Excessive Banding of Gradients in PowerPoint for the Macintosh
Article ID: 141475
Article Last Modified on 10/7/2003
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft PowerPoint 98 for Macintosh
- Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 for Macintosh
This article was previously published under Q141475
SYMPTOMS
In PowerPoint, shaded (gradient) backgrounds may appear banded. Banding
occurs when colors change abruptly and do not transition smoothly between
shades.
RESOLUTION
The banding effect is most obvious in 16-bit (thousands of colors) display
mode. Switching to 8-bit (256 colors) or 24-bit (millions of colors) mode
yields better results.
MORE INFORMATION
Although 16-bit (thousands of colors) display mode can display more colors
simultaneously than 8-bit mode (65,536 versus 256), 8-bit mode gradients
may appear smoother because PowerPoint can choose the best 256 colors out
of 16.7 million possible colors. In 16-bit display mode, there are only
65,536 possible colors, although they can all be displayed simultaneously.
Additional query words: 4.00 m_powerpt powerpnt power point ppt 98 8.0
Keywords: kbprb kbdisplay KB141475