On displays that support 256 colors (mainly clients connecting to a terminal server), ABL uses the Palette Manager to map application colors to the available 256 colors. For example, if an ABL application displays two 256-color bit maps, ABL allocates colors from a palette to the images. Because the palette is limited to 256 colors in total, ABL builds the palette so that it makes each 256-color bitmap look as good as it can while using only a portion of the available palette colors.
If a .NET form includes a bitmap image, ABL does not attempt to include the colors from that image in its palette. .NET handles its own palette management. Thus, windows and forms have separate palettes. This can result in unexpected changes in the appearance of bitmaps when focus changes between windows and forms. However, this behavior is typical of applications running on 256-color displays.
