>>>I have an application which displays a 256 color bitmap in the background of a form. On systems where the monitor is set higher than 256 color the bitmap displays fine, but on a monitor that only supports 256 colors the bitmap looks terrible. Is there something I am missing or should a 256 color bitmap display ok on a 256 color monitor? I also have the same problem with bitmaps stored in general fields and then displayed in a form.
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>>>Someone must know what I need to do, any help will be greatly appreciated.
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>>By the way, displaying them using paint they look ok.
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>If your bitmap has 256 unique colors in it and Foxpro is using a color that isn't in your bitmap's Palette, then Windows will have to arbitrate how it approximates some of the colors. Try using one of the Paint programs which allows you to reduce the Color Depth of your image and make sure you check the option to include the standard Windows colors in your palette.

BMP files big limitation (besides their size) is their dependence on color palates (GIF as well BTW). If you must use BMP pictures you can get around this
by using paint to display the picture instead of VFP. To do this use OLE automation with paint to create a paint object and then open the bmp file.

HTH