> Those are just the colors you can pick by clicking the color bar: you can
> enter any color you like in the property browser as a hex value &HBBGGRR
> (blue, green, red components, each 00 to FF).

> >want to set the back color of my forms to a shade of gray one step lighter
> >than the traditional battleship grey. I can successfully import bmp files
> >into image controls that have this shade of gray as part of the bitmap.
> >However, the corresponding shade of gray that shows in the VB palette
> >appears dithered. What gives? Is there a way around this? It appears the
> >Windows OS itself limits the system colors available for window
> backgrounds,
> >etc., below 256 colors when the display has been set to 256 colors, though
> >this does not apply to bitmaps and other graphics.

> By default, VB forms use a standard 256-color palette called the "halftone
> palette".  If it doesn't contain your favorite color, it'll come out
> dithered.  You _can_ make that color come out undithered, however.

> There are several ways to do this.  The easiest is to make a 256-color
> bitmap whose palette contains all the custom colors you need.  It can be
> just 1x1 pixel (it's the palette that's important, not the displayed
> colors).  Put a picturebox on your form and put it at the top of the ZOrder
> (Tools\Format\Bring to Front, or PictureX.ZOrder in the Form_Load event).
> Set the form's PaletteMode = UseZOrder.  Now you can draw undithered colors.

> A second method uses the same bitmap, but you set the PaletteMode = Custom,
> and the form's Palette property to the bitmap.  Now you can draw those
> colors, but you need to use a bit of a trick.  You set an additional bit in
> the color specification:

> Form1.BackColor = RGB(r, g, b) Or &H2000000

> You can also address the palette colors by palette index:

> Form1.BackColor = 42 Or &H1000000

> will color the form with the 42nd color in the palette.

> Jim Deutch
> MS Dev MVP