quality

Many computer systems support 24-bit color (16,777,216 colors). However, many users still use systems that support 8-bit color (256 colors).

The Oracle Solaris Desktop system uses the websafe color palette. This palette is a general-purpose palette of 216 colors that is designed to optimize the use of color on systems that support 8-bit color. However, some visual components of the Oracle Solaris Desktop system are designed for systems that support 24-bit color.

The following display problems might occur on systems that support 8-bit color:

• Windows, icons, and background images might appear grainy. Many themes, background images, and icons use colors that are not in the websafe color palette. The colors that are not in the palette are replaced with the nearest equivalent or an approximate value. This use of replacement colors causes the grainy appearance.

• Applications that do not use the websafe color palette have fewer colors available. If you do not use the websafe color palette, color errors might occur and some colors might not appear in the user interface of the application. Some applications crash if the application cannot allocate colors.

• Color flashing might occur when users switch between applications that use the websafe color palette and applications that do not use this palette. The applications that do not use the websafe color palette might use a custom colormap. When the custom colormap is used, other visual components might lose colors and then become not viewable.

To optimize the appearance of the Oracle Solaris Desktop system for systems that support 8-bit color:

• Use theme options that use the websafe color palette – Some window border theme options use colors that are in the websafe color palette, therefore, do not have the grainy appearance of other window border options on 8-bit color displays. Use the Bright or Esco themes for the best color display on 8-bit visual modes. For information about how to change theme options, see Using Theme Options.

• Turn off display of icons in menus – Some items in menus display an icon beside the item. If the icon contains colors that are not in the websafe color palette, this feature can increase the number of colors used. For information about how to turn off this feature, see Turning Off the Display of Icons in Menus.