If you import a bitmap cast member with a color depth or color palette that is different from that of the Stage (the current movie), Director lets you select the image’s color depth and color palette. You can choose to import the bitmap at its original color depth or at the Stage color depth. (The Stage color depth is the same as the system color depth.) You can also choose to import the image’s color palette or remap the image’s colors to a palette in the movie.

In many cases, it’s easiest to change the image’s color depth to the depth of the movie and remap the image to the color palette that is used in the rest of the movie. For more information about controlling color in Director, see Color, Tempo, and Transitions.

If you change 16-, 24-, or 32-bit cast members to 8 or fewer bits, you must remap the cast members to an existing color palette.

Select bitmap image options for importing

1. Import a bitmap image by selecting File > Import. (See Importing cast members.)
2. If the Image Options dialog box appears while you are importing a bitmap image using File > Import, select one of the following Color Depth options:

   Image specifies the color depth and palette of the image.

   Stage specifies the color depth of the current Stage.

3. Select a Palette option to change palette settings for 2-, 4- or 8-bit images:

   Import imports the image with its color palette. The palette appears as a new cast member immediately following the bitmap cast member.

   Remap To replaces the image’s colors with the most similar solid colors in the palette you select from the menu.

4. Select Image options:

   Trim White Space removes any white pixels from the edges of the image. Deselect this option to preserve the white canvas around an image.

   Dither blends the colors in the new palette in the Palette section to approximate the original colors in the graphic.

5. To apply the current settings to all the remaining files that you selected for importing, select Same Settings For Remaining Images.