I am in the process of making custom buttons for a lighting scheme in my bedroom. The bitmap layout of my bedroom came out fine when I pasted it onto ProntoEdit as a frame. I am now trying to make buttons of individual lights within the frame. I am getting the error message: Cannot loas Bitmap: Not 1, 4, or 8 bits per pixel. I searched the FAQ's and saw nothing on this. Can anyone explain what I am doing wrong and a possible remedy to the situation. Thank you.

--Alexis

Alexis

Hate to state the ovious but have you checked the setting on package you are using to create the button images? Sorry if my suggestion sounds too simple and you already tried it but you don't mention that on your post. Sometimes I just forget to mke sure the thing is on or plugged in you know.


Gil V.

Alexis,

This message simply means that you got too many colors in the BMP you are trying to load.
Remember that only four colors are allowed (black, white, light gray and dark gray), this is 4 bits. As far as 8 bits, ProntoEdit will automatically convert your BMP in a 4 bits format. 1 bit equals black or nothing (white).
Try converting your BMP in an 8 bits format.

Thanks for the heads up Gil, the simplest solutions are usually overlooked. I am using MS Paint to create these images. I loaded an existing image from a ccf and copied the color scheme to a palate.

Martin, I don't know how other colors could have intermingled with the image but I will try your suggestion and tell you what happens. Thanks for the advice!

--Alexis

MS paint tries to save in true colour. It has nothing to do with paletes.

Well I am out of ideas and still very confused. I am able to load the whole picture which I am using as a frame. But when I cut the picture into smaller parts which I want to use as buttons it comes back with the same error. I am using the color scheme outline in the FAQ. All I did was copy the color from an existing button and paste onto my button. Is it because the pictures are too small? I am lost. Please help.

--Alexis

OK I figured it out:

I had to load everything from Paint into Adobe Photoshop. I loaded all the smaller pictures and converted the Mode into Grayscale. I was then allowed to save the pictures as 8 bit GIFs. Previously they were all 24 bit Gifs.

--Alexis

alexis-
search the net for a program called "irfanview". it's a free imaging program thats simple to use. once you get it, install it, and load one of your custom buttons, look on the tool bar for the "image" tab. click on this and hit "decrease color depth". the maximum number of colors you can use is 256. this brings you down to 8 bits and ends up giving the button or panel nice shades of grey for a more evened out look.
i also use ms paint, but also have irfanview fired up as well. good luck and have a good time spending millions of hours bitmapping (if you are even half as picky as me). -lunchmin

The easiest way of making bmp's that fits your Pronto is to make them in whatever color you like, THEN, with an application like Photoshop, convert them into "grayscale" save them as a "copy". I'v also tried the MS paint solution, but without any sucess.

Come on. In MS Paint, just use Save As to save in 256 color or less format.