Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!microsoft!fredei
From: fredei@microsoft.UUCP (Fred Einstein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: RE: Saving color bitmaps
Keywords: This is device dependent
Message-ID: <7263@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 6 Aug 89 08:02:49 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 16

In reply to the person who wants to save color bitmaps to disk.  Remember,
whenever you use a color bitmap, you are requiring your application to
run on a display adaptor with a certain color bitmap format.  For example,
the most common color device used with Windows is the EGA or VGA (they 
both use the same color format, that is, 3 planes and 1 bit per pixel).
Now, let's say someone with an IBM 8514 or Video Seven 256 color VGA 
wanted to run your application.  They couldn't, since their color format
is 1 plane and 8 bits per pixel.  Windows would simply blow up when attempting
to run your app on these devices.  As a prevention against this, you can
do a "GetDeviceCaps" call, find out the color format, and either use 
monochrome bitmaps (which Windows CAN translate to any color format), save
the bitmap in the color format of the device, or present a dialogue box
informing the user that his/her device is incompatible with your application.


Fredric Einstein