The nonlinear static gray palette sets the first and last 10 palette entries to gray-
mapped Windows colors. The middle 236 entries are ramped in ascending order,
excluding the first and last 10 palette entries. Windows applications that use the
first and last 10 palette entries as Windows colors display correctly on the screen.

Although the nonlinear static gray palette provides correct colors for applications
using the Windows palette, colors display incorrectly if the application assumes
that a static palette is always ramped.

Static gray palette

The static gray palette provides 256 shades of gray in a static palette. This palette
does not reserve the first and last 10 palette entries for icons and other standard
Windows graphics, which frees the entire grayscale ramp for applications.

The static gray palette does not provide gray-mapped Windows colors for the first
and last 10 palette entries. Because the framebuffer assumes the Windows palette
is in use, applications that draw directly to the framebuffer display incorrectly.
For example, icons and button bitmaps may display in black and white.

Note

Applications cannot set the
nonlinear static gray palette or
the static gray palette. They must
read the palette from the operating
system and use it when drawing
directly to the framebuffer.

Application colors display
incorrectly if the application
assumes all 8-bit framebuffers
have palettes that can be set.