The dialog box shows you the range of colors for the current settings. (For 256 or fewer color formats only; formats above 256 colors use a fixed palette of colors. Not all bitmaps formats support more than 256 colors.) Each colored square can give you extra information about that color:

image\COLSEL.gif (white surround) the selected color.

image\COLSAFE.gif (small square in the center) "web-safe" color. These are the 216 colors in the Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer browser palette. On 256-color displays the browser dithers other colors and there may be a quality loss. If your bitmap has large areas of flat color, it is worth making sure that these areas use web-safe colors. You can also snap to web-safe colors when using the Color Editor to edit colors - more details.

image\COLLOCK.gif (small square bottom left) "locked" color. This color always appears in the bitmap palette (unless you select Browser palette) even if you change the number of colors. To lock a color, select it and then select the Lock button.

image\COLEDIT.gif (small square bottom right) edited color - you have changed the color definition of this color. To edit a color, select it and then enter new values in Edit color.

image\COLTRANS.gif (small square top left) transparent (GIF & PNG formats, up to 256 colors only). These formats allow simple on-off transparency by making the entry in the palette transparent. To make an entry transparent, select it then click Make transparent. Note that this applies to PNG format up to 256 colors only; the True color option allows full alpha-channel (variable) transparency.

image\COLDEL.gif (hatched square) deleted color. To delete a color, select it and click the Delete button. To restore a color, select it and click the Restore button.