I use Photoshop 7.0. I am having trouble converting my panels that are in RGB color to index color.  For some reason when converting to index color black (the transparency) it adds a value of 1 to the black thus rendering non transparent. I normally use the panels in RGB but I am trying to cut down the size of the bitmap to save on framefrate. Any help appreciated. Thanks, Jason.

You are heading down the right track. Unfortunately I use PaintShopPro for this job so I do not know how to do it with photoshop.

 

I reduce ALL my panel bitmaps and gauge bitmaps from 32/24 bit to 8 bit this reduces frame rates considerably while keeping quality if you do it correctly. (My panel bitmaps are now 1600x1200 which gives a much smoother edge to windows)

 

With PSP if when I reduce the bitmap the RGB 0,0,0 becomes another colour...say 0,0,1. I then edit the 8 bit palette I am using and change it back to 0,0,0....very simple.

I use Photoshop CS2 but still have 5.5 on my hard disk.

 

I can't reproduce the effect. In both of them converting from RGB to indexed colour leaves black unchanged. The Iinfo tab in the Navigator Window shows black to be 0,0,0 when moving the eye-dropper tool over the image.

You should be able to do the same thing in PSP.  Just find the pallete entry that has the "wrong" color and change it 0,0,0.

 

Hope this helps,