Color, color everywhere.

[dong79135950]

I have 258 shades of gray (shown as every variation of RGB values)  listed in my color pallet and don't know how to get rid of them. They are in many files in my book file. Deleting them through Color Definitions at the book and/or file level doesn't work. Anyone with some advice?

[Arnis Gubins]

These colours are usually created automatically during the import of some graphics (8-bit or indexed raster formats such as PNG, GIF). Recreate these graphics files to use 24-bit colours to avoid FM from adding the colour definitions.

[dong79135950]

Thank you, Arnis,

This may work well to avoid getting these colors in my document, but it doesn't tell me how to get rid of them after the fact. I have recreated my graphics - even going so far as to make them 1-bit black and white images - and the list of gray will still not go away.

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

The fastest way to get rid of them is to edit the ColorCatalog section of the MIF file, deleting the generated colours after the first 16 reserved ones.

An easier (and safer) route is to use Silicon Prairie's Color Tools to remove the unwanted colours. See: Silicon Prairie - FrameMaker Products

[dong79135950]

Silicon Prairie's Color Tools works very well! Well worth the $10. Thank you Arnis.

[Bob_Niland]

re: ... (8-bit or indexed raster formats such as PNG, GIF) ...

Any graphics file format can cause this Color Cat pollution if the main (not thumbnail) image is indexed color. My recollection is that vector file formats can trip this as well, and DXF / DWG may cause it regardless of content. 8-bit isn't inherently the problem (8-bit contone gray is fine). The problem is the existence of a color map in the file. I've seen grayscale JPEGs cause this, due to actually being indexed desaturated color. 15- and 16-bit "hi color" will do it as well, and it won't be visually obvious that they aren't contone.

Evidently, when FM sees a color map, it catalogs the whole thing, and doesn't bother itself about checking to see if only a tiny fraction of them are actually used in the image.

Getting rid of the excess defs may require a MIF hack. And if they come back, at least one problem image is still lurking.