D]4
P]01Fig.0
P]02Fig.1
P]03Fig.2
P]04Fig.3

       Blue, white, orange and black!  These four very familiar colors have
  had an indirect, though profound, impact upon all our lives.  A generally
  pleasant experience -- but those awful colors.  The blue is anemic, the
  white and black are pale and the orange is garish.
       Fortunately, the Amiga will rise above its standard setup and let
  you to choose the color scheme that pleases you. The choice of the four
  basic colors has always been yours, but did you know you can add up to
  12 additional colors?

]      ]P01 00
]      ]P01 01
]      ]P01 02
]      ]P01 03
]      ]P01 04
]      ]P01 05
]      ]P01 06
]      ]P01 07
]      ]P01 08
]      ]P01 09
]      ]P01 10
]      ]P01 11

]  ]70WHY MORE? ]10 The default Workbench screen consists of two bitplanes used
  to display the four well-known colors.  There are practical reasons for an
]  increase of colors, though somewhat on      ]P02 00
]  the scarce side. The esthetic reasons are   ]P02 01
]  all but infinite.                           ]P02 02
]       The more colors available, the         ]P02 03
]  greater details possible in those icons.    ]P02 04
]  That is a particularly useful trait when    ]P02 05
]  they are animated.  The most often cited    ]P02 06
]  reason -- just because they look better --  ]P02 07
]  is probably the best justification.  You    ]P02 08
  make the choice. Which of these illustrations depicts the more preferable
  Workbench screen?
                                            Increasing the active bitplanes
]       ]P03 00      to three will permit the eight-color
]       ]P03 01      screen to be displayed. The price
]       ]P03 02      in available system resources is of
]       ]P03 03      a little significance but can easily
]       ]P03 04      be handled by the average 512K
]       ]P03 05      system. Adding the fourth bitplane
]       ]P03 06      may increase the color palette to an
]       ]P03 07      overwhelming 16 colors. However,
]       ]P03 08      unless you're running a couple
  of megabytes of RAM, it will probably only bring your Amiga to an ignoble
  halt or at least slow it to a crawl.

]  ]70HOW TO        ]10 What tools you'll need is determined by the commitment you
  have made to improving the screen's appearance.  For a meek and/or casual
]  colorphile, the best choice would be a program named ]40"XColor"]10.  You'll be
  able to add or subtract bitplanes and change the colors on the fly.
        For those daring souls who want permanent colorization, a
  different approach and different tools will be required. You'll need to
  activate another bitplane, then set the new color registers. These tasks
  are best accomplished invisibly and automatically.
]        Both ]40"WBDepth"]10 and ]40"WBD"]10 can activate another bitplane, though
  number of bitplanes to be used must be specified.  If you are lucky enough
  to have an A1000 (I'm not too biased, am I?) and you haven't converted to
]  "Kickstart" in ROM, then you have a third possible choice.  ]40"8ColorWB"]10, a
  hack performed on your "Kickstart" disk, does the job.
        Wow, now you control eight colors!  Just open Preferences ... oops!
  Preferences settings are only good for registers 0 thru 3, and unless you
]  want to use ]40"Palette"]10 (On your "1.3 Extras" disk!) or ]40"XColor"]10 after each
]  boot-up, you'll need another program.  ]40"SetColor"]10 and its attendant file,
]  ]40"color.palette"]10, will make the color settings for registers 4 thru 7.
        To accomplish this wee bit of magic, you must add those programs to
  the "C" directory and modify the startup-sequence with the following:
A]           WBD 3
A]           SetColor
]  Additionally, add ]40"color.palette"]10 to the Workbench's root directory.
        Another consideration is the disk space needed for these utilities.
]  Don't be misled by the program's size.  For example, both ]40"color.palette"]10
]  and ]40"WBD"]10 must be considered as being the same size because the number of
  data blocks they require is identical.   Various working combinations and
  the disk space they'll require are listed below:
           8ColorWB, SetColor, color.palette ..  1952 bytes  ( 4 blocks)
           WBD, SetColor, color.palette .......  2928 bytes  ( 6 blocks)
           WBDepth, SetColor, color.palette ...  4880 bytes  (10 blocks)
           XColor and its icon ................ 10248 bytes  (21 blocks)
]  As you make your comparisons, remember the ]40"8ColorWB"]10 hack is available to
  A1000 owners who still use their "Kickstart" disk, only!   Remember also,
  the attendant programs play prominent roles in the other configurations.

]  ]70ORIGINS     ]10 Once you've decided upon an approach, your next step is to
  acquire the programs.  These little gems are usually available from more
  than one source but the following are easiest:
]]A0           8ColorWB       ]P04 00
]]A0           Color.palette  ]P04 01 by David M. Pochron on ]20AMICUS 25
]]A0           SetColor       ]P04 02
]]A0           WBDepth ...... by Andry Rachmat on ]20Fish Disk No. 175
]]A0           XColor ....... by Roger Fischlin on ]20Fisk Disk No. 244
]]A0           WBD .......... by Oliver Wagner on ]20Fish Disk No. 346

     (JUMPDISK NOTE: In addition, 8COlorWB, Color.palette and SetColor are
included on this month's PDQ_2. WBDepth, XColor and WBD are on PDQ_1. See the
Ad Drawer for information on these low-cost disks.)

        I don't recommend the "Kickstart" hack, as it isn't flexible enough
  for modern usage. However, I strongly recommend the acquisition and use
]  of ]40"SetColor"]10 and its partner in conjunction with ]40"WBD"]10.  "WBDepth" works
]  well but it occupies so much disk space.  ]40"XColor"]10 isn't viable as a tool
  for permanent changes but it's handy for bitplane/color experimentations.
        If you have enough RAM and the inclination, experiment a little.  A
  16-color screen will allow you to display a backdrop that's truly an
  impressive sight. I wonder what would happen if a fifth bitplane were to
  be added.